Raffi Minasian conceived the Garage Diorama Concept in June of 1997. The concept was based loosely on a diorama that he saw in an FAO Collectibles catalog. The Far East engineer on this project, initially, was Teddy Ho. The garage concept was presented as “The Perfect Saturday” and it was initially approved. Development was started. Raffi brought a bright young designer into the project, named John McBride. John started development of the layout and basic 2-D art. John developed all of internal wall art.

The original garage sported a 1956 Chevy with accessories that were totally out of scale making the original concept rather awkward. It wasn’t going to fly in its current state and a few more stabs were attempted at getting the project off the ground

For example the image below had a picture of a Corvette taped onto the garage, this was how decisions were made at the time. One relied a lot on their imagination while striving to find the perfect blend to eventually get the project off the ground. Later concept versions included a Corvette, which was silver blue.

Eventually after a few hits and misses "The Garage" was shown to Lynda Resnick who did not like it. There were several attempts at revision that did not make it through the design approval process. The program lay dormant and it was almost killed. I came on board in March of 1998 and saw the Garage. At that time there was a slot in the top of the box and I always kidded Raffi about his “tissue box”. In an effort to prove myself to the guys I offered to work on a prototype-marketing sample on my own time. I would work my time at FM during the day and at night I’d be in my home workshop concocting the Garage, as I knew it.

I patterned the 1st prototype after my own garage. The 1st Garage I did was designed as a two wall, open vignette. The original design was to be covered with acrylic to keep out dust. A point of interest was that the dog’s name on the water bucket in the garage was “Rasputin”. I brought the Garage in and set it quietly on my desk in my office. The comments it drew were phenomenal. Raffi saw it and immediately took it to the marketing director, Matt Manion. It now looked as if the Garage had a viable future. The 1st prototype was shown to Lynda and she said, “No one has a garage this clean…. I want it dirty!”, Funny thing, it was my garage!

Raffi then asked if I could do another version, using the existing shoebox configuration of course, much dirtier. Unfortunately, all the tooled parts for the previous version were done and could not be used. I basically kept the shoebox. Teddy Ho left the company and I was then assigned the Garage project. I started to work with a Far East engineer named Calvin Leung. What a great guy! He was tolerant of my requests and at times he could not believe what I was asking of them.

I took the shoebox display and cut the top open and laid in acrylic. This change immediately let in light and illuminated the scene well. More so than the tissue slot! I sent this box to Calvin, who then proceeded to adapt the existing cases. I started to re-do the Garage in the same manner as my 1st prototype. By the way, I still have the 1st prototype on display in my shop. The original concept called for a working clock. I took it one step further and added an Indiglo clock face to simulate a neon clock. The effect was well received but quickly died when costing came through. When all was said and done, we lost the working clock completely. The dog’s name was changed to “Sparky”. Too many people thought that “Rasputin” had dark connotations.

Once I completed the Garage, it was shown to Lynda again. I was not present at the meeting but shortly heard my name being paged. I was summoned to meet Lynda since Raffi had shown the Garage and the Old Reliable pick up to her. Lynda was completely blown away and loved both projects. The 2nd prototype was packed up and sent to China. There was no way to describe what I had accomplished. When Calvin received the garage he didn’t know what to say. The funniest thing was explaining the cheese on the pizza! Most Chinese do not like cheese and have no idea of its elastic properties! The project really gained momentum and it was exciting to see the guys in the Far East get so excited. They really did a great job copying my work. We went a few rounds on the tire tracks but they eventually got the gist of what I was looking for.

Initially we had Mobil and Snap-on sponsorship. The oil cases were marked Mobil and there were Snap-on tool posters around the shop. At the very last minute we lost sponsorship and the items had to be pulled from the garage. There were only 2 garages made with the Mobil and Snap-on items. One garage was destroyed and the other is in my display case. Due to a communication misunderstanding, the guys overseas pulled the items but did not replace them with anything. I had new art developed with generic company logs and they were sent to China. Unfortunately 150 garages were shipped to meet the receiving date. A little know fact is that the first 150 garages have oil cases that I made personally. I spent a few days over in the Aston warehouse showing the ladies where these items went in the garage and I showed them how to adhere the items firmly and confidently. I folded about 300 oil cases. A design studio artist named Tracy Vanscyoc folded the remainder of the cases. She and I became friends over this ordeal. What was initially a disaster turned into a shining moment for the die cast group. The garage was a hit with the collectors. It sold $1.6 million in its first 8 months.

The garage name changed once again to “Ultimate Dream Garage”, but after much debate with the ad group the name was finalized as “The Garage Diorama”.

The project holds a certain fondness because it was my way of showing what I could do. It also showed what collectors were willing to buy. It brought all involved closer together as friends, which lasts to this day. I still keep in touch with the guys in the Orient.

In conclusion to this wonderful story George auctioned off one of the remaining garage samples and my good friend Sheila along with her beloved companion G-Dog outbid fellow collectors to win the Garage Diorama on auction along with a rare Corvette color sample. George had signed this Garage Diorama placing a brass plaque that is affixed to the top of the case. Only two other garages have ever been signed. One was signed for a benefit for the Model Car Museum and the other for a GM executive.