Is 1:64 the new 1:43?

Maikel — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 23:53:37 +0000

When i started collection about 20 years my first scale model was a 1/18 car of Jos Verstappen (dad of Max Verstappen). The detail of 1/18 were great and are still. The 1/43 were good and 1/64 were almost quality of toy cars. The details and quality were not that great. The last 5 years you can definitely see that the production process has gone up and therefore the quality has gone up. but you can see it over the complete line. 1/18 are even better then 20 years ago. The 1/43 have the quality of the 1:18 20 years ago.

I now have a couple of 1/64 scales and there you can see the difference:
The first one is a Minichamps(64) made in 2010 of a 1976 Porsche driven by Toine Hezemans. You can see that the details are just a bit bulkier. If you look inside the rollbar really is really refined in the details. Nog that it’s a complete block of plastic, but it’s noticeable.

The other car i have is a 1/64 scale from Tarmac and based upon a Nissan where one of the drivers was Tom Coronel. The detail is on all sides better, even the box (that’s even signed by Tom Coronel) has a nicer appearance.

So in my opinion 1/64 is indeed the new 1/43. With the prices of 1/43 going up and the 1/18 will even cost you almost a kidney the 1/64 is a very good alternative to 1/43. In a my display case (an IKEA Bertby display case) where i normally can only display 1 1/18 and at best 6 1/43, i can display about 10 to 12 (or maybe even more) 1/64 scale models.

You can be picky and say that the details for 1/43 and 1/18 are better and when you look at the overall quality, those are still better, but the prices are also higher. If you collect for the fun of collecting, 1/64 is a great way to expand your collection and not only have “toy” cars in you display cases.

Scale models

Maikel — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 10:15:34 +0000

The people who know me, know that i have a big collection of scale model cars. I got interrested in collecting when i bought a scale model car for my ex- father-in-law. He got the Jenson Button 1:18 Williams car if i recall correctly. Although JB wasn’t an hous hold name in F1 at that moment, years later he became world champion.

But in that shop i saw a 1:18 scale model of the Arrows F1 car of Jos Verstappen. At that moment Jos was the most succefull driver from the Netherlands we had. (Eventually his son, Max, became the number one dutch driver).
I really (and still do) liked the color schema: Orange and Black. The detail is still great and if you place one in a display, it pops.

Eventually got about 15 1:18 scale model cars. The problem with this scale is that they are relatively large (for a scale model)! :D. Here is a picture of the different scale sizes:

Left to right: 1:64, 1:43, 1:32, 1:18

As you can see the scale difference is pretty large between 1:43 and 1:18. Those 2 scales are the standard in scale model collection btw. A lot of collectors are using a (now defunct) Ikea Bertby case. The main “problem” is that a 1:18 car takes about 1 shelf, while if you collect 1:43, in worst case, you can place 6 on 1 shelf.

Eventually i mainly started collecting 1:43, because i could place more on 1 shelf, and there was more variations in cars. The problem is that there are so many different race classes and race drivers that the main stream F1 watchers (no offence btw) don’t know of. And even in those lower race classes there is even a gradation between the top teams (Porsche, Audi and Toyota) and the lesser gods like Murphy Prototypes. So people also don’t want to spend a lot of cash on all the cars.

At first my collection would be only about dutch drivers and/or dutch teams (aka: “It isn’t mutch if it’s not dutch. “). Now i’ve shifted to a more “If i like it, i buy it.”