The Capri that was imported from Germany and sold by Mercury dealers in the U.S. from 1970-1978 is available in Wiking set 913 04 20. Or, are you asking for the 1979-1986 Mercury Capri that was built on the Ford Fox platform.
Carter
Carter,
Do you know if this set is available anywhere in the USA?
PM is fine - thanks!
Mark
Mark,
I will reply to your question in this thread, because it gives me an opportunity for some public venting of some of my frustrations. >
The difficulty encountered in finding Wiking vehicles in the U.S. is becoming one of my pet peeves. I had actually thought this set had been discontinued until I downloaded Wiking’s 2006 catalog.
One of the problems we have is that Walthers works on a “quota system” of sorts that if sales do not meet some expected number, then the item will no longer carried by them, even if the item is still available from the manufacturer. Since the majority of the hobby shops rely heavily on Walthers, if Walthers will not stock it, we as modelers are unlikely too ever see it.
As far as actually finding this set, I have been told that the preferred distributor of Wiking products in the U.S. is Jim Brocklebank of Flint Imports, P.O. Box 530744, Lake Park, FL 33403-8912. However, they do not have a website and I am not sure if they have retail sales. You might want to send Jim a note and see if he can get the set for you.
I truly believe that Wiking could sell more model vehicles in North America if they had a better distribution network. It is my understanding that 90% of the vehicle models made by Busch, Herpa and Wiking are sold in Europe, so the U.S. sales are not all that significant to their bottom lines.
Carter
