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.
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