ixo-MODELS
Street Cars Modern Series
CLC097 – CITROEN SM
Gendarmerie (Police) 1973
Die Cast
1:43 Scale
Retails up to $35.00
Released in January 2006 (first ixo Citroen SM)
Discount price is available for regular customers.
ixo-MODELS Taxi and Police variants became very popular, sold very fast and enjoy price appreciation. Early edition Police and Taxi vehicles now easily sold well over $35.00 and sold out practically by all dealers.
Citroen SM was designed in cooperation with Maserati. The outcome was large, powerful, fast, luxurious, expensive car. For years SM was used as French presidential limousine and official car of French ambassadors in many countries. This is an accurate, highly detailed model that displays great. French Gendarmerie (a division of French Police Force) had in its garages limited quantity of this car in a traditional dark blue.
ABOUT THE MODEL MAKER
ixo-MODELS are made in China by SONIC INTERNATIONAL (TOYS) LIMITED.
Packaging is attractive, models attached w/a screw to the black plastic display case w/printed model name on it, has a clear acrylic top, display packed in a carton sleeve.
The brand is on a market just for a few years. However, 1/43 scale die cast car models collectors familiar with high quality models that were on a market for several years in the lines of Vitesse Group. Skid, Onyx, many models from Vitesse and 2-Wheels (1/24 scale motorcycles) were made by the same people that now works in IXO.
You can find numerous models released under the IXO badge previously released in Vitesse Group lines. New castings (models) and previously released models of sport and rally cars in new liveries are issued on the regular basis.
The current IXO product list consist of 10 collections: Modern Rally Cars, Classic Rally Cars, Modern LeMans and GT Cars, Classic LeMans and GT Cars, Modern Road Cars, Classic Road Cars, MotorBikes (1/24 Scale), Ferrari Collection and the latest one ixomodels Junior.
As a collector I can say it is a good product indeed. While a quality is very competitive to Minichamps the price is much more affordable. It is especially noticeable with sport and rally cars.
It appears that IXO issued their models on the Limited Run basis. You probably know what it means but if you don’t it is simple. Recently it became a common practice with high quality model-makers. Relatively small number of models released on a market at a time. The company will release a new quantity of the same model only when a demand for a model will be strong again. As a result not all models from a company catalogue are available on a market all the time. It means if you want a model get it as soon as you can, otherwise you don’t know when and if the model will be available on a market again. In addition it is very unlikely that the model will be made in the same appearance, color and / or livery probably will be different if the model (tooling) will be run again.
