Optimism regarding the Hornby Corgi Buyout

Corgi's Sales Manager just called; everything sounds GOOD!

For starters, a month-by-month production schedule is to be created next week. For those of you who have been waiting on new Corgi items, this is incredible news! It's been quite some time since Corgi has released any new products - everything had simply been designated as "delayed". To actually have production moving forward and an actual release schedule again will be worth celebrating!

From everyone I've talked to and everything I've read, Hornby is very good at turning companies around. In addition, Hornby plans to invest quite a bit of money in marketing the Corgi brand. While we will have to see what actually happens, at this point, we are cautiously optimistic about Hornby's involvement with the Corgi Classics line.

Join Us!

We love our blog here so much and we hope to see some action and feedback, especially after the acquisition of Corgi by Hornby (see below). We want to be friends with you and form some connections, so join us at MySpace too! I hope to see you there. We'll be best of friends.

CORGI purchased by Hornby

We were called by our X-Corgi sales rep last week letting us know that papers were signed on Thursday making the deal final for Corgi's purchase by Hornby. At this time it is unknown what exact changes this will bring except that production is expected to resume and "everything" that is in the 2008 catalog is supposed to be produced under the new ownership (most of you probably noticed that new releases were put on hold for the past few months). We will be updating our blog with more information as it becomes available. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this article from today's edition of London's newspaper The Sun:

The Sun, London, UK - Monday, May 5, 2008

Corgi's Hornby new play thing
MODEL train maker HORNBY has bought toy car company CORGI for £7.5million.













Spy-cast models ... 2006 Corgi toys of James Bond Aston Martins

Hornby — which also owns Scalextric — will plough £750,000 a year into broadening the appeal of Corgi to youngsters. It has long been a favourite among older male collectors.
Chief executive Frank Martin said: “It fits perfectly into our portfolio of famous hobby brands.” He expects to increase Corgi’s sales from £6.5million to at least £10million by 2011.

Kung Fu Panda collectibles from Mattel

Kung Fu Panda items have just arrived from Mattel.

This DreamWorks Animation release is slated for June 6th, and you can see a trailer at
http://www.kungfupanda.com/

Voices include Jack Black, Jackie Chan & Dustin Hoffman.







Brief plot synopsis: "Po the Panda is the laziest animals in all of the Valley of Peace, but unwittingly becomes the chosen one when enemies threaten their way of life."

KAMAZ Racing Truck

The 2006 KAMAZ racing truck by Eligor was a hit, and the NEW 2007 KAMAZ racing truck just arrived this month. This time, Eligor has made three Limited Edition versions:

113191 - 1/43 KAMAZ 2007 Team #500 - Just 96 pieces!!

113385 - 1/43 KAMAZ 2007 Team #505 -- Just 192 pieces!!

113386 - 1/43 KAMAZ 2007 Team #527 - Just 192 pieces!

Kamaz is a truck manufacturer in Tatarstan, Russia and has the proud distinction of winning the Truck division of the Dakar Rally 7 times since 1996!