It doesn't give a lot of detail about the die-cast end, but I thought some folks might be interested. I know I only have a handful of their cars, they're too expensive to buy for myself, so I just drop hints at gift giving times. ;)

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=4668998

interesting read.

could this be the tip of the implosion?

Very interesting read. I have 4 peices form the Franklin Mint. Red Dragon statue, the Bigfoot Monster Truck Diecast, and both Captain America and the Billy Bike replicas as seen in the movie Easy Rider. Hopefully the new owners wil keep the die cast models alive. I've gone to the museum on several occasions, it was very impressive. From the display of Faberge' Eggs and original jewelry for replicas to be made, the diecast area with all of the cars (best part was the Lamborghini Countach from beginning to end), and all of the other displays. For those who missed a chance to go see the museum, you missed a really nice experience.

They used to run a car show at the museum, I'm told it was a heck of a show. I always wanted to get there, just never put it together.
I also have that Bigfoot die-cast. I know a lot of guys on here don't care for monster trucks, but I love that thing. I just wish they would make one of an early Bigfoot, the ones that were actually lifted Ford trucks. I've probably got 10 or 12 other FM cars, including some oddballs like the Meyers Manx and the CJ7.

Yes, a very interesting read!

I only have 5 or 6 1/24 scale Franklin Mint diecast cars, and 4 Franklin Mint diecast cars in 1/43 scale.

There was a Franklin Mint Store in a mall not far from where I live. It closed a few years ago. I usually stopped there once a week when I went to KB Toys in the mall. The KB Toys closed too. :cry:

I enjoyed going in the Franklin Mint Store to brouse. There weren't any high pressure salespeople in the store. It was nice because you could pickup a diecast car and examine it without anyone yelling at you for picking it up. It was so nice to see their items in a store, and not in an advertisement in a magazine.

Veeeery interesting. The part about the decline of collectables especially. As for me that could be partially explained as reaching a saturation point. That would include varibles such as money, space and availability of new castings. The latter meaning, if I got what I want and there's nothing new or different that I want, I'm probably not going to buy anything; except for wheel swaps. Of course if I had any Franklin Mint cars I wouldn't be dicking with them in the first place :p

I have several of their cars too . I didnt know they were in trouble ... That would explain the lack of mailings & phone calls I used to get from them .. I havent bought a FM car in a while .. Nothing new I wanted was made ..

I recently bought several Danbury Mint cars though .. They have made a bunch of new stuff !
I hope the new owners keep the car end going too . I wonder if its the same 'group' that bought Toys R Us ??

I also have several of their 1/24 cars. I hope they do keep going and that this sale will bring with it capitalization to come out with fresh subjects instead of just repaints of older tools. As for the older tools, a continuation of the Wal-Mart experiment but on a larger scale to include Target, K-Mart, KB, and TRU, if they live long enough, would go a long way to making their products much more accessible, thanks to wider distribution and that much lower price.