Frustrated Indian Collector

[MotoS]

I am really unhappy with the current state of availability of the quality brands of Die cast models available in India all Maistos and bBuragos some non racing Autoarts, all other high end brand items are now retailing in India the non availability of Minichamps, Kyosho, Tamiya, Exoto, BBR , Spark, HPI etc is really bad same with the aviation or the railway models, why Autoart persists with single importer beats me when he is not doing so great job all the catalog should be available here not some selected models

[aritrim]

You should be able to get Minichamps with Kvsk4. His website is http://www.Dreamcarmodels.com

[MotoS]

Well I hope he stocks the latest models, although the site seems not to reflect the change

[winstoncds]

Saleel, you are not alone. Minichamps is already here and others will follow gradually. All that is to be seen is what they have to offer collectors here. I am all for budget brands like Sunstar, Solido, Norev and the like who offer most bang for the buck. I also hope that Maisto resurrect their terrific GT racing line up which gave us some superb models.
Autoart now makes models that is out of reach of majority of us collectors. Rising prices, dropping QC has become the norm with them.

[aritrim]

Yup, we are looking forward to Sunstar, Solido and Norev. They are parallel in Quality to Aa if not better.

[vaas2000]

Am all for budget models too. It won't make a difference to Budget collectors like me if brands that are priced like cousins and family of autoart come to india.

[MotoS]

I would be happy to see complete catalog of racing cars by Minichamps, Autoart and Kyosho available in India, I now like the details in a model after initialy buying couple of Maisto's CLK GTR and Porsche GT1 around that time I got Autoart Evo 6 and there was no going back to Maisto's, I have not seen Super Elite's of Hotwheels would love to have a racing Ferrari F430 but one by BBR is bit expensive, also no idea of Solido lots of rallying cars by them would think of buying the Hirvonen Focus as Autoart seems not to be making them, their C4 was bit of disappointing for me although the Z4 ADAC version is great with matte and glossy paint combination as usual wheels by autoart are best

[winstoncds]

MotoS, I am sure you know Gift Centre and Nikhil. I have been buying models from him since 1999 or so. Except for really popular race and rally cars Schumacher's Ferrari F1 and Mitsubishi Evo 6, he really has a tough time pushing the other stuff. Two Sunstar models (priced at 2200 rs.) remained on his shelves for more than 6 months before I got them home. Modelart could not sell a splendid Peugeot 206 rally car for many months, same case with their Bentley and Toyota racers. Now which shopkeeper would like to keep stuff in his shop that gathers dust for more than 3 months.

[MotoS]

My point is you can buy a real Lamborghini or Bentley in India even if they sell in single digits so we should be able to buy the same in miniature world unless you expose and make people aware that its more than toys and will appreciate in value in time , my surprise was the Autoart Ford GT Matt black and the Mazda 787 they picked up prices very fast, on personal note I have been following F1 since early 80's and painting the cars with no great support and just now people in India are waking up with more exposure in mainstream media will create awareness in public and right crowd, while BRR and Amalgam models might be ultimately out of reach of most buyers but they being available here is the point see now all the major auto majors are bringing their latest models in spite of high taxes there are buyers

[kvsk4]

Saleel, your frustration is rightly placed and this is how I felt before jumping into the business of diecasts few months back. But then as Diablo points out, you also have to see things from an importer’s & retailer’s business point of view. Things will certainly change and are, infact, changing in India over last few months. We have seen rise in no. of importers now and there are few I know who are preparing to jump into this. But don’t expect the complete catalogue of premium brands to be available in India so soon. We need to expand the market for that.

Just think of ourselves as freedom fighters from early 40’s. We don’t need to give our lives because we know there is noticeable pressure on rulers (importers) and they will break soon but also cant keep quite because this pressure has to be maintained by being persistent and making others join us.

Till that time, systematically, we need to do the following:
- spread the word and educate others about this hobby. Grow the market size- Create the Need.
I’m based in the region where very very few people understand this to be a constructive hobby although they can spend on 1:1 Mercs and BMWs. We are based in Ludhiana, Punjab. They usually take me as fulfilling my childhood dreams (which is true to a great extent). I get my inspiration and morale boosting dose from SMC collectors here. This is what makes me persistent. Now I’m planning to literally educate youth by delivering disguised lectures on this in form of lectures on automobile engineering or something like that for 10th to 12th class students. To begin with we will try this in a school where I happen to be president of Alumni Association for past 4 yrs. So if you guys can contribute on knowledge front it will be great.

- At the same time we should join hands with other collectors, prepare list of models that you want to see in India from the currently available brands and forward it to importers. In this I can assure you that http://www.DreamCarModels.com can bridge the gap by forwarding all your future requirements to the Indian importers (and we are in touch with most of them).