NASCAR Winston Cup Cars

[Earnhardt-3]

Does anyone have an interest (or would have one) in collecting the NASCAR Winston Cup cars from the US?

Any collections thus far?

[Mark Wicks]

I've got a few pieces in 1/43rd in my collection, but it's earlier 50's, 60's 70's NASCAR. There doesn't seem to be much available in this scale in Australia, particularly of recent cars. There's been some great 1:64 scale (I think?) of 'classic' NASCARs - Petty, Yarborough, Allison, Waltrip etc - but not in 43rd. Seems 1:24 is the NASCAR scale.

If there was some 1:43 NASCAR available here, I'd consider certain pieces. Same deal with 1:43 Indy car, where there's now some '60s Roadsters available, but not here in Oz (reading this Admin??).

[BATHURSTFAN]

My mate is right into it, has hundreds of them of all scales. He prefers them to our own racing cars.

I have one, a 1/18 Ford Taurus 1998 Rusty Wallace.

[KRAKA05]

I have a couple (1998-2001) 1/24 scale which i'm looking to sell, i'm now concentrating more on Earnhardt and Gordon.....my fav drivers.

Kraka

[berkut76]

I do collect NASCAR models, but I don't really follow any driver in particular and just buy the models with a paint scheme that I like if the price is right. In terms of scale, 1:24 AND 1:64 dominate all the rest, with 1:43 being totally ignored. That being said, 1:64 ELITE series from Action and Owners Series from Team Caliber are pretty amazing for the size. They beat Biante equivalents hands down. Since Action swallowed Revell NASCAR business in late 1998, the supply of 1:18 models has dried up with NO SPECIAL PAINT schemes being made at all. The models themselves are quite primitive with cheap plastic used throughout. However, Tampos and Quality Control are superb. Yet, even the earliest Biante releases remain superior to the best ELITE and Owners Series of the present. With exception of a select group of drivers like Earnhardts, Jeff Gordon, and Tony Stewart, the models of other drivers could be had for half of the suggested price the moment these models hit the market. Even with the most popular drivers, the prices remain at MSRP levels since Action has a "limited editions" policy of "10,000+" pre model. For example, the model of one of the Earnhardt Sr. early cars was a part of limited edition of 60,000+ units. If somebody wants simply to add "shapes" of NASCAR cars to their collection, the best bet will be to pick an ELITE of Team Caliber model of less popular driver with prices being in $20US - $30US range.

[Earnhardt-3]

G'Day All....

...the 1:18 scale NASCARs seem the most difficult to source and value very well. I only have a couple of NASCARs (latter Dale Earnhardt snr) and am currently after the 2002 DEI cars of Earnhardt Jnr, Michael Waltrip and Steve Park.

Not sure when these cars are released, but there are not many around. If anyone knows of any of the above for sale in 1:18, drop me a line! ;)

[Jay Chladek]

Hello there. I'm new here (first post) and judging by my location, pretty far away in terms of geography. But I do collect the Nascar diecasts up here. Only problem with that is my Nascar collection is starting to get bigger then my 1/43rd Indycar collection as finding anything for those has gotten pretty hard to do lately.

Yes, 1/18ths have gotten pretty scarce. The only ones that were done for 2001 it seems were a pair of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Busch rides with Oreo and Nilla wafers sposorship. The Action mail order stuff might have had some more, but yes 1/24 is king compared to 1/18 for Nascar, compared to 1/18 for most everything else. Revell was the only one doing 1/43rd diecasts somewhat recently and they have slowed down except for the occasional Earnhardt sr. piece. Action has been starting up a series of 1/32 pieces, but these are VERY hard to find even for fans who are looking for them. And BTW, the Team Caliber pieces I consider superior in most every way to the Action and Revell pieces. The only thing Action has going for them is they have exclusive agreements with many of the top drivers, but their quality control can get pretty slipshot sometimes with high production run stuff.

[jager]

There is a company in Hong Kong called Eagle Collectibles who have produced several 1/43 NASCAR variation of the 1964 Plymouth Belvedere and the 1970 Dodge Charger. Not quite up to the standard of Minichamps / IXO or Biante but they sell for only US$ 14 / A$ 28 each and are great value for money if this is your thing.

http://www.eaglecollectibles.com/race.html

With a limited following of NASCAR in Australia these models don't seem to sell that well down under. The retailer below still has a wide variety of 1/43 Racing Champions NASCAR models from '93 & '94 (Chevy Lumina's, Ford hunderbirds & Pontiac Gran Prix).

http://www.modelcars.com.au/

Enjoy !

[ZORAK]

I wouldn't say that the supply of 1:18 NASCAR diecast cars has "dried up" I did a search for "1:18 Earnhardt 2002" on where else but ebay and came up with these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1782734896

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1782451905

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1782897053

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1780860790

[berkut76]

I agree with the fellow Yankee, Jay that Team Caliber diecasts are suprerior to their Action's equivalents. However, Action's stable of drivers is more star studded than that of TC. However, things might change in the near future if Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch will live up to their potential.

[Earnhardt-3]

Thanks Zorac......

.... but the catch with the ones you've mentioned, if you look at the first two there, is that the livery is not correct. The sponsor says "Earnhardt Jnr" instead of Budweiser. This brand of car (which is Winners Circle, not Action) must have some sort of licensing difficulties with Budweiser and can't put their name on the car, which is a shame.

The 1:18 Action brands are the correct car, and have the best detail. It's probably a bit like comparing the Classic Carlectables cars to Biante; you get the drift...?

The other cars you've got there are special one off paint jobs, and not the normal car that is raced throughout the championship.

Anyhow, i've finally found some of the cars i'm looking for on ebay in the last days.

There's actually a whole category dedicated to Action diecast NASCAR (which have sub-categories for each driver) on ebay.com. There is about 500+ cars available altogether. Handy if I knew this when I first started using Ebay.....

...cheers..

[ZORAK]

Ebay can be a ver bad place! LOL

[berkut76]

To Earnhardt-3
'Winner's Circle', which used to be owned by Hasbro now belongs to Action, which also bought Revell name. Models under "Winner's Circle" name are sold primarily through Wal-Mart and other large scale retailers. Licensing has nothing to do with the absence of Budweiser logo. It's a simple fact that Action wants to head off any potential legal woes since "Winner's Circle" models are sold in toy sections of these large chain stores. The models by themselves are below BASIC with no opening parts. Action treats "Winner's Circle" as a Junior line aiming to bring new collectors to the hobby hoping that over time the youngsters would trade their WCs toward more upscale offerings.

Besides Action (Winners Circle and Revell) and Team Caliber NASCAR diecasts are also being made in several trim levels by Racing Champions (Authentics is the top trim level) and used to be made by "Hotwheels" with its "crew's choice" offerings.

Regards,
Sergey

[Earnhardt-3]

Thanks for the fill in Sergey....

...and hey Zorak, you really get the shopping bug on that darn Ebay... take my credit card away! Please!!

[fordfan5]

when i first started collecting i picked up a full set of nascars for the 97 season there about 30 of them i think they came with driver write up on the back and the big tool box that the use at the racing that has all the gas bottle s in them could never bring myself to take them out of the packeting as you has to distroy it to get the cars out.

[Earnhardt-3]

To our American counterparts:

I appreciate that Action (and other manufacturers) concentrate on the 1:24 scale. Do they only tend to focus on selected 1:18 models?

The 1:18 Earnhardt cars are pretty common, but I've noticed that Action have only produced a 1999 Steve Park 1:18 so far, and have never made a 1:18 Michael Waltrip (while he's drove for DEI, anyway).

Interested if you could shed any light on this.

My good intentions of collecting more 1:18 Winston Cup cars could be doomed! :eek:

[Jay Chladek]

Well, its difficult to say for sure why there are so few 1/18 models out there compared to 1/24. But 1/24 in Nascar diecast has been around longer then 1/18. Part of the reason for 1/24s popularity as a diecast scale probably has to do with the success of Nascar model kit sales during the decades where the majority of diecasts offered were Matchbox and Hot Wheels sized cars. Many modelers got into collecting the diecasts since it was easier to buy a piece with their favorite driver sponsors instead of doing all that work to build a model. Revell started this trend back in 1990 with a series of diecasts that they did. Racing Champions swelled the ranks with their stuff (even though it was substandard) and Action took over and ran with it by offering variety and quality.

1/18th scale on the otherhand pretty much started out as a diecast scale by itself and people who collected 1/18th diecasts typically didn't go into getting other scales since it typically offered the best variety for what they wanted. Nascar has been kind of hard to cross over though for 1/18th and not a lot of companies have found much success going this route.

Ertl did do a series of 1/18 stock cars during the early to mid 90s and they did enjoy some measure of limited success. But the price of the diecasts typically was higher then 1/24 pieces and the selection was rather limited. Plus, updates to the pieces were not done regularly when the real stock cars were constantly evolving on the track, so the appeal of some of the pieces was not as good in the later days.

Racing Champions tried 1/18 diecasts briefly, but they didn't have much success with them and the line was discontinued after a year or two. Revell tried the hardest and offered several pieces in their line and this did have some of the appeal of their 1/24 line by offering some one-race sponsorship markings and many popular drivers. Action followed suit and started competing directly with Revell for the 1/18th market.

When Action started signing some drivers to exclusive diecast licenses, that seemed to dry up a market that was pretty small, yet growing somewhat. But then Action bought out Revell's diecast line and ended that little product war by default. The sales of 1/18 diecasts seemed to drop and as a result since there wasn't as much product being offered. Action pretty much slowed the flow to just a few Earnhardt pieces, since they knew there wouldn't be much of a problem selling those.

As for the other drivers, currently there isn't much. I think the last 1/18 Winston Cup piece offered was Kevin Harvick's 2001 Goodwrench rookie ride, since he was very successful with it that year. And then there are the affore mentioned Dale Jr. pieces that came out because they had the "3" on them and to Action, anything with "3" on it sells. I'm surprised that I haven't seen a Dale Jr. Budweiser car, but considering the percieved taboos of beer cars up here, Action probably considered it more trouble then it was worth and felt that the 1/24 pieces would sell better (I wouldn't be surprised if they did one in 2000 though). The apparent reason we saw the Steve Park ride is that was the first car that Dale Earnhardt owned and the diecast was offered at the height of Dale's popularity when he was alive. They did also offer 1/18 diecasts for the Corvette that Dale Sr and Jr raced at the 24 hours of Daytona, but that is more of a cross market with the sports car diecasts, which have traditionally been 1/18 scale. Action also has done CART and IRL style Indycars in 1/18 since those markets have traditionally been 1/18.

Unfortunately, since we have yet to see a Michael Waltrip 1/18 piece yet with his Daytona win last year and the Firecracker 400 win this year, that we will ever see one in 1/18 scale (unless they do one as a retrospective car). Mike is a strange character and he is having his best season so far. But it seems like most fans up here seem to consider him a serious underdog each week compared to Dale Jarrett or Tony Stewart.

Added to this is the fact that the Chevys and Pontiacs are getting new bodies next year, I don't forsee Action spending money on new 1/18 bodies unless something radical happens. Action distributors and customers have been complaining for a couple years that Action is releasing way too many products as it is and the production numbers on new pieces are being cut pretty drastically for next year as a result.

But older 1/18 pieces can be found relatively easily in my area for close to original retail unless they are Earnhardt pieces (eBay then). I can keep my eyes open if you might be looking for something specific.

I don't know if this post gives you the answers you are looking for. But hopefully it shed some light. I wouldn't say your search is hopeless, it just might have to be altered slightly and there are still some good 1/18 Nascar pieces out there to be had with a little searching. But your chances for current pieces of your favorite drivers are much better in 1/24 scale. Also, things tend to run in cycles when it comes to models and diecasts. So even though we are in a dry spell now, things could change in a year or two as the current Nascar diecast market is still only about 10 to 12 years old.

[Earnhardt-3]

Thanks very much, Jay.