Toy, Model & Collectible Replica Cars

fintail · August 2008

Wow, I browsed around that site and that company has some models of really common workaday cars from the period. Omnirizons, a Diplomat, K-cars, a 70s woody, Granada, and others...very amusing. I have never seen those before.

boomchek · August 2008

I only see that line at Walmart. I was surprised when I first saw them a bout a year or two ago too. Pretty neat if you ask me.

Another company I found, not sure of their name, makes darn good 1:64 scale models of average to high end cars. They're less expensive than Hot Wheel or Matchbox, and they come in the normal square boxes with windows like old Matchbox used to be (not blister packs).

I bought a version of my C240, for about a buck, and the detailing is as good if not better than Matchbox.

fintail · August 2008

The next time I am at Wally World (which is maybe once a year) I will keep an eye out. Who wouldn't want a scale model of a Plymouth Horizon or a Chevette? :P

I don't look at modern toys/models so much as I can never find any of cars I like, so I rarely bother. What you describe sounds familiar though, I remember some small models where the black window detailing was decent.

writer · August 2008

Regarding manufacturers models of real cars that were "commonly bought", there are a few around that are very similar but as far as I can tell are completely separate. These are all products you find in regular department stores such as Walmart.

First, there are Maisto and MotorMax. Their products range from not very good to very good. They have a few lines (labels) for different markets. MotorMax has the "Fresh Cherries" line that has been mentioned lately. They also produce the "American Grafitti" lines and their own MotorMax lines. The "AG" line has tended to be more a hot cars line and includes some true hot rod styles. Maisto has been making some of the more common vehicles too, at similar prices but I am not sure of the labels.

Priced a bit higher is "Johnny Lightning". "Johnny Lightning" are generally a bit better quality and often "limited" production runs specifically aimed at collectors. Johnny Lightning sometimes rebrands cars produced by other makers. Recently I saw a Johnny Lightning 70's Barracuda and when I looked under it, it was a "Hot Wheels".

Lastly is "Jada" which is focussed mainly on hot rods and tuners. They produce some regular street vehicles, but usually limited to car fan markets (lots of Mustangs, but I do not expect to see a Ford Fairlane). They did produce a nice 1939 Chevy sedan a year or two ago. If they see a growing market in the ordinary car market they might move into it.

andys120 · August 2008

As for makers of everyday cars you should take note of Yat Ming and Sun Star from China as well as Ertl, Franklin Mint and Danbury Mint of the USA, they make a variety of Big Three cars from the 50's and 60's, perhaps a few from the 70s in various scales, cheifly 1/18 and 1/24.

Yat Ming's 1970 Rambler Rebel in 1/18>

Sun Star's '52 Nash Ambassador in 1/18>

boomchek · August 2008

I like some of Maisto cars, I even have their whole set of GM design cars from about 6 years ago. Their 1:18 scale cars are affordable and look good.

There's a company that's called Fast Lane I think that make cars from old Matchbox casts but worse in quality. They remind me of some of the old Matchboxes I had, but I haven't bought them, as they're realyl budget looking.

I like Jada's stuff and have some of their toys too. Johny Lightning is probably my favourite as they have lots of different themes including TV and movie cars (I have someof the Simpsons cars).

i like Jada's "For Sale" collection that features beat up and aged cars. Very realistic but i have none of them.

fintail · August 2008

I remember about 10 years ago I bought a Johnny Lightning toy of a Ford Torino Elite for a friend of mine, as his parents had one when he was a kid and it scarred him for life. That's a pretty crappy everyday car.

I think the last 1:18 car I bought was around 1996, when I bought a Revell 1:18 300SE fintail. Since then, I have bought mostly vintage items.

lemko · August 2008

...from Sun Star's Platinum Series. It actually has spring-loaded windshield wipers and is nice for a "cheap" model:

1958 Buick Limited hardtop

roadburner · August 2008

Kyosho 2002 Turbo

UT 318iS

fintail · August 2008

That 2002 looks pretty good.

Reminds me, the second-to-last 1:18 car I bought was a Kyosho Supra. It's a very nice model.

I have noticed the excellent company Minichamps has a lot of ordinary 60-80s European cars in their lineup, but no fintails that I know of. I do have an excellent 1:43 560SEL by them, along with a few cars I bought in the 90s but I think are stored away in my mom's attic today.

roadburner · August 2008

I've got about two dozen 1:43 Minichamps. The latest is a limited edition(1 of 6000) model of the Mazda 787B that won Le Mans in 1991.

writer · August 2008

"I remember about 10 years ago I bought a Johnny Lightning toy of a Ford Torino Elite for a friend of mine, as his parents had one when he was a kid and it scarred him for life. That's a pretty crappy everyday car."

Oh come on now. The Torino could not have been *that* bad. Uh, was it?
:-)

Oddly, I realize that I have never known anyone with a Torino. It might have been a neighbourhood thing. Where I lived, Fords tended to be Mustangs and eventually Mavericks. I have no idea why.

Speaking of Walmart and this "ordinary cars" stuff, I have been in Walmart this last week and they seem to be in their seasonal changes, and some new stuff showed up.

I bought a MotorMax Maverick for my friend. It is a 1/64th scale, which is probably the best choice. He is not a big car fan, and I just thought that he would enjoy having it, sort of like a picture of his mother's former car, but in 3D.

I also bought an American Graffiti 1939 Chevy Coupe police car. I saw this '39 Chevy last year in their regular lineup with a regular paint job (a very nice looking brown as I recall), but I passed it up. When I saw this one, I thought about it again, and for now, I think it is as close as I will get to the '37 that I really want, so I decided to take one. There are no police car modifications on it. There is only the black and white paint job and "Highway Patrol" markings. If I want to, I can repaint the doors later and it will be a plain Coupe again.

On the website, they also have a 1/24th 1948 Chev fastback in police car trim. I might buy one of those too to sit on the shelf with this one. The '48 is not particularly special to me for any reason, but it is a nice looking car.

lemko · August 2008

Majorette Mercedes-Benz 450SEL. At least I THINK this is it. It had seperate red lenses for the taillights which I thought was a nice touch compared to a lot of cruder replicas.

fintail · August 2008

That might be based on a Majorette casting, but I don't think it's a Majorette car - the wheel spoke design is not anything I am familiar with from that firm, and I believe their 450SEL had colored turn signal lenses and headlights too. I think the Majorette 450SEL was made primarily with three spoke wheels.

The W116 was made by a number of makers in the smaller scale...Matchbox had one too, along with Tomy.

fintail · August 2008

I see a lot of their models in "limited edition", some of their models are obscure enoguh to create low demand and a low production run. The 560SEL I have is something like 1 of 3500 (maybe based around color too)....but I doubt there are 3500 people in the world who want a 1:43 models of a late 1980s S-class

fintail · August 2008

Modifying existing models to ones liking can be a hobby all in its own. I remember I did this a bit when I was younger...especially to models of 1930s era cars, which always became WW2 cars for my obsessive Lego street scenes. I never got into model kits too much as I'd make a mess, but I had a lot of metal cars. I'd also turn MB sedans into rally cars once they had reached a certain state of decay from being played with. Blacking out the wheels and adding some numbers and decals can do a lot.

lemko · August 2008

You're probably right; this is a knockoff. I think the car I had did have the proper headlight lenses too. This was over 30 years ago, so my memory is foggy. I recall that it was really nice for a diecast toy - nicer than a Matchbox version of the same car. It was gold similar to the pic I posted. I have seen some HORRIBLE knockoffs of the Majorette 1980s Cadillac Brougham limo I have.

lemko · August 2008

Most of my diecast cars ended up going to relatives' younger kids when my Mom thought I was "too old" for toy cars. Unfortunately, my cousins had as little regard for those diecasts then as they do their real cars today and they were all promptly destroyed. Heck, I used to care for my diecast cars like my real cars and I'd even wax and polish them when they got dirty. Of course, I couldn't resist blowing up a few of the cheaper or rattier ones with firecrackers back in the day. The "wrecks" then would then be displayed in a miniature junkyard behind a plastic model gas station on my HO model train set.

fintail · August 2008

Yeah, the Matchbox was the crudest of the W116s I have seen...Matchbox really went downhill by the late 70s, far off their fine detailing and excellent proportions of the 50s and 60s. It took a few years for Matchbox to regain some form. The Tomy 450SEL was comparable to the Majorette, but with no lenses.

I remember I had several Majorette cars, and the detail impressed me. I remember a MB 190, a Volvo 740, a Peugeot 205, a rounded T-Bird, a 5-door Saab, among many others. Majorette cars were good for foreign looking street scenes, as they made other-market vans and trucks too. Sadly, all were played with and I don't think I have most of them anymore.

I had a couple of those Majorette limos, one was green and the other was a pearl white. Long gone too.

fintail · August 2008

LOL, I tried to wax some of my cars too. I still do that when I find a vintage toy that is grimey, I use a very light application of cleaner wax.

My parents, being involved with antiques, always had a couple treadle sewing machines around, along with weird old tools etc. Those treadle machines will destroy a small diecast car if you get the base part moving fast enough. I remember my Majorette Saab was claimed that way - without my knowledge. Didn't make me happy. But then they became junkyard or disaster scene props for the Lego town I built.

Many early Matchbox survived because of HO layouts - the scale is not perfect, but they were far superior to other small models 50 years ago.

lemko · August 2008

Matchbox also strayed away from making replicas of actual production cars and made a lot of STUPID Hotwheels-like customs. The 1970s was clearly Matchbox's low point. Funny how diecasts were becoming just as shoddy and tacky as real '70s cars?

fintail · August 2008

It fits with my "everything was crap in the 70s" mantra...of course, I was born in the depths of the 70s, so maybe I should be careful with that :P

Matchbox had panic when free-rolling Hot Wheels designs hit the market, and they overreacted. Gone was the fine modeling and detail, replaced by new wheels and crazy designs. It took until around the time of the 1982 collapse of Lesney for the ship to be righted. I always looked at each brand as very different when I was a kid, and they should have kept more of that.

andys120 · August 2008

Here's my collection of 1/18th scale Porsche Sports/endurance racers of the late 60's and early 70s, most are 917s but the double arrow car is the 908/3 that won the last real Targo Florio in 1970 (Redman/Siffert).>

lemko · August 2008

...from the golden age of Matchbox:

1964 Chevrolet Impala taxi

1964 Cadillac Sayers & Scoville ambulance

fintail · August 2008

If you want Matchbox GM, their 59 Impala was a real classic little car:

That 64 when found with grey wheels is a high rarity and is worth a tidy sum.

Those 60s models were from their pinnacle of detailing and proportion, pretty much perfect models for that scale.

lemko · August 2008

This is the one I REALLY want!

1958 Cadillac Sixty Special

fintail · August 2008

I think a MIB one should be able to be had for $100-150.

I have one of those, but it's a beater.

lemko · August 2008

Two M-B classics for our Poncho fans:

1960 Pontiac Ventura convertible

1964? Pontiac Grand Prix

fintail · August 2008

Matchbox made a few decent versions of American Fords too...56 and 59 wagons, a 58-60 T-Bird, and a 61 sedan come to mind

boomchek · August 2008

I only remember the early 80s Matchboxes as that's when I started getting them, but it looks like the ones beofre were neat too.

I was never a fan of Majorettes as most of the ones in late 80s had funky looking big wheels, and the play sets that came with the cars were not to scale, or at least the figurines. The people looked way bigger than the cars.

fintail · August 2008

Matchbox was at the top of their game and had a near monopoly on the ca. 1:64 diecast scene from the late 50s til the late 60s. Their larger scale cars were also competitive, and the Yesteryears were a big hit too. There were a few other British makers like Impy etc that tried to break in, and Tootsietoy tried a more detailed small line to compete, but neither were legit threats. But when those fast Hot Wheels hit the market around 1968, the game changed. Matchbox didn't really recover until the 80s, when the products made a jump back into quality.

I remember Majorettes having varying scales too, so they never looked right together. Some cars would be 1:53, others like 1:68. But they made many oddball cars, and that lured me in. The mass market makers didn't make stuff like Ford Transits and Saab 900 5-doors and Volvo wagons etc. Maybe that started to change with models introduced by the late 80s. By 1990 or so, my obsession was quickly waning.

fintail · August 2008

Are the exposed framework ones expensive? I see some superdetailed models that are pretty pricey.

andys120 · August 2008

, It depends, I paid around $240 for the pair of 917/30 Turbo CanAm cars, it's two odels, one of the Penske Sunoco car "dressed" and another of the bare chassis>

OTOH the 917L with the spectacular Martini&Rossi LeMans markings was about a hundred bucks>

lemko · August 2008

...for our Mopar fans:

fintail · August 2008

Corgi made a run of American cars, these are just the tip of the iceberg:

And Dinky had an even wider line of American iron - dozens of models, here are just a couple of their less common later Yank tanks:

All cars pictured are vintage to the time the real cars were new, and are ca. 1:43

fintail · August 2008

Those prices aren't too bad, for the detail involved. I remember when I first "discovered" 1:18 models in the mid-late 80s, and they were all pretty crude.

andys120 · August 2008

I remember when I first "discovered" 1:18 models in the mid-late 80s, and they were all pretty crude.

They sure were, the only saving grace of those early Buragos and Jouefs was that they could readily be disassembled for super detailing. I still have my Burago 1/18 300SL Roadster which had the right shape so I took it apart and added a bunch of underhood detail. I'll post a photo of it soon.

fintail · August 2008

I never had a Jouef, but I had a score of Bburagos, especially the 1920s-30s sportscars. Some of those weren't too bad, as the cars themselves are fairly simple. My first was for some odd reason a Rolls Camargue, which was not the best model ever made.

boomchek · August 2008

I had about 10-15 1:24 Bburagos from Italy. I only have a BMW 635 remaining, and I wish I wouldn't have destroyed the other cars.

I know which Rolls Camargue you were talking about fintail, becvause when my cousing visited me in Italy in the 80s, we bought him one as a gift, and some pieced broke off it as well. It was cream white in color, 1:18 scale, iirc.

lemko · August 2008

It's not a 1957 model, but a very nice 1959.

lemko · August 2008

It appears to be a 1961 Cadillac Series 62 four-door hardtop

fintail · August 2008

All of my Bburagos got destroyed save for a 1:18 Diablo I bought around 1991 or so. They were just too tempting to play with - especially the old time cars with their removable wheels. Lots of fun for the young car freak. I had some cool 1:24 ones too, I remember most a MB 500SEC rally car, a MB190E, a Porsche 959, and some kind of Fiat hatchback. All long gone today.

I think the hood ornament on my Camargue lasted about a day. I remember I saw it in a catalog and had to have that model, for the detailing. It didn't seem bad when I got it, but it is stone age today.

I remember my first non-Matchbox style car too. When I was 5 or 6 my dad let me choose a model car from a gift shop, I guess these would have been 1:24 cars. I chose a BMW sedan, as it had a very detailed interior, including the floor shift - I had a fixation on manual transmission cars with floor shift when I was young. I dont know who the maker was. I want to say the car was painted like a rally car too.

boomchek · August 2008

From wikipedia.

From what I can remember I had the following 1:24s:
Black Ford Mustang GT cop car (1985)
White BMW 635 (mid 80s) - still have it
I had the Porsche 959 too, I believe it was silver
Silver Rolls Royce Silver Shadow - still have it
Black Golf GTi (cheaper version of Bburago 1:24 scale)
Porsche 924 same as above
Austin Metro hatchback

and a few more I can't remember.

fintail · August 2008

I swear I have a mirror to the Camargue stored away with junk in my mom's attic.

Shame what happened to them...forced to compete with sweatshop labor, broken down, and then eaten alive by the competition. Globalization :sick:

lemko · August 2008

...at least for the time. I remember when I was 9 or 10 in the mid 1970s, I spotted some really nice diecast cars at a toy store in the mall called KIDS. My parents would've spelled it KID$ as their prices were quite expensive compare to the discount stores they frequented.

Anyway, they were about 1:43 scale, cost around $32 each, (in 1975 dollars) had jeweled headlights, (I thought they were diamonds to justify the high price) and were obviously made in West Germany as a police car had "Polizei" on the sides. Does anybody know the likely manufacturer of these diecasts? I never found out as when I asked my Dad if he could buy one for me, I instead got a profanity-laced lecture on microeconomics!

fintail · August 2008

I have no idea what those could have been. Brands like Gama, Schuco, and Siku come to mind, but they shouldn't have cost more than several dollars at that time. The only jeweled light cars that come to mind are the Matchbox-sized "Impy" line and I think a few Corgis had them. That's a serious amount of money for the time - in the 80s a 1:18 Bburago usually cost no more than $20.

fintail · August 2008

I went to Wilkinson's in Vancouver today - amazing selection of models (and books/magazines). I bought only one - HO scale fintail by Praline. They had the new 1:43 Minichamps 300SE fintail, but it is currently only made in white, and $40+ seemed too much for me. The proprietor was unfamiliar with any diecast models of a W210 E55. However, they had a small selection of vintage diecast, and I think they have a rare Matchbox variant that I don't have in my collection, and I think it might be quite underpriced. Of course I am away from my own collection and reference material, but I might go back tomorrow and see about it.

boomchek · August 2008

Glad you liked the place. When I become a multi- millionaire I'd buy everything they have in the store. They also have a brochure section in the back cause they have no space for it in the front.

fintail · August 2008

Yeah, he mentioned brochures...I actually already have those for my cars, not hard to find. I went back and looked at the Matchbox today...one of the rivets was broken, a big no-no when it comes to rare paint variants, so I passed. Price wasn't the biggest bargain either, maybe half of retail, given that the car is genuine.

I'd like to have that magazine library, I'm more impressed by that than modern models.

fintail · September 2008

Newest small fintail, a Praline HO scale model alongside some much smaller plastic fintails:

Toy, Model & Collectible Replica Cars

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