Renault 5 Turbo... 2 models with identical paint from Tomica and Corgi square off for a fight.. But what about Hot Wheels???

While it is common to find multiple toy companies model the same car, it is UNCOMMON to find them paint them in the same paint scheme.  But that's exactly what happened when both Corgi Juniors and Tomica decided to model the Original Hot Hatch, the Renault 5 Turbo, and paint them in the same rally-car yellow paint....  Sounds like an opportunity for a comparison!!!

Spoiler alert.  There is no comparison.  The Tomica wins hands down.  The Corgi is considerably larger, over-scaled for such a small car, and is very plasticky (particularly the side mirrors - though at least it has them vs. the missing mirrors of the Tomica).  The Tomica is correctly scaled, with a nice soft suspension (vs. the hard suspension of the Corgi) and with opening doors.   In keeping with the times (the early '80s) both cars have nice metal-work and trim detail, but the Tomica's is a little nicer.

Both cars have nice paint.  Its interesting to note that while the color scheme is obviously meant to be the same, it is still very different.  The base yellow paint is almost exactly the same shade for the two models, but everything else about it is different.  I call the paint a tie.

Overall, its an easy win for Tomica....    ...Or is it?

Enter the 30 year later challenger, Hot Wheels.

Hot Wheels doesn't have a Renault 5 turbo in yellow, but they did offer a high quality all metal Renault 5 turbo in blue or green, with rubber tires.  These are seriously handsome models, with amazing satin paint, a high quality feel, and of course, beautiful wheels and the afore-mentioned RUBBER TIRES!

While Tomica wins the award for the best original / vintage casting, and for the best yellow casting, the modern Hot Wheels castings are TOO GOOD not to easily sweep to a win over even the Tomica.  These castings are relatively easy to find on EBay, and for a price up to about $10, are definitely worth it.  The upstart challenger takes on the vintage cars, and wins....

A slightly uncommon car.... Corgi Junior Porsche 917

I like featuring unique and unusual cars/pieces from my collection on this blog.  Sometimes they are extremely rare.  Sometimes just something different from the ordinary.  And sometimes they are ordinary pieces after all, but ones that I like a lot.  

Some would say that there is nothing overly special about this car, a beat-up model of a mighty Porsche 917 race car, modeled by Corgi Junior.  But Corgi Juniors are already somewhat rare models, and this model has a nice feel to it.  

One of the things I like most about it is its size...   It is big and imposing taking up every millimeter of a standard slot in a Matchbox collector case.  Hot Wheels did an excellent 917 as one of the earlier entries in their Adult Collectible series (sold as part of the 4 piece Porsche set in the late '90s), but while that model had great realism / detail and an opening back, it always struck me as being a little small.  In contrast, this Corgi is imposing, scaring other race cars right off the starting grid.  

In other comments, I wouldn't have minded a more race-car-oriented paint scheme (not even a number on the side), and the gold color is rather bland and unexciting (think mid '00s gold Lexus RX300s!).  But the car rolls well on its standard issue wheel.  

Overall, a nice car that deserves a quick mention on this (heavily read) blog...! 

Nissan Ambulances - by Tomica

Ambulances are an interesting segment of die-cast culture, and this is actually my 2nd post that is just about ambulances, which is odd since I'm not an OVERLY huge fan of ambulances... 

Anyway, Tomica has a huge variety of minivans (see my recent minivan post), and therefore have a lot of castings that they can make into ambulances, resulting in 4-5 distinct ambulances made from Nissan vans!

I actually have 4, with a 5th being a police van that seems like it could double for an ambulance...  I've shown them in order of age, oldest to newest, with the first one (a Nissan Caball) being more of a police van.  The 4th is the El Grand and is the same casting as the safety car El Grand shown in my Tomica van post.

All are nice castings, you won't go wrong with any of them.  As usual the older ones feel nicer and higher quality, though none are cheap-feeling.

I particularly like the 2nd oldest Caravan-based ambulance.  It's rear opens (though it doesn't stay open for a photo).  It is still old enough to be made in Japan, and has that silky suspension that older Tomicas are known for.

Overall, incredible to find 5 ambulance models all by Nissan, all made by Tomica...

Corgi Error! "Porsche" BMW E30 M3...

This is a nice casting, an E30 BMW M3 race car, by Corgi, in bright orange. 

The wheels are unfortunate - standard ugly cheap-looking Corgi wheels, and there is no paint detail (taillights, etc.) other than the Canon, Castrol and #44 tampos. 


But the metal casting has nice and clear detail, clearly showing the kidney grill, lights, etc.  And its a somewhat unusual subject - while enthusiasts love the 1st generation M3, it's not a frequently modeled die-cast car. 

But what makes this casting so unusual in my eyes, is what it says on the bottom...  "Porsche"! 

Really Corgi?  I know you were a British company, but still, Germany's not that far away...   You didn't know the difference between a Porsche and a BMW? 

I don't know if this is a 1-off example, a known-error, or whether all of these M3s were labeled as Porsches...  I have 2 Corgi collecting books published by Schiffer.  The Dr. Force book ends prior to the introduction of more modern toys like this BMW/Porsche.  The Manzke guide goes up past the Mattel era, but makes no mention of this individual casting (or the possibility of an error on the baseplate). 

I have some error cards, where the blisterpack card mis-labels a car.   For instance, I think I have a Matchbox Chevy Tahoe (like the one featured in my "Battle of the Full Size SUVs part III") still mint on card, where the card says that its an ambulance...  But I've never seen a casting baseplate error like this before! 

Can you spot the common (but uncommon) theme among these vintage die-cast models?

What you see before you are 4 vintage die-cast models from the 1960s (and in one case, the 1980s).  A Matchbox by Lesney Mercedes 300 SE, an Impy Roadmaster Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, a Road Champs C4 Corvette, and a Topper Johnny Lightning Cadillac Eldorado.  With the exception of the Road Champs Corvette, all are highly regarded and sought after castings... 

But do you know that there is a common - but actually very uncommon - theme that unites these 4 castings?  Can you guess what it is? 

These castings unusual trait that they all share, is that all have 2 types of opening pieces - both doors and trunk/hood! 

It wasn't unusual for die-cast cars of this era to have an opening part.  In fact, most models had something on them that moved.  For Lesney era Matchbox, it was typically opening doors.  When Mattel's Hot Wheels burst onto the scene, they ushered in the mainstream era of opening hoods.  But in almost all cases, there was just ONE opening item, not doors AND hood or trunk... 

This may not seem unusual today, when M2 Castline models have hood, doors and trunk that all open.  But while that seems nice in theory, the M2 Castlines - and other premium cars of today - just don't have the heft and allure, and are never are able to capture my interest and imagination the way that the vintage toys do.

This Matchbox Mercedes is the ONLY Lesney era (and non-Super-King) Matchbox model that I know of with 2 opening features!  And even more interesting, once it converted from regular wheels to transitional superfast wheels it gradually LOST its opening doors.  Therefore the gold transitional model is available both with opening doors and with cast shut doors (though the trunk still opens on both - see below photos).  If you are ever shopping for this transitional superfast car, be aware of the difference, and try to find the one with the opening doors!  

The car was also available in a superfast "Staff Car" army green version, with NEITHER opening doors nor opening trunk.  This is actually a model that I don't have... 

I prefer the classy blue paint color of the regular wheels model to the more gaudy Harvest Gold of the superfast - it just looks more aristocratic and elegant - befitting of such a high-end car....  The regular wheels car is also available in green - though the blue looks nicer!

Some of you readers may know that while the Matchbox Mercedes is unusual in it's line for offering 2 opening features, the Impy Rolls Royce is unusual in IT'S line for ONLY offering 2 opening features.  Many of its stable-mates actually had opening doors, trunk AND hood...!  (At some point I'll do a post just about Impy's so you can see this....). 

I hope you enjoyed this post.  Let me know if anyone actually guessed the common theme before reading about it...!

Can a new Matchbox "Superfast" late '60s Cougar beat the original Superfast Cougar?

What a comparison opportunity...  The new Matchbox "Superfast" casting of a 1st Generation Mercury Cougar, in a pea-green, with super-fast-esque wheels and painted trim.  A pretty nice car...!

Except, that oddly, Matchbox had already made a "Superfast" casting of a 1st generation Mercury Cougar in almost the same pea-green color - 40 years ago.... 

2 almost identical castings - made by the same company - 40 years apart...  Sounds like an ideal opportunity for a comparison test.  Can the new casting compete with the vintage casting...? 

Of course, you all know the answer...  There is no possible way that the new casting can compete with the vintage casting, made in the golden age of Matchbox models.  But its still a fun comparison.

While the new one looks nice on its own, with nicely painted backlights and headlights, when it's set side-by-side with the vintage model the inadequacies jump out...  What once looked nice now doesn't anymore.  The new one is larger than the vintage original, with a plastic base, plasticky grill, cast shut doors, cheapy-wheels, etc.   This all in stark comparison to the proper scale, metal based-vintage car with heavy gauge die-cast grill, opening doors, and the sweet "Superfast" suspension and wheels.  There is just no comparison, at all.  Except that the 2 cars are both castings of the same model, in the same color, by the same toy brand...  

Price-wise, the new-ish one isn't cheap, with prices at $2.99 or higher.   But on E-Bay if you hunt, you can probably find a fair-to-good condition vintage model for about $5-8 plus shipping.  Trust me, while the new one looks nice in pictures, the vintage one is way nicer in actual feel - and easily worth the upcharge. 

Matchbox also released new castings of other previously done 1960's cars, such as Lamborghini Miura, a Lotus Europa, a VW transporter, a Jaguar E-Type, a Cadillac Ambulance, a Ford Mustang, etc.  These new models are all fine models (except the Cadillac - which feels SO plasticky that I just can't stand it).  But in 100% of the cases, you'd rather have the vintage original superfast (or in the case of the E-Type, the regular wheels version since it didn't come in a Superfast variant).   Trust me.  You want the original.  And they aren't that hard to find on E-Bay...

Battle of the Full Size SUVs - Part 2: Who makes the best Chevrolet Suburban?!?

This post carries on my theme from a few weeks ago, when I compared 2 Matchbox castings of full-size SUVs - the Expedition from the late '90s with the Lincoln Navigator from the late '00s.  While the Navigator was the ultimate winner, I was thrilled to have both castings - both since they are great castings - and since I love (correctly scaled) models of full size SUVs. 

 

I'm a sports car guy in real life (RX7s, Miatas, 911s, etc.), but there is something naughtily enticing about these tough looking land yachts for the road...  And since the SUV revolution that started in about 1990 with the launch of the original Ford Explorer, Toyota 4-Runner, Nissan Pathfinder, Isuzu Trooper, etc., the toy makers have finally started to model these beasts in some nice detail... 

 

The modeling took a long time to come about...  Sure, in the '80s Hot Wheels had done the full size Ford Bronco, Matchbox the full size Blazer with off-road wheels in police guise and the '80s Cherokee (arguably the original contender in the '90s SUV craze) and Majorette the Cherokee with off-road wheels and a dog in the back (a favorite casting that I actually DON'T have), but they took a long time to respond to the next wave of SUVs... 

 

Majorette was the first to model one of them - with a nice casting of the 2nd generation 4-runner - most typically found in red.  Maisto produced a CRAPPY casting of the original Explorer (although it is so awful it doesn't really deserve mention).  But it was a long wait - until the Expedition and the Tahoe came out from Matchbox.  Some time in this range Matchbox also brought out a nice Jeep Grand Cherokee.  But then in Matchbox' mid '00s Renaissance they suddenly opened the floodgates and started producing some great models, like the Hummer H3, the Volvo XC90, the Jeep Liberty and the Nissan XTerra. 

 

But I digress.  This article is about the FULL-SIZE SUVs known as the Suburban.  Do we have any models of it - and if so - which is best? 

 

Ironically, Hot Wheels stepped into the scene as one of the first, with a non-regular-line-up Suburban that was too long to fit into a normal storage tray.  But since the Suburban is indeed a long vehicle in real life, it was right in scale.  I first saw this vehicle as a companion to their NASCAR race car series, frequently emblazoned with some race team's name on the side.  And this is the first model of it that I had - mine the blue one with the Square D electrical name on it.  But for this comparison, I showed my later one - a red "Team Bartwell" one done up with extra paint detail and rubber tires as part of their "Whips" series. 

This is a seriously nice casting.  As mentioned, the length is spot-on and gives it a lot of presence when compared to ordinary 1/64th scale vehicles.  Its a late '90s model, so its big and squared off - the way I like my SUVs.  The rubber tire, glossy paint and paint detail really finish off a beautiful casting.  The rims are BEAUTIFUL - MAGNIFICENT - EXQUISITE!    The only improvements I might make would be a metal base and opening doors or tailgate. 

 

Next up, and bought at roughly the same time, is a Code 3 collectibles fire chief suburban, a model of the same late '90s generation Suburban as the Hot Wheels. The size is right in line with the Hot Wheels, again too long for an ordinary storage case.  If anything, this model feels even more squared off than the Hot Wheels model.  This one is aimed at adults and again has great detail, with rubber tires, nice rims that are accurate replicas of the real Suburban rims, wipers, non-cast but attached mirrors, and excellent paint.  I would have loved to find this model in a normal consumer (non fire or police) version, but I don't think that one was ever made.  Interestingly, while the detail is more accurate on this one vs. the Hot Wheels, the Hot Wheels just feels more enticing...  The Code 3 is the one you want to have in your display case, while the Hot Wheels is the one you want to pull down and play with on the floor.   Advantage, Hot Wheels!

 

Next up is a JADA toys Dub version of the next generation newer Suburban.  I've never been a fan of JADA, since they often sacrifice realism in the name of crazy/fantasy customization, but this one was accurate and nice enough that I had to buy it.  It is in tan/bronze and looks much more rounded (too rounded for my tastes - though that generation of Suburban was more rounded - it wasn't as rounded as JADA made it).  This one has twin rear doors rather than a tailgate - a nice differentiating touch.  This is also the only version with a roof rack - though the body color paint that was applied to it makes it less appealing than the flat roofs of the others.  Typical of JADA it has big oversize rims and rubber tires.  The casting itself has a lot of detail, but little in the way of paint detail.  Overall, it comes off as a solid contender and a surprisingly nice casting, but is just not as nice as the first two... 

 

Finally, I have 2 Matchbox castings of the Suburban as a Police vehicle.  I talk about these last, since their size automatically relegates them to last place.  As an adult, correct scale is important - and these are scaled too small - smaller even than the Expedition/Navigator reviewed earlier - and smaller than Matchbox' own Tahoe that the Suburban is based off of (the 2 toys are roughly the same length - and since the Sub is longer in real life, the height and width of it has to be lower and narrower than the Tahoe to maintain consistency).  The scale issue is a killer... 

...but aside from the scale issue - it is an OK casting - and a NICE casting when in premium guise.  Matchbox had this odd run of premium cars where they would add opening doors to the premiums when they weren't available on the base model - meaning that the premium cars were no longer just nicer paint and rubber wheels - but were almost separate models.  I have an Impala police car with an opening trunk, and a Grand Cherokee, BMW X5 and this Suburban all with opening doors.  In the case of this Suburban, the detail really shines up the casting - meaning that it displays REALLY nicely!  Just don't put it beside something else that should have been smaller than it in real life! 

China Post #3: High Quality KDW Trucks

If you read my last post, you'll see that I bought a KDW truck crane (scale = 1:50?), and was very impressed at it details and long long LONG working boom... 

 

Well, at the same time as I bought that truck crane, I also bought these 2 KDW tractor trailers - and if anything - I actually like these more than the crane...

 

The blue container truck has 2 removable containers.  Unlike the containers of the Matchbox Super Kings model from the late '70s, these containers are made of heavy weight metal. 

 

The trailer bed has a telescoping feature, which collapses when you don't need to carry both containers.  And they are a number of indentations to hold the container at 10 + different positions. 

 

The green tractor from the flatbed set is interchangeable with the blue container set (in fact - they are the same tractor casting).  The flatbed includes a nicely detailed excavator, which is probably sold as a unique model (and would be well worth buying on its own). 

 

Overall the units have a very high quality feel - at least as good as a SIKU or Corgi casting.  But the value was tremendous...  I paid $15-$20 for each set - when the excavator alone would be worth that cost. 

 

As mentioned in the crane post, I bought them in a little store in Beijing.  You can buy them on EBAY, for roughly 2X what I bought them for.  In fact, I'd advise you to make that purchase.  At $30 per piece - I don't think you'll be disappointed!

China Trip! (1st Post). Drugstore-ish cars found in Beijing Night Market

Dear Readers,

Sorry for the delay in getting updates to Matchbox Frenzy...  I just got back from a trip to Beijing, which included a lot of car thought (real cars - based on the mushrooming native Chinese car industry - and model cars - with the *hope* that I'd find stuff that I don't find in the USA).  I tried to update my blog while I was there, but the Google/China rift meant that the blog was blocked to me while I was in China...  So here I am, a few weeks late. 

As I said, given how many diecast toys are actually produced in China, I really hoped that I'd find some cool - and hopefully inexpensive - stuff, particularly Tomica. 

Unfortunately, though I searched through all of the bazaars and flea markets and toy stores that I could find (including the toy market located behind the pearl market), I found very little Tomica...  1 store only - and their selection was not as great as I had hoped.  You'll see my Tomica finds on a later post. 


And as for pricing - well - there are many things that are super inexpensive in Beijing...  Street food, subway fares, taxi rides, etc., but that list does not include diecast cars.  The Tomica and Siku that I found were on the order of $5 US per car (incidently - the Matchbox/Hot Wheels that I found were not much cheaper).  So they weren't expensive - just not as cheap as I'd hoped. 

But I did find some cool stuff, starting with the set of cars shown here.  I have no idea what brand they are.  They seem like what you might get in a drugstore - though the heaviness of the cars makes them feel higher quality than say a Maisto.

This packaging of cars - all packaged in groups of 4 - was fairly commonly found in many of the night-market/flea market types of vendors.  Actually, the most interesting things about these night markets was how much repetitive merchandise you found - almost as if there were wholesale suppliers selling merchandise produced expressly to be sold in night markets.  It made the vendors feel less original... 

I probably paid about $9 for this set - not sure if I got ripped off or not (I probably did...).   The cars actually feel pretty nice.  They are slightly large - not quite as big as Sikus, but a tad larger than comparable Matchbox Cayennes.  Given that they are models of large SUVs, that probably means that they are close to correct 1:64 scale. 

The set included 4 luxury SUVs; a Range Rover, a Cayenne, an Audi Q7 and a BMW X6, all reasonably well modeled, all with opening doors.  Unfortunately, they have pull-back friction motors in them - so you can't pull them back without winding up the motors.  The paint scheme is also a little unfortunate - its hard to imagine a construction company giving their engineers Porsche Cayennes to toodle around in.  But a nice set of cars to have found regardless.  Incidentally, this is my first model of a BMW X6... 

Overall a nice set of cars.  If you see them on EBay for not too much money then I'd recommend adding them to your collection.  The only problem - since there is no brand - I don't know how to search for them...  On the other hand, if you go to the Beijing night market off of WangFuJing street - then look for this set. 

 

Modifiers Escalade - You need one in your collection - worth buying even for today's inflated price points...

One of the cooler die-cast car gimmicks in the last 2 decades were the "Modifier" series, by X-Concepts (who the heck are X-Concepts?!?).  The idea was that they would give you the parts to a car and allow you to build it yourself, finishing with a screw-on baseplate rather than a riveted baseplate. 

In the process, you'd get to choose what components to use - with each package containing 2 sets of wheels, 2 sets of window glass with different window tints, sometimes alternate interiors, etc. 

I have a number of these models, including a Civic, an Integra, an Accord Coupe, and an Eclipse.  These small cars were nice, but their wheels always seemed too small, and while the finished products were nice and it was fun to "customize" them (at least within the prescribed band), they weren't overly compelling. 

But for some reason the trucks were nicer.  I have a white F-150, and these 2 Escalades - in black and green. 

These are the nicest Escalades I have.  Substantially nicer than the forgettable basic Matchbox car (or was it Hot Wheels....  that should tell you how forgettable it was), and even nicer than the white Hot Wheels Adult Collectible Escalade ESV shown in the backgrounds of the photos (a car that was let down by a covered bed, oversize wheels, and a general feeling of somehow just not being right...). 

But these Modifier Escalades are sized just right, and fun with the customized window glass. 

Since I have 2 models in 2 colors - I am able to swap components between the 2 cars.  My only complaints are the black and off-color carbon hoods (OK on an Integra - but really - a carbon hood on an Escalade?!?) (less noticeable on the black painted model), and the slightly large mirrors (the first place where paint chips develop). 

Aside from the nice extra long and realistic Suburban made by Hot Wheels and only sold in their more expensive lines (avoid the overly short Matchbox Suburban that is sized to fit in a normal case - and so is incorrectly the same length as the similar generation Tahoe...), this Escalade is the nicest model I've found of a full size GM SUV.  After buying and opening mine, I liked it so much that I picked up an extra copy to keep Mint-in-Blister!  

This model is worth picking up even if you have to buy it on E-Bay for a substantial premium.  (The only listings I'm seeing right now are starting at $20 before shipping - 5 X the original $3.99-ish price point).