2006 Mattel F1 cars break cover

Mattel are close to releasing their 1/18 F1 replicas for the 2006 season and, indeed, some are on sale on eBay already. Kinda beats Minichamps for timescales.

Still, the poor quality remains. The McLaren in particular is hideous, the apparently chrome car reduced to a powder grey wreck.

Yep, think I'll give them a miss for the ninth year running. Mattel just will not get their act together.

eww! I hope that's just a really really bad photo?! :s

Grand Prix Legends has recently said they feel Mattel are now at a very similar quality to Minichamps.

Grand Prix Legends are wrong. They say that every year, but they have to sell them don't they?

Not really. On models that both Minichamps and Mattel manufacturer, they offer both, so that suggests they think they're comparable.

Unlikely. Most likely Mattel insist they take a) their full range of current models or b) nothing at all. Or perhaps a combination of the two - full trade price for picking or choosing what you offer or trade -10% for taking the full range.

Pretty poor detail....