You may be old enough to own a die-cast Ferrari model made by Bburago (yours truly sure is; a 512 BB was his favorite), but for the past 15 years the Italian carmaker had an exclusive deal with Hot Wheels.
This deal expires in less than a month though, and it hasn’t been renewed. Instead, as Hemmings Daily reports, Ferrari has made a new exclusive worldwide deal, effective January 1, 2015, with the May Cheong group, which owns Maisto and… Bburago.
So things come full circle here. See, Bburago, an Italian company, was thriving in 1/18 scale models in the early ‘80s, especially in Ferraris. Then the Mattel-owned Hot Wheels made a deal with Maranello and eventually Bburago went under, as apart from losing the popular Ferrari die-casts it couldn’t compete with the low-cost Chinese products either.
In 2005, it was acquired by the Hong Kong based May Cheong Group, which also owns Maisto, and the brand was revived. Maisto models are mostly regarded as toys, while the Bburago ones are targeted to collectors.
The question is if there will be a shortage of Ferrari die-casts, as the Hot Wheels ones are phased out and the Bburago ones step in. Guess we’ll see soon enough- and who knows, maybe some of these run-out models will become future collectables…
Photos: Andreas Tsaousis/Carscoops
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