Skylines on a Sunday

What's better than a Skyline on a Sunday?

How about 68 of them?

The idea for this photoshoot came from LaLD member 64wheels, who posted a gigantic and epic group photoshoot of his favorite movie-themed diecast cars. If you don't know what LaLD is, first of all, where have you been? Please go and check them out over here. Great community, great people, and great toy cars. I post there quite often and if you're a diecast guy like me, I would highly recommend for you to join in as well. Nothing special is required for authorship; just ask and you will receive. As always, please keep it classy and professional.

Anyways, I tried to emulate that aforementioned photoshoot with this group of Nissan Skylines right here. Skylines are the bread and butter of any JDM fan's diecast collection. I've been able to acquire quite a few of them over the years and the will always be room for more. No, the R35 GT-R is technically not a Skyline, but it's equally as insane. The Vision Gran Turismo isn't either, but it's a glimpse of what the GT-R may morph into in a few years. Sixty-eight Skylines, most of them coming from Tomica and Hot Wheels, covering a variety of body styles, ranging from budget models to obsessively detailed pieces.

Please enjoy. I shall highlight a few of my favorites.

The R33 is my favorite generation.

The most detailed one.

The rare one.

The tall one.

But my favorite one? The Ultimate Opal Black R35 Spec-V, as shown in the top photo.

Great Hype, Great Expectations: Opening a Set of the Hot Wheels Car Culture Japan Historics

These might be the most anticipated Hot Wheels releases of the year. When you include such castings as the Datsun 510 Wagon, a couple of vintage Skylines, and then throw in a fan favorite like the 2000GT, you're bound to generate a ton of hype. And, OH! By the way, there's a new JDM casting in the mix as well: the Mazda RX-3. Wait, I  also forgot to mention the new four-spoke wheels with stretched tires! With such a stacked lineup, one can only imagine how hard it will be to find these on the pegs. Moreover, imagine how insanely difficult it will be for me to find them on the pegs here in Southern California!

Which is precisely why I pre-ordered a case of Japan Historics for myself. I've never done a pre-order on diecast before, which more or less tells you how badly I wanted these. I've been breaking a lot of rules lately, haven't I?

Doing so allowed me to secure two sets of the Japan Historics. One set to rip open, which you will be seeing here, and another set to stash away for trades.

Now, I put in my order about a month-and-a-half ago. The shipments from Mattel kept getting delayed. Collectors in other parts of the world were already seeing these on pegs and us folks here in the Land of the Free were left searching for any little information we could about the status of our orders. The more I waited, the less I cared about this set, to be honest. For all the businesses out there: that's why you don't keep people waiting. Set a deadline and deliver on it.

Regardless, these will fly off the pegs. The potential for resale is just too great to leave them behind. The Datsun 510 Wagon? Haven't seen a single iteration of that casting on the pegs, ever. The Skylines are few and far between. I dream of the days when, as a fledgling collector, I could walk into a store and easily find all the JDM goodness that I needed. Looks like I'll have to resort to doing pre-orders like this in the future.

Back to the Historics. Where, oh where, do we start? Let's go bottom to top, worst (if you can even call it that) to best. Here we go!

Oh hey, it's that new RX-3 casting!

Gee, for a model that everyone was looking forward to the most, I sure as hell haven't seen or heard anyone proclaiming this as the best model in the series. I hate to be the glass-half-empty kind of guy, but that's a failure in my book.

My goal as a photographer is to bring out the best of each model. Showcase the good features and hide the bad. Make ordinary cars magically look spectacular. It works most of the time. On this one, it doesn't; this RX-3 looks bad from all angles. I can pinpoint that to a couple of flaws with this casting.

Take a look at the huge gap between the front wheels and the front fenders. Then take a look at how high the body sits relative to the ground. Those are your problems right there. This car looks anything but mean and aggressive, which is what it should be.

I'm usually a fan of any model in purple. Sorry, but this one doesn't do it for me. Or is it simply a case of the competition being better?

Sitting proudly in 4th place...

The Kenmeri Skyline GT-R C110. And there's no shame in being 4th among this group of heavyweights.

The C110 is one of the best JDM castings that Hot Wheels has ever done. They did an amazing job capturing the muscular yet sleek lines of the car and putting details into the front and rear fascias. This one is badly in need of those rear light details that we saw in the First Edition release. However, that's not the reason why it finished 4th. I just don't particularly care for the police livery. On a classic Skyline? No thanks.

The livery is meant to pay homage to the iconic designs of the Japanese police cars. I get that. I have a few cars in my collection (from Tomica) that are in that style. Except Hot Wheels thought it would be cool to put their name on it and essentially make it a "generic" police livery. We saw it with the AE86 and it makes an appearance again here. Sorry, but no copycats allowed.

It looks flat-out silly with "POLICE" slapped on the doors. I'd rather have a genuine one, thank you very much.

Standing tall in 3rd place...

The Toyota 2000GT. What a fabulous color combo.

Prior to receiving these models in person, the 2000GT was my favorite of the bunch. That's a judgment I made solely based on photos from the web. Throwback colors and gold wheels are all you need to make a model shine. The yellow mainline 2000GT was my favorite iteration up to now. So why did this one finish 3rd in the end?

When I held this in my hand and gave it a good look, I then realized how plain it was. Absolutely nothing going on in the rear half of the car. The green two-tone print is a little spotty. This model would've looked nicer with decals stretching from the front all the way to the back. It also would've looked nicer with some printed taillights, which none of these models have. Nonetheless, I ain't complaining about having this one in my collection.

In 2nd place...

As they say, if you're not first, you're last. That's not the case here. This is a very, very good model. There just happens to be one that's better than it.

Look, I'm one of those who think the Datsun 510 Wagon is one of the most overrated castings ever. It's popular because collectors like to jump on the bandwagon the same way sports fan do with teams that win championships. Tell me how many collectors picked up the Datsun 510's back in the day. I don't know about you, but I know I did. Now look at where we are now.

But that shouldn't take away from how great this model is. Black just might be the best color for the 510 wagon. The K-Day exclusive was incredible, and this one-up's it with the premium treatment. The red and black color pairing makes Darth Vader wish he drove one of these back in the 60's instead of flying that TIE Fighter of his.

For the variation collectors: I've also heard there's a mesh grille variation out there. Both of the wagons I received were the smooth-grille kind. Let's just say that more detail is always better.

There can only be one winner.

Props to you if you saw this coming; the lead photo of this post hinted at it. Yes, oh yes. The Nissan Skyline GT-R C10, also known as the Hakosuka, also known as the "box Skyline".

Variation alert once again: You can find this model with or without the rollcage. Both of mine are with the rollcage. Thank goodness for that.

That realistic livery though. Is there another that's more befitting of the C10? Probably not. As tough as the competition is, this one is head and shoulders above the group. The clear standout.

Truck Yeah! Two From Greenlight's Country Roads Series 13

In diecast, there is such an emphasis on sports cars. They're flashy, they appeal to people of all ages, and they fly off the pegs. Everybody makes Mustangs, Camaros, Skylines, exotics, you name it. And I'm sure every collector has at least a few of them as well. I myself have at least a few dozen of each. However, not every diecast company makes the trucks, vans, and commuter cars that you see on the roads every day. That's where Greenlight comes in. They fill the niche for all the other cars that those other companies don't make. From tow trucks to trailers to vintage police cars, Greenlight has a little bit of everything, in addition to their already solid lineup of iconic muscle cars from the 60's and 70's.

That's without mentioning the kind of detail that they put into their models. They're truly one of the best in that department on this side of the continent. That's why I keep buying their products. For today, we have a pair of vintage trucks from the Country Roads series. One is a 1972 Chevrolet C10 with a topper in the back. The other is a 1976 Dodge B-100 Street Van. Both have unique graphics with colors that pop. Let's see which one tickles your fancy. Maybe both of them do!

First is the Dodge B-100 van. Let's just say that I know next to nothing about either of these models. I just know that they look good. That alone makes them worth having in my eyes. I love collecting what I call "normal" cars. This one certainly fits that category and that's why I was eager to snatch it off the pegs. These are the kinds of cars that would look great in any diorama. Not that I have one or anything, but it's something I may consider doing in the future.

As you can tell already, full details all around. The grille printing is a bit off; I don't think it should be curved like that. One thing that Greenlight really excels at are wheels, not just on this model but on everything they make. The wheels on this one fit the vehicle perfectly and are very era-appropriate.

The real gem of Series 13 is this Chevy C10. I'm shocked that I was even able to find this at all. I love the tribal-like graphics on the side, from the bright colors to the eagle (?) design. We get some beautifully molded wheels with white-lined tires. To top it all off, we get a removable truck topper. See what I did there?

The topper is a clear plastic piece with realistic printing. It simply slots into the bed of the truck, with no attachments of any kind. It will fall off if you turn the truck upside down.

It also seems that the hood is cast shut. It's too bad that these models no longer have the opening features they used to have. It's not a deal-breaker for me, and I can understand that companies need to find ways to cut production costs. As long as they keep the detail high and the quality acceptable, I will always come back for more.

So that concludes today's feature. Two more great models to add to my ever-growing fleet of realistic 1/64 scale cars. See ya next time!