Jeremy Clarkson said: “You’re not a true petrolhead until you have owned at least one Alfa“. I have twelve Alfas in my collection, they are a strange mix.

One is not even diecast, a plastic model from a Kinder Egg of a 1930s Alfa, missing a windscreen (and missing from the above photo). The silver Matchbox Carabo is rather playworn, it was produced in the Matchbox “Super GT” series, as an economy model, at a time of falling sales and rising costs. The Super GTs were based on earlier Matchbox 1-75 Miniatures castings from the 1970s which had been simplified to eliminate interiors and working parts. The windows were opaque (in most cases black), and the baseplates were made of black plastic. Some were made in England others in China, this Carabo was made in England.

I couldn’t resist this Chinese made “Alfa Romeo Official Licensed Product” (RCS Libri) 1:43 scale Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce (1956), the 28 lari it cost broke the June budget…(I spent 123 lari 60, that month, without the Alfa I would have been within my 100 lari nominative budget).

I have written about the სიხარული (Sikharuli) model before. A 1:43 scale model of an Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint Bertone, made in Tbilisi, a copy of the Politoys model. Like the Carabo it is rather playworn.

One of the most beautiful cars ever in my opinion, is the Alfa Romeo Montreal. I waited a couple of months for this 1:43 model to become available. By DeAgostini in their Supercars series it came with a magazine (in Russian).

The Montreal was a 2+2 coupe produced by Alfa Romeo from 1970 to 1977. New, the Montreal was more expensive to buy than the Jaguar E-Type or the Porsche 911. Red and green are better colours than this metallic brown, but Michael Caine drove a brown Montreal in the 1974 film “The Marseille Contract”.

Another Michael Caine film “The Italian Job” had Minis being chased around Turin by Carabinieri Alfa Romeo Giulias, I’d like a Giulia but the only “Carabinieri” Alfa I have is a 156 model from Bburago.

The window insert has slipped.