Amazing Malibu Land Rovers

Imagine...  a toy company making two different castings of a different - but still somewhat similar - model.   But of course its just a dream - since the cost of making a new casting isn't justified by the low incremental sales of a casting that is too similar to an existing casting. 

There ARE a very few examples...  Tomica recently created an entirely new casting for a slightly freshened Toyota Crown.  And Lesney has 2 wonderful castings of the Rolls Royce Silver Shadow (I and II - both in burgundy - 2 of my favorite superfast models). 

But then Malibu came along, selling highly detailed 1:64 scale models of seldom-modeled-cars, sold at WalMart.  They produced the only Audi Q7 and VW Touerag in my collection.  And they produced these 2 very similar white Range Rovers...

Except of course, that just like the real models, on close inspection we realize that they are actually different models.  One a full-fledged Range Rover, and one the Range Rover Sport.  But when both are in white they look almost identical. 

I also found a black version of the Sport...  ...and a red LR3.  Both nicely detailed - with correct wheels, glass lights, and nice lettering.

In the same era, Matchbox also did a nice version of a Discovery and a Range Rover Sport, but both of these competing Malibu models are nicer than the Matchbox ones. 

After a 1-2 years of amazing Malibu models - they seem to have mostly disappeared - at least in 1:64 scale.  Its too bad - they really were wonderful models.