CMC has done something genuinely unexpected: it has taken the Bartoletti racing transporter, one of its signature 1:18 subjects, down to 1:64 — and built it out of 342 individual parts. Alongside that, Minichamps has opened its first quarter of 2027 with a catalogue drop that includes Valentino Rossi’s entire GT racing career and around thirty 1:64 Porsches. Reference numbers, prices and delivery windows are given where the manufacturers stated them, and flagged where they did not.
CMC in 1:64: a 14-centimetre transporter with 342 parts
CMC told dealers this morning that it is producing the Bartoletti Fiat 642 RN2 racing transporter in 1:64, in two versions:
- M-331 — Bartoletti Ferrari transporter, 342 individual parts
- M-332 — Bartoletti Maserati transporter, 332 individual parts
Recommended retail is €127.00 including VAT, or $139 plus tariffs. The models are roughly 14 centimetres long, packed in a two-part foam bed inside a card box, eighteen to a carton.
Read the specification twice, because it does not read like a 1:64 model. Every door opens, including the doors into the loading and workshop compartment. The suspension and the steering both work. The loading ramps slide in from the sides, come out, and hook onto the rear. The tailgate moves. Lights, chrome trim, door handles and mirrors are separate fitted parts rather than moulded-in detail. The radiator grille is photo-etched, as are a number of other components, alongside die-cast zinc and stamped and bent metal. The wire ropes on the upper deck are represented, though that deck is fixed rather than working.
For scale: a good 1:64 model is typically assembled from something in the region of ten to twenty parts. CMC is quoting three hundred and forty-two, in a body five and a half inches long.
The price is the other thing to sit with. At $139 this is a 1:64 model costing what a good 1:43 costs, and approaching entry-level 1:18 money. CMC has never competed on price and is not starting now — but it is the first time the company has asked the small-scale market to accept its economics, and 1:64 is a scale with very different price expectations from the one CMC built its reputation in. Whether the part count justifies the number is a question the samples will answer.
Worth remembering that CMC has form with this subject. The Ferrari transporter exists as M-084 in 1:18 and the Maserati version alongside it, and both are among the most admired models the company has made. Shrinking them rather than tooling something new for the small scale is a deliberate choice: it puts CMC’s most recognisable object in front of a different set of collectors.
Minichamps opens 2027 with Rossi’s whole GT career
Minichamps has published its first-quarter 2027 catalogue, and it is very large — well over a hundred references. Three things in it are worth pulling out.
Valentino Rossi, catalogued
Around eighteen references cover Rossi’s BMW M4 GT3 seasons with Team WRT, from his first tests through to this year. In 1:18: 110252446 (24 Hours of Spa 2025), 110252546 (winner, 8 Hours of Indianapolis 2025), 110252646 (winner, GTWC Misano race one 2025), 110262046 (third, Bathurst 12 Hour 2026) and 110262146 (GTWC Europe, Paul Ricard 2026).
In 1:43 the sweep goes back further: 410232146 (Bathurst 2023), 410232246 and 410232346 (2023 test and pre-season test cars), 410232446 (Brands Hatch 2023), 410232746 (winner, Misano 2023), 410242146 (6 Hours of Imola 2024), 410242246 (Misano test 2024), 410242546 (Spa 2024), 410242646 (São Paulo 2024), 410252646 (Indianapolis 2025) and 410262046 (Bathurst 2026). Two road cars come with them: 410025124 and 410025125, the BMW M4 CS in VR46 Sport and VR46 Style trim.
Doing the test cars and the pre-season cars is the tell. Nobody tools a 2023 pre-season test livery for a driver with a casual following; that is a completist’s model, made because the people buying number 46 will buy all of them. Rossi has quietly become one of the most heavily modelled figures in sports-car racing, and this is the run that makes it obvious.
Around thirty Porsches in 1:64
The 1:64 road-car programme is the largest Minichamps has put out at that scale. The 992.2 Carrera Cabriolet runs to five references (640064030 to 640064035), the Carrera GTS Cabriolet to five more (640064130 to 640064135) and the Targa 4 GTS to five again (640064140 to 640064145). Behind them come four 997 GT3 RS 4.0 (640065020 to 640065024), two 996 GT3 RS (640065220 and 640065221), and no fewer than twelve 997.2 GT2 RS — 640065120 through 640065132, in black, silver and gold wheels across four body colours.
A dozen variants of one car in 1:64 is a colour-chase strategy, and it works or fails on whether collectors want the set. The GT2 RS is a reasonable bet for it.
Senna’s test car, and the rest
540946499 is the Williams FW16, Rothmans Renault, number 2, from the Paul Ricard test in 1994, with Ayrton Senna — in 1:64. A test session is an unusual thing to model, and in this case a heavy one to choose.
The other things worth flagging from the drop:
- 110024010, 110024011 and 110024012 — BMW M3 Touring in 1:18, three versions
- 110032094 — Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series F1 safety car, CrowdStrike livery, 2026 season, Bernd Mayländer, 1:18
- 127069600, 127069601 and 127069602 — Porsche 911 (964) RS 3.8 in 1:12, with showcase
- 127160333 — Red Bull RB12, Verstappen’s first Grand Prix win, Spain 2016, 1:12 with showcase, figure and two pit boards
- 155742099 — BMW 2002, Schlüter Motorsport Jägermeister, DRM Mainz-Finthen 1974, Helmut Kelleners, 1:18
- 180029029 and 180029030 — BMW 3.0 CSi (E9) 1972, 1:18
All of the above are quoted for the first quarter of 2027. The listing we have works to trade pricing, so no consumer prices are given here.
1:64
Four more Kaido House cars
Kaido House and Mini GT have opened pre-orders on four, without reference numbers or prices at this stage: a Chevrolet Camaro in Kaido Racing Team V1 colours, red with a yellow two-tone; a Nissan Skyline GT-R (R33) Kaido Stock Car V1 in white with a red two-tone; a Nissan Fairlady Z Kaido GT in Gulf blue; and a Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) in the Tamiya x Kaido House “The Hornet” V2 scheme, metallic red carbon.
The Hornet is the interesting one. Tamiya’s Hornet is a 1984 radio-control buggy that a generation built on a kitchen table, and putting its livery on an R34 is a piece of cross-generational nostalgia aimed squarely at people who now have money.
Quick hits
- MCG and Solido both issued bulletins this morning. We have not been through them yet and will pick them up tomorrow rather than half-report them.
- Prices are withheld where the source is a trade listing rather than a consumer announcement. The CMC figure is the manufacturer’s stated recommended retail.
Seen something we missed, or have a sample in hand? Bring it to the forums at diecast.org/community — our members regularly surface releases before they reach the news pages.
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