I'm in Brisbane this weekend (September 30th and October 1st 2023) for GhMX at the Brisbane Showgrounds Exhibition Building, so I took the opportunity to jump in the hire car (the Mazda BT-50 drives amazing!) and head out to see our good friends at Diecast Distributors Australia.

DDA is located in Yatala, about 45km from the Brisbane Airport down the M1. Once I got through the traffic of everyone heading off for the long weekend, I was greeted by John Marios and his son Jesse, both who helm the DDA company together. 

After a quick tour of the showroom, we sat down and chatted about what has been happening with the HQ and HJ Holden model kits. We discussed a lot about the feedback that has been received in regards to these releases and some of the changes that will be implemented for future releases. 

One of the big ones was the omission of the bonnet in the Supercharged or "Blown" kits. People were obviously disappointed to not have the appropriate bonnet included in those kits, but as it was explained to me, if the bonnets were tooled to have the cut out section that allows for the engine blower to sit up through the bonnet, the piece itself would twist and warp when the plastic injection happens and the plastic cools.

This is obviously not something that is desirable at all, but plans are a foot to include a bonnet in future releases with instructions included to allow for the bonnet to be modified by the modeller to allow for the blower to sit through. 

I was also privileged to see some of the new items currently in development, some of which that I've been sworn to secrecy about, but trust me, these are going to be VERY popular! 

It was definitely great to catch up with John and Jesse and exciting to see what they have planned. Make sure to stay tuned for more info as it unfolds, including our next release of Auto Colours coming soon. 

Keep on modelling! 

- Scott