I remember seeing in a TV magazine that Heritage Racing were selling a set of 1994 season 1/43 scaled model cars. I persuaded my parents to get me the cheapest set that included Schumacher's Benetton B194, Hill's Williams FW16 and Berger's Ferrari 412T1 (more on them later). And there I began my F1 model collection. In my youth, I had persuaded a few more models to be bought for me until I was old enough to be responsible for my own money and increased my collection to around 20 models.
I didn't have the spare cash to pay for new models, and so I began buying and selling models, and the profit I made from them I reinvested into new models. My memory of the majority of them are mostly in photographs. Today, I have a collection of around 60 cars, but I have owned over 800 cars and many gigabytes of photos.
Many brands have made F1 cars from Onyx to Minichamps in the early days, Hot Wheels/Mattel to Brumm, to Spark have all created excellent affordable 1/43 scale models. I've owned a few BBR and Tameo models, as well as a few of the IXO and F1 Car Collection models in recent years.
I aim to review some of the models that I have owned over the years and some of my personal stories that go along with them.
Heritage Racing 1/43 1994 cars
I was pretty happy with my new found collection. I preferred the scale 1/43 as it was big enough to appreciate the details, yet small enough to collect and store. I loved the vibrancy and the varied shapes in the 1994 season, from the low nosed Williams with the anhedral lower rear wing, to the high nose of the Benetton with its multiple element rear wing to the Ferrari with its shapely sidepods with teardrop inlet and its long engine cover to house that V12 engine.
All the shapes are in the early season form, with their large diffusers, and the front wing endplates extending behind the front wheels. They did the job for me, representing the basic shapes of the cars, with their non-tobacco liveries - though Hill's car was meant to pass for the Australian Grand Prix. The shape had moved on by then, the fuel nozzle cap was on the wrong side and the non-tobacco bars they put on the upper rear wing was not seen on the car any race. Plus, the helmet sat so low, he could not even see out of the cockpit.
Bburago 1/24 cars
As well as my 1/43 collection I had a handful of other F1 models back when I was young. These Bburago 1/24 cars were toys to be played with rather than my 1/43 models which were displayed in their boxes. I had the 1991 Williams FW14 with Mansell's famous 'red 5' on the nose cone. I also had the Ferrari 641/2 with Berger's name on the car. I was confused, because the 641/2 was the car raced by Ferrari in the 1991 season, but Berger had moved from Ferrari to McLaren.
Scalextric
I also had a Scalextric set and a few F1 cars. I didn't have many, and I can only remember these three which were beautiful creations: the 1989 Benetton B189 which I loved for its unique engine cover to the side of the driver, which is not dissimilar to the 2018 Sauber.
I also had the 1991 late season Ferrari 643. Again I was impressed by the quality of the car.
My personal favourite, though, was the 1993 Benetton B193. I personally loved the livery and the detail from the high nose and the delicate front wing, to the nice barge boards, the humps on top of the nose and a pretty accurate rear wing. I think back then I even modified the helmet to Schumacher's design with a little tippex and permanent markers.
I'm getting very nostalgic now with my old Scalextric and so I thought I'd share some of my non F1 favourites, which I sadly no longer have:
- Jaguar XJ220 (the fastest production car at the time)
- Ferrari F40 (my personal favourite non-F1 car)
- Ford Escort RS Cosworth (with its unique high rear wing and nice rims)
- Ford Mondeo BTCC
Lego Technic
I loved Lego, and the early Technic sets were affordable and had some nice details. As always, the building and modifying and perfecting my own designs were apparent even back then. I had a couple of Lego Technic cars, the smaller 8808 set, which I remember modifying completely to resemble the Benetton B194.
And I also had the larger 8440 set with working steering, moving pistons on the engine, and exposed detail with the sidepod radiators, engine, and suspension. I remember this is my first foray into the inner parts of a Formula 1 car.
That's it for now from my childhood models and toys. I was blessed to have so much, and yet not have too much, that I appreciated what I had. I had models that I could reminisce over my favourite F1 season, I had Lego to build and design my own cars and I had Scalextric to race against my friends.
