In today's Sunday newspaper, in one of the grocery coupon sections, I came across an ad for a subscription for Delprado fire apparatus. The ad shows photos of their 1924 Ahrens Fox piston pumper, a Seagrave K, a 1907 Seagrave, 1936 Leyland Cub and 1939 Bedford. The 1907 Seagrave and both British rigs look very much like pieces from the old Matchbox series. The ad states that there will be 25 models in the collection, ad asks just $9.95 (plus $2.49 shipping) for each truck with the exception of the Fox, which is just $3.95. This is the first time I've seen ANY ad for Delprado pieces in the US. They say the pieces will come at the rate of two per month I've posted a jpg of the order form from the ad, on Larry's new site, at http://fireengines.net/smf/index.php?board=2.0
in case any of you are interested . . . I know I am.

I notice the form says the series consists of 25 models, which is a considerable far cry from the 110+ released in Italy so far out of a planned 125.

mjl

Put that man on the 5 year program!

Mind you, 125 releases at that price compute to a mere $1,562.50. And at two per month, it would only take 62 weeks to complete!

mjl

If "subscription sets" is the wave of the future in this hobby, count me out of it entirely. I'll go back to just FD memorabilia, & firearms.

It appears this company is coming to the US. However, their new US domain name is not registered in the US.

You can to to http://www.delprado.com/ and click on Contact is USA for the phone number and contact information.

I emailed the contact to see if I can get some additional information. If I do, I will post it on www.fireengines.net.

Regarding the post from fyerfyter 146, it does seem that more companies are trying the subscription route, with NMM's series and now Del Prado trying it out in the US, but I doubt that many other companies are going to go that way. Remember Matchbox Collectibles' subscription series - the fire apparatus seemed to do alright (until they got into the very early apparatus), even though, like Del Prado, the scales were not uniform. Del Prado is probably just trying to see if the concept that's been limited mainly to Japan and Europe would work in the US, given all the interest that their series have raised among fire collectors here. Del Prado has released a number of series of many different items for collectors, not just fire apparatus. What I'm hoping is NOT the wave of the future is Code 3's practice of forcing collectors to buy a whole set of almost-identical models to get one piece.

The DelPrado USA contact information has been there for a good year. I've mailed them in the past and received a slim print catalog in the mail some weeks later.

mjl

Does anyone have a list of the 25 models in the series they are offering from this flyer?

Are most of the remakes of the older Matchbox series?