One of my favourite regular CC posts is Tatra-san’s random monthly sightings where he shows us vehicles many of us have never heard of. With that in mind, let’s turn to some Japanese oddities, such as cars you may not be familiar with. No Skylines this time; even if they are my favourites, they’ve had their day. As always, there are more out there; these are just the ones that have taken my fancy.
Let’s start with a snack. Aoshima has a range of these ‘selling cars’ as they describe the series: not only food trucks but I’ve seen a game truck online and one with what looks like a boxing ring. But a food truck I can relate to. My adult daughter loves Takoyaki (battered octopus balls), so that’s the truck I built. Sakai-san sits ready in the kitchen: how will you have yours?
Let’s start with some old coupes. This was once the standard Japanese big car. This Nissan Cedric is from the early seventies 230 generation. Size-wise a bit smaller than a seventies Nova, notably narrower, and in export form (Australia, Europe) powered by a detuned 240Z motor. Thoroughly conventional, largely unexceptional.
Here’s its equivalent from Toyota. Odd styling for this generation, but still built on a full chassis. Both of these are old kits from the seventies, though they have been reissued by Doyusha.
Mitsubishi Galant GTO, from Nitto’s Metallic Series. Some Japanese companies (notably Aoshima) offer kits with pre-painted bodies. What Nitto did here was chrome-plate the entire body and then give it a light blue-tinted clear coat. Very much like the ‘Spectra-flame’ colours of the early Hot Wheels cars.
The first front-drive Mazda 323. Like many of the older Japanese kits, this Nitto kit is motorized, but here it drives the front wheels through neat little plastic universal joints. So nice to see they didn’t just adapt an existing chassis, but made the model drive the front wheels. They also made a Ford Laser variant of this kit, which I’ll build one day.
Isuzu Piazza -Impulse in the US. This is a rather primitive kit from around 1980, but it’s the only one out there. It’s a shame nobody’s ever done a better one.
Second-gen Honda Prelude with working four-wheel steering adapted to a very inaccurate chassis.
Nissan Cefiro, another medium-sized six. This is a platform mate for the Skylines I’m not showing – I had to sneak one in somehow!
A first-gen Honda CRV, all ready for the holidays.
This Subaru Sambar AWD kei van came with even more holiday gear.
Mitsubishi’s little 4WD, the Pajero Mini VR-II.
Isuzu Vehicross. Outrageous styling for the time, but it looks relatively tame and tasteful now.
Suzuki Vitara. We’d had little Suzuki off-roaders on sale here since the seventies, and I remember thinking these ones were rather adventurously styled.
Mitsubishi Delica. Old-style passenger van with windows, seats, full of luxury gear and 4WD, but based on a mundane L300 delivery van.
Nissan Elgrand. Similar size and proportions, but unitary rather than built on a truck chassis, still RWD with V6 and IRS. No commercial versions of this one.
Honda SM-X Lowdown. Yes, that’s what they called it. Kind of a small people-mover, probably for small people.
And three little kei cars vehicles. What style of engineering do you want?
Honda’s N360. Transverse twin driving the front wheels.
Subaru’s odd little fifties hangover, engineered like a Japanese Fiat 500.
Trust Mazda, with a K360, to build a mid-engined three-wheeler with a pickup bed!
I think we’d better call it quits for now. There’s plenty more to see, though. I’ve held off on Nissan Z-cars, Celicas, Evos and WRXs, Civics, off-roaders, and most of the tuners. They’d be another six posts in themselves, at least.
Where will we go next? Somewhere we haven’t been before. Wait and see…
Thank you Fantastic ! I wish the low down was in my driveway .
Thanks Gregory. You’re not the only one!
Another excellent selection from our boy wonder from Down Under! That Honda “Lowdown” is something else. I don’t think I’ve seen one of those yet. It looks like a kei (especially in miniature), but it has a 2 litre engine. Basically a rebodied Stepwagon, but less practical. Weird. Must keep an eye out for these…
Thanks. I often find myself caught out by the size of some of these. The S-MX Lowdown does give the impression of a much smaller vehicle. It’s only when you sit it beside others of the same scale that its true size becomes apparent. And yes, there is a kit of the related Stepwagon too, but it’s done by a different manufacturer.
I’m often tempted by the unusual, the things that could only be Japanese. There are other keis, both newer and classic, available beside the ones I showed here. One of these days I’ll do a Suzuki Alto Works, or a Daihatsu Mira Vivian. Or a Suzuki Wagon R, or a Cervo. Or a Subaru Sambar fire truck!
For Mazda, the three-wheeled trucks came first (their first vehicles were all three-wheeled trucks). From tiny to big. The well-done Mazda Kei-cars came later. Then they went off the budget-economy-workhorse rails and got into the rotary engine thing.
Yes, basically an enclosed version of the earlier motorized tricycle with a pickup bed, but still on sale at the time of the other two keis I showed. Their first kei car was the rear-engined Carol in 1962; while I have seen a model of one of these on a Japanese site, it’s in a smaller scale. A friend had a 1964 Mazda 800. A very adventurous company, Mazda.
Takoyaki. I thought they might actually be genuine octopus balls. 🙂
My then-teenage son and I once ordered Rocky Mt. oysters (bull testicles) at a saloon in Silverton, CO. A bit too salty for my taste. He barely touched them but it gave him some bragging rights.
Reminds one of the gourmand who travels all the way to the acclaimed restaurant adjoining the well-known bullring in central Spain, famous for its delicious version of the same meal you ordered in CO.
After much anticipation, the meal is delivered under a silver cover, which is duly removed with a dramatic swoop. To our man’s consternation, however, sitting there are two tiny oval shapes the size of snails.
“Waiter!”, says he, “What’s THIS?”
Came the reply: “I’m sorry sir, but the bull doesn’t always lose.”
Well, perhaps I should have said balls of octopus meat. 🙂 I have had other friends online make the same joke before.
Incidentally, we had some at a Japanese restaurant a few days ago; they’re an inexpensive side dish. My daughter always has takoyaki, to the point where the waitress taking the order always smiles and says “And takoyaki?”.
Usual mastery, Mr W. Marvellous as ever, especially that sharp Honda N.
That fairly nondescript Galant GTO from about the time of my ’70’s childness has an indefinably strange effect on me: that shimmery colour evokes a raft of memories I can no longer quite reach. Christmas decorations, metallic toys and bits and bobs of kidhood, stage-stuff of magic for the littlies? None of them will quite show themselves, and the effect is ghostly, a visual equivalent of the manner in which a smell can invoke the long-past, without telling you quite why. A most peculiar, vague sensation of being very young indeed.
I wonder, was that chromey-effect used much on such cars (and toys) then?
The Airfix 007 Aston Martin kit had chromed parts in the ’60s and Husky/Corgi did do some of their cars totally chrome plated. That’s probably around the time plated plastic replaced the lovely, but prone to breaking, glass Christmas tree decorations.
That Honda N is a new kit from Hasegawa, the rising star among Japanese kit makers. It is amazingly accurate, and really gives the feel of the real thing, which I remember from my teen years. This is the NII 360 we got here in Australia; they also do the earlier NI and later NIII, as well as a racing version of the NI. Yes, really…
About that Galant GTO, there was indeed a fad back then for plating whole toys, as Bernard mentions. To which I remember a Matchbox catalog one year had pen holders adorned with a ‘plated’ version of one of their Models of Yesteryear in gold or silver – which instantly negated the play value.
And we still have some of those glass tree decorations from the early sixties, though we’ve retired them while the grandkids are little. Extremely sharp when they break.
A mix of once familiar and some off-beat models there, Peter. Nice! The Cedric is quite restrained for a Japanese ’70s model; almost look like a Chrysler 180 coupe. Elgrands do turn up every now and then as ‘grey’ imports.
Thanks Bernard.
Yes, there is an element of Chrysler 180 about the Cedric’s front, now that you mention it, but the rear view continues the rounded, curvy theme where the 180 becomes more angular.
Though not officially sold here, Elgrands are reasonably common. I was inspired to build the Elgrand after seeing one in my town; how can you not like a vehicle badged ‘Highway Star’?
Highway Star is a badge seen on various Nissan vans, it seems to denote the top of the range edition a friends has an Elgrande Highway Star very nicely appointed inside and has the 3.5 Renault/Skyline engine its no slug.
Thanks for the eye-candy, and for a bit of enlightenment, Mr. W. Love all of the cars, esp. the Mazda three-wheeler (great colors!) and the CRV (immaculate!).
But my runaway fave is the Delica Van. And that’s where you educated me — never knew it was derived from the L300 delivery (which I thought was a box truck)
Thanks F-85! I never can tell what will appeal to people.
The Mazda on the box was pink and white, but the instructions showed other colours available, so I mixed up a batch of paint to match. From memory the other option was grey and white.
I patterned the Delica after one owned by a friend some years back. With six (or is it seven?) children, he needed something like this, and being a fan of off-roading, made sure to get the AWD model. I’ve heard they’re surprisingly capable off-road. There have been several generations of Delica/L300, increasingly diverging from their commercial origins; this is the 1994-2006 generation. The ’86-’94 is also available in kit form.
There are several of those Delicas rolling around my town, just like your models, except green.
I really like that K360 in the last picture. Love that color and they (including the Subaru in the previous picture) look super detailed.
I’m going to have to try that takoyaki. I’m hungry now.
Thanks Jeff. Delicas are grey imports here too, and I’ve seen them in a variety of colours and trim levels. Some of the fancy ones are really over the top.
Detail varies from kit to kit. The KA models K360 is amazing to the point of having separate scale tie-down hooks along the sides of the bed. Yes, about 2x2mm, and good luck cutting them off the parts frame without breaking. I replaced mine with brass wire cut slightly larger, and needed some more of that good luck installing them – drop part, scrabble around on floor, see shiny part, pick up part, try to orientate it without dropping it again before the epoxy sets…..
The Subaru’s body detail is pretty good, but the underbody isn’t quite up to Hasegawa’s current standards: rear axles moulded to the chassis, suspension suggested rather then detailed. But its been around for a while.
These are all *so cool*. I know I’ve mentioned this on a other post at some point, but “Cedric” as a model name. To me, it’s like, “Let’s pick a person’s name in English from like 100 years ago and attach it to a car.”. Nothing’s wrong with “Cedric”, but why not also “Ford Flannery” or “Toyota Teasdale”?
I still have a mad car-crush on the Isuzu Piazza / Impulse and now feel like I need to search for a die cast model of one.
Excellent assortment as always, Peter!
Hi Joseph. Yeah, Cedric always seemed a bit odd to me too. Very English, and very Edwardian, like Alfred, or Archibald, or Wilfrid, or Edwin, or Francis, or Ernest, just to rummage around in my family tree from back then. I guess we can be thankful Datsun didn’t use those names for other models. After the early sixties models, the name morphed into the Datsun Super Six and Personal Six, for the Aussie market at least, then became the rather anodyne 240/260/280/300C.
As I was reviewing this on screeen I thought of other cars I could have included in this bunch. Ah well, there’s always next time!
Honestly, Peter, I continue to be amazed at the breadth and variety of your models. Some of them are so precise that in the right setting, they could almost be mistaken for real cars! Very enjoyable way to spend a cool, rainy morning! 🙂
Thank you, Moparman.
The realism often depends on the accuracy of the kit I start with. I have always tried to make the model as realistic as my skills permit, right from the very start. Some of the older seventies Japanese kits can be rather, shall we say, approximate in their shapes. That can be a challenge, but I would rather detail an already good kit than correct a bad kit these days. And they don’t all turn out this good; I can think of several kits I have finished but never photographed. And some I have photographed but will probably never show. And one that was so dreadful I gave it away free online to the most far-away person who wanted it; it ended up in Sweden.
There are several guys online who build amazing dioramas to display their cars. Buildings, workshops, outdoor settings. Every now and then one in particular has a good-natured dig at me that I should do one, but I always seem to have other projects happening. If it’s not other models, it’s the garden getting away from me, or a story that has a deadline, or…..
I’ll have some Mopars for you next time around.
Another wonderful assortment, thank you Peter – I wish I had a tiny bit of the patience and skill you possess! Is that Mazda 323 wearing Laser wheels? Loving the Cefiro, Cedric and Crown coupe 🙂
Thank you, Scott. I never thought about the wheels on the 323. Here’s a better shot. Interestingly, the Laser kit, supposedly a Turbo, comes with the wheels normally found on the Ghia versions. Strange.
(Oh, and I just bought a C33 Laurel yesterday)
Mmm, interesting, yes those wheels were on Lasers in NZ and the Mk III Escort XR3 in the UK, as well as the Carla Zampatti Laser in Australia. Until recently I had a beautiful C33 Laurel Medalist model kit (complete with optional model TV and car phone!) which I bought in the 1990s. I never assembled it (not enough skill to do it justice) and gave it away to a guest staying here at our B&B recently – unlike most of our guests who are middle-aged middle-class folks driving late model dross, this young man and his partner turned up in a very noisy highly modified C33. He’d done all the work himself and it looked and sounded so good, I felt compelled to gift him my C33 kit. So I look forward to enjoying a C33 model vicariously though you! 😀