Oh oh, another candidate for my high end 1/64 car of the year. It has to compete with the GM Futurliner...

Please enjoy these pictures with me... :notworthy :notworthy

http://www.tinytoycars.com/large_images/AA20903A11.jpg

http://www.tinytoycars.com/large_images/AA20903A12.jpg

http://www.tinytoycars.com/large_images/bugbox.jpg
Also the packaging is excellent!!!

Another color:

http://www.tinytoycars.com/large_images/AA20902A11.jpg

My oh my, that is a beauty.

the 1:18 is, very very VERY nice....... :dude: :hat: :hat: :hat:

but it cost alot.....

This 1/64 is much more affordable... :thumbsup:

I wish Norev, CM, AA, and Kyosho would open up their cars.... The body castings are nice, and the subjects *demand* (or beg) openings to reveal engine detail... it is beyond me why they scimp on these 'details'... even though I own all of these, they come close in quality/engineering of the HW Collectibles or Ertl American Muscle series or the new Shelby Collectibles, but they are NOT even close when it comes to detail....

That is sweet

Wow...another car that looks more 1/43 or larger than 1/64 (at least in pictures... :p ) Beautiful! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I wish Norev, CM, AA, and Kyosho would open up their cars.... The body castings are nice, and the subjects *demand* (or beg) openings to reveal engine detail... it is beyond me why they scimp on these 'details'... even though I own all of these, they come close in quality/engineering of the HW Collectibles or Ertl American Muscle series or the new Shelby Collectibles, but they are NOT even close when it comes to detail....

I don't have any of the HW Collectibles or Ertl Amercian Muscle to do the judgement... All I know from HW is they make very awkward cars (regular series) and Erlt is 'long gone'...

Henri,

I have four general criteria when it comes to 1/64 diecast:
1) quality - this refers to fit and finish, paint job, legend/silkscreening, .
2) detail - this refers to the opening panels and engine detail (opening doors and trunks also considered), separate components for undercarriage, painted interior details, rubber wheels.
3) interpretation of scale - this refers to the stance (too many cars have too wide of tires), tire width relative to the real car, gaps between wheel well and outer tire periphery (should be small if it is to look realistic), and overall realism relative to the real car.
4) subject matter - I rather see a sports car (Ferrari, Lambo, Shelby, Cobra, race cars, etc), show car (one off cars built to compete in shows, usually ridiculous but fun), and cool street cars (like the Viper, classic American muscle cars, etc) over a boring Ford Escort, Opel, or Citroen 3CV....
--
*Hot Wheels*
HW makes a lot of children's cars, which are no good for the collector other than the 'numismatic' value - the fact that some are rare. HW did make some excellent collectibles with opening panels (Legends, Cool Collectibles), *excellent* quality, original subject matter (although they did overdue the 57 Chevys and 32 Fords)... a bit pricier than the others but *drammatically* better than anything european or asian in quality and detail for 1/64.
--
*Ertl*
Ertl, now defunct, did some excellent detailed cars.... I was really disappointed when they stopped the 1/64 American Muscle series.. the *best* I had ever seen given the price. The quality was decent, nothing spectacular (the fit and finish was a bit irregular), but the detail was quite excellent considering their very reasonable price (the detail included separate undercarriage components, opening engine hood and trunk). The high point of these cars in my opinion, was the excellent interpretation of scale (perfect proportions, properly sized wheels, correct stance, etc) - perhaps better than the collectible HWs. Again, *drammatically* better than anything european or asian in quality and detail for 1/64.
--
*Shelby Collectibles*
The newer Shelby Collectibles are also excellent in all general areas, decent quality (a shade below HW), excellent detail (second to none!), excellent scale, and cool subject matter (though some would say over done).
--
*Others*
Green Lights are getting better (very good quality, respectable detail, so-so scale, cool but overdone subject)... still better than most Euro/Asian castings in 1/64.

Johnny Lightning are completely irregular... some crs are so ridiculously poor in every resepct I have no clue how they got approved, yet others were really nice, almost as good as HW. Quality OK, Detail respectable, scale hit and miss, but their strong point was that besides doing the cool but tired subjects, they also did things that no one else did.

Muscle Machine did some really original castings, evidenced by the fact that everyone does these caricature/exaggerted subjects now. There quality respectable, detail was decent (except for the Chevy Drag cars that were superb with opening doors and removable engine hoods!), and the scale was OK. Very original...

Jada/Maisto/1BaddRide have cool but somewhat overdone subjects, really nice finishes but..... no opening panels.
--
*Kyosho*
Great subjects, but the quality is average on the earlier castings (drammatically improved with the Ferrari 3 set), no openings and poor undercarriage detail. The newer castings have very good quality, decent scale interpretation.... but when I place the Kyosho 250GT next to the HW, the Kyosho is blown away!!!

*CM*
identical to Kyosho, although I would say their quality is more consistent, and comparable to the latter Kyosho stuff, very good scale interpretation. Cool subjects, but a bit too identical to Kyosho. The only cars with any openings is a single casting: the Countach LP4x series (OK engine detail, but not that great with a lot of room for improvement).

*Auto Art*
very nice quality, excellent scale interpretation, but NO detail.... if they would open up their cars, then they would be very strong, especially in their later releases.
--

In summary Henri, you are missing out if you do not go to ebaY and buy your self some of the following:
1) HW Legends (I recommend the Snake and Mongoose funny cars and the Ferrari set),
2) the Ertl AM cars (I recommend the Dodge Charger and of course, the Mustang!).
3) If you are Lucky, get yourself the Muscle Machine Chevy Dragsters (the red and black Chevy 57s are hard to beat!)
4) Any Shelby Collectible.

Henri,

I forgot one more superb 1/64 casting: GMP motorsports. They specialize in larger scale items, therefore they only make as single 1/64 car, namely a Corvette... but it has it all... opening hood with terrific detail, opening doors:

http://cgi.ebay.com/GMP-Diecast-1-64-Corvette-C5-R-Volvo-Transporter-Hauler_W0QQitemZ260116372506QQihZ016QQcategoryZ223 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Lastly, there are some other Japanese castings, like the Tomikas and the Hots, nice quality and scale, but no openings...

Hi Sheldon,

Thanks for your reply, very good read!!!

To go to your last reply first: I have both the C5R's by GMP, no 3 and no 4.
I'm a huge Corvette fan and till recently only collected Corvettes in 1/64 scale.

Regarding your quality measurements:
If I would have put together your list, I would have substituted 'detail' with 'features'. Although I am absolutely nuts about opening features (hence my love for Lone Star Impy's), most of the time these do interfere with other 'quality' issues like overall appearance, as in this scale, working with metal, it is hard to have a really good fitting hood that is not too thick, or has HUGE hinges.
Mostly I prefer to have no opening hood at all if that will improve the overall appearance of the car. Same goes for opening doors. Most of the time these are only poor executions with bad finish and huge gaps around the doors. There are exceptions to this 'general rule', but I think you will get my point.

But that doesn't mean I cannot be surprised in the (near) future with excellent executed opening features!!!

As far as getting cars from your reference list: As said, my main focus is Corvettes in 1/64 and since a few years old, very old Majorettes and old Impy's. If I do not focus, I will become my own best customer...

Muscle Machines: I have their '91 Corvette dragster, it is a work of art!!!
HW Legends: I have to check if I have any Corvettes from that series
Shelby Collectible: we're awaiting these in the Netherlands...

Biantes are another nice brand. No opening doors or hoods but excellent undercarriage detail. I wish they were a little cheaper to get here.

Well, I hope you don't mind my "2 cents" on the subject... :p

Lately, I really like the "solid" feel of cars. At the moment, for me, Kyosho models seem to fit this best. It is really hard to describe it, it's a combination of stance, right proportions, careful details etc. I found out, that wheels are REALLY important for great presentation too (JL wheels are too wide and generic, CM's would look much better with some black wash).

I prefer lights made from transparent plastic (Kyosho, CM's) than only painted silver (JL, older HW collectibles).

How the model is presented is also important. What I like at Kyosho and CM's is that the cars are on plastic stands, with the name of the car written on the stand. In my opinion, the displayed cars look much better this way than without stands. In this case, detailed undercarriage is not that important.

It's too bad that the blister at Kyosho is plastic and not very well designed. I think the best for the presentation were the acrylic cases that came with the Black Box line from HotWheels.

Newer HW collectibles packaging (tire-like) is also toooo big for display and the shipping costs also increase with the size and weight of the packaging. :)

Thank you Sheldon for mentioning some other brands. I'll take a look, maybe I'll find something to compete with Kyosho. :p Hope this wasn't too long and too boring... :tongue:

Hope this wasn't too long and too boring... :tongue:
Not at all! I really appreciate to read all the thougths about this subject!!! I hope more will join and share theirs! :thumbsup:

Hey Henri, any word on when the AutoArt 1/64 Mustang, Ford GT and New Age Imprezza WRX 2003 are due out?

http://www.autoartmodels.com/images/photo/1_64/20301.jpg

http://www.autoartmodels.com/images/photo/1_64/20352.jpg

http://www.autoartmodels.com/images/photo/1_64/20601.jpg

I have been waiting for those models for years now!!!

I personally think AutoArt does the best overall job at realism. The 1/64 models may not have all the features of the larger scale AutoArt models, but dollar for dollar they rule over any HW I have ever seen. Plus they have a lot of the European and Japanese cars that I like.

Biante is related to AutoArt (via the holding Gateway)

About the new AutoArts: It is a long, long, loooonnnggg wait... The Bugatti and Shelby also were announced ages ago...
I think they are too successful in the other scales and for their dealer specials...

Hi again,

1) Biantes are a bit of a disappointment, as are the Hot Works/High Speed (aren't these 'Hots' also part of the Gateway group?), I expected a lot from them and found their subjects pretty plain, and though nice quality, sadly *no* detail/features (except a poor decision to have steerable front wheels on the Hot Works - go figure why they gave this feature more importance than an opening hood.).

2) Henri, If you have the pair of 1/64 C5s from GMP, what do you think? Aren't they much better than anything from Asia/Europe, especially in terms of "features" as you put it?

The Ertl's AM series were more or less similar, but only opening trunk and hood.

3) Henri, obviously, if an opening is poorly done, it is not worth it. Specifically, there are some Tomicas, Siku (ironicaly one you sold me), and Matchbox car with opening doors but..... poorly done with gaps as big as the Grand Canyon (almost)!

Note that the doors on the Muscle Machines and GMPs are excellent, and the doors on the Shelby's are also excellent and as good as can be given the scale.

4) HW Cool Collectibles had several Corvette castings. The very first six cars of the Cool Collectibles line had a C2 Vette with nice detail and quality, with an opening hood. The only problem with it is that it was the only one of the six initial cars in this line with awful plastic wheels.... luckily, this casting was reissued under the 'Kalifornia Kustoms' line (same as Cool Collectibles, just renamed) where the wheels were indeed replaced with much improved rubber ones.

Just check ebaY and you will see them.

5) Check out the japanese site for Hobby Link Japan (http://www.hlj.com). You have to dig, but you will see a lot of the Kyosho/CMs/Hot Works/High Speed/Tamiya/Tomika/Takara Tomy/.

By the way, I bought the Takara/Tomy Nissans that were all plastic, 1/64 cars with removable bodies. Excellent detail, but being plastic it is much easier to be precise. I had a hard time finding a link to post here.

6) Some of the Tamiya 1/64 JCGT cars were resold in the US by Muscle Machines, but these castings also exhibit strange corporate decision making when you have nice overall quality/detail, open up the doors, but fail to open the hoods, especially on cars who's engines would otherwise be interesting?... what were these guys thinking? Strange priorities...

I have to get at least one of these Veyrons.

Hey all,
Love the discussion-
Henri & Superbird I agree with your points of view
But that's just it, they are points of view.
And that's what makes these discussions interesting as long as we are respectful of each others opinions.
Hope more people add to this constructive thread.
I really enjoy some of the lesser known brands,
but am a Johnny lightning fan fer sure.I'm an avid 1:64 scale customizer
and have a great time doing base &wheel swaps.
Aswell as much more involved customs
They are not so much customs as they are "radically changed to reproduce realism"
All to create better realism

(sorry - don't know how to fix this!)
and an exercise in creativity as well.

I find this brand lends itself to MY brand of customizing.
But alas, my collection is much more diverse & eclectic than all of that.
I like most any brand produce before '72 or so.
But JL is one of the few brands that dare to produce FUL-SIZE US autos
with even the occasional 4-dr!
Thanks for indulging me, -Dave-