Kyosho Release #39 - Ferrari Series 7

The next series of Kyosho will be released on December 22, 2009, a few days before Christmas. Every Christmas, I attend midnight mass at church and sing gosphels. This year will be different because I will be busy opening carton boxes and checking contents of model cars.

I have put in purchase order in Japan but it is the beginning of my challenges. Due to the qc issues in the previous series, I elect not to presale the Ferrari cars but sell them only after the physical items are inspected. However, Ferrari diecasts are unassembled in brand new condition, I don't have a bullet-proof plan to qc all of them. In the past, I made sure the chassis matched the inscription on the base and the interior fitted on the chassis. Now, buyers expect rigourous inspection from their sellers and it is my primary concern. What if the driver seats are too big or small to fit the holes? What if the unassembled set is consisted of all front/rear wheels? Do I assemble all of them for the sake of inspection? This process consumes a lot of manpower and man hours, my helpers may not willing to work overtime in Holiday Season. Kyosho, Kyosho, you give me a real challenge to solve in November.

Reveal the reason of low quality of British Car 2

I had a chat with my buddy on the phone and he said there is a reason behind the poor quality of this series. Kyosho moved the factories to another location in Mainland China to cut cost. The factories have never produced any Kyosho diecast models before and British Car 2 is the first series the workers assemble in production lines. The QC workers are not very well-trained; they could not identify the defective cars and take them out. Therefore, we see so many damaged cars being sold in ebay.

He speculated the quality of the diecast models will remain terrible for at least one year and warned me to make small order for future releases.

I guess I will not import too many box sets of BMW Series 2.

Kyosho British Car 2 series fall off heaven

I was extremely excited when British Car 2 arrived to my place last week. However, excitement quickly turned into rage, disappointment and shock due to poor quality of diecast models.
Around 10% of the models are defective, I leave them in my personal scrap heap, wonder how they pass the quality control of Kyosho factories and get into my own two hands. Some of them are famous cars such as McLaren F1 GTR 1995 Silver, McLaren F1 Green, Jaguar XJR9 (Test Car and no. 1) and DBR9 Racing Green (yellow face). They once have potential value, now worth nothing in my eyes. I must perform thorough checking before shipping british car to customers; having the correct card, correct description on the base, no loose parts and no paint chip. I feel like a better person knowing the other parties receive my items with decent quality.

Kyosho British Car Series 2

According to the website of Kyosho, British Car Series 2 will be released on September 8. This series will have 30 cars and the cream of the crop are certainly the McLaren F1 cars. I don't know anything about TVR but Tuscan S and Sagaris are not winning me over. I will collect 24 cars and find someone to take TVR from me.

1/64 CMS Toyota MR2 222D Set A & B

1/64 CMS Toyota MR2 222D version B (White & CMS version).

1/64 CMS Toyota MR2 222D version A (White & Black version).

1/64 Porsche 911 Carrera RS Red and Blue stripe

Porsche 911 Carrera RS Red Stripe and 911 Carrera RS Blue Stripe - two of the rare model cars produced by Kyosho today.
The white paints are beautifully applied on the car body and the color of the rim complements the stripe brilliently. The blue stripe 911 Carrera RS has blue rim while the counterpart has red rim. The subtly really make them standout from the rest of the memebers in the same collection. The inscription "Carrera" on the stripe is very well done; if the scription is not there, I honestly think the car would not have such a great appeal on me. They will simply be white cars with solid red line and blue line respectively.

1/64 Alfa Romeo

I just won 30 pieces of Alfa Romeo Series 1 from Japan today, I finally can see 8C Competizione, SZ Red and 155 V6 T1 in person.

Too bad Giulia Sprint GTA 1300 Junior is not part of this set, otherwise, it is like winning a jackpot.

This series has some old cars and they are all very good looking. Giulia T1, 1750 Spider Veloce and Giulia Sprint 1600 GTA are good collection.

Red and yellow SZ look very sharp when they are complemented with black roof.

I also want to place 8C Competizione and red SLR McLaren side by side for comparison to see which one stands out. Both are racing cars that look cool in real thing and not too shabby in small scale.

Lamborghini 1 Follwup

Porsche 1 Followup

BMW Followup

They are here!!! They are much more beautiful than my wildest imagination. Totally speechless.
My favorite is M1 White and this is one of the best white Kyosho model car I have ever seen.
I will enjoy their presence for as long as I can until they are out of my possession.

Kyosho Lamborghini 1

I would like to introduce my latest Kyosho acquistion to this day - 20 pieces of 1/64 Kyosho Lamborghini 1. This is so surreal to me because they are so rare in ebay and Hong Kong. When I could not find any in my trip to Japan last year, I was disappointed but understanable because the series was released many years ago.

This is not a complete set but the collection is still impressive: (How many people can say they have all 24 pieces?)

miura SV orange

miura SV green

urraco purple

urraco red

countach LP400 yellow

countach LP400 orange

jota svr black

jota svr red

countach LP5000S red

countach LP5000S black

countach LP5000S white

diablo red

diablo white

diablo black

diablo gtr white

diablo gtr yellow

diablo gtr orange

murcielago orange

murcielago green

murcielago yellow

Diablo GTR (all three colors) and Uraco purple are mine but the others are for sale.

P.S. I don't know who reads my blog but I need some inputs here. In a perfect world, what kind of Kysoho or CMS model car you would like to have, please write to me and let me know. If a particular series has garnered a lot of supporters, I do my best to get it from Japan.

Happy Easter - find gems in Japan

Happy Easter, everybody.

I have a fantastic Easter weekend in terms of finding affordable 1/64 diecast models in Japan.

Yesterday, I won a full set of BMW (26 pcs), a full set of Lamborghini II (30 pcs), 27 pieces of Porsche I (without Carrera RS Red and Carrera RS blue) and CMS Colin McRae Memorial I (8 pcs).

One can say I had a busy Saturday night watching four auctions ending around the same time. I had to regularly jump from page to page to check I was the top bidder. I almost lost the BMW auction but I outbade another bidder at the last minute, so everything was rosy at the end.

I just wait three weeks for them to ship to Hong Kong, examine their quality and count items.

I was cheated in my Mercedes Benz set because the other party did not sell Sauber C9 #61 and #62 as promised but offered Sauber C9 #63 and 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II Green to me instead.

If the transaction goes smoothly, I will post pictures of BMW in my blog in early May. I hope I do not drool on 3.5CSL #59 and #25 when they are on my palms.

1/64 Kyosho Mercedes Benz

I acquired 23 pieces of 1/64 Kyosho Mercedes Benz yesterday. The best pieces are SLR McLaren Black, Red and Silver. The paint job is well done and the detail is amazing.

My favourites of this series are CLK-GTR no. 10 Warsteiner and CLK-GTR no. 11 Privat and they will be in my personal collection.

When I examined the pieces, I made sure the ornament on the hood is intact. In my opinion, it is one of the features in the series; the ornament is so delicate yet factories was able to weld it on the edge of the hood. The job must demand skill, experience and accurancy.

The afterthought of CMS Subaru STI Impreza Collection

I imported a full set 1/64 CMS Subaru Impreza STI Collection from Japan yesterday and it is a long story. When I first read about this collection in a Japan online shop, I gave a loud groan and hit my head on my desk. Subaru again? No Porsche, no Honda? Did CMS read my blog entry?I told myself, "Give CMS the benefit of the doubt, the photographs of the STI Impreza could be beautiful."

After seeing the first 14 pictures, I groaned again because they are nice but not special. I was thinking to myself, "14 down and 2 to go; then I can kiss this set goodbye.". Then, CMS threw me a curveball. The 15th and 16th model cars in the collection are STI Impreza GRB Blue Mica and GRB Pearl Black, nice change and two bright spots in the collection.

I ordered a set because of the GRB and I was ready to eat the other 14 model cars for dinner if they have no takers. The GRB model cars do not disappoint, they are excellent work: brilliant metallic paint and fine interior details.

This experience tells me one thing: CMS throws in few good cars with average ones and expects vendors to pay for them. The good cars sell for good price but we are stuck with the bad ones.

CMS employs the same practice with the new Subaru WRC set (June, 2009). Of the 15 cars, at least 12 are old cars along with Impreza WRC 2007 Mexico and Impreza WRC 2008 Japan.

This is a scary trend and I pray it will stop someday.

Kyosho Porsche ver. 3 Part 2

I got my Kyosho Porsche ver. 3 full set (30 pieces) on Tuesday evening. Technically, it is not a full set because the secret car, 911 GT3 RS Silver, is not there. For consolation, the quality of 911 GT3 RS Orange, Green and Black is so good that I would not trade any of them for the secret car. Well, I just have to keep my eye on the secret car in Japan and get it for a fair price.

The mistery of 911 Turbo is also revealed; the two 911 Turbo series in ver. 3 are 911 Turbo (964) and 911 Turbo (996) respectively. My favourite 911 Turbo (964) is the metaillic red one, cannot get my eye off it; the color and the shine complement each other incredibly well.



I also find 356A Speedster Ivory and 911R Ivory a pleasant surprise. Thank goodness, Kyosho does not paint 356A Speedster and 911R with the same white color of 911SC. I am not fond of 911SC white because it looks dirty even when it is brand new.

In overall, the car choices are excellent, we have classic cars (356A Speedster and 914), contemporary cars (911 Turbo (996) and Cayman S) and race cars (911 GT1 and 936). On the scale of 1 to 10, this is a perfect 10.

1/64 CMS Special Dealership Set

I don't know if there are Japanese diecast companies other than CMS Corporation that sell 1/64 special dealership sets. I have to say CMS have done an excellent job with them as the model cars are in fine detail with realistic sponsership logos and stickers. So far, CMS have manufactured five special dealership sets; three Suzuki SX4, one Mitsubishi set and one Subaru. In my opinion, the last Suzuki SX4 set is close to perfect but it can change with Nissan set that is due to release in March.

The set is comprised of Nissan Datsun Violet and 200SX and I am particularly intrigued by the 200SX piece. It is because the new 200SX has different paint than the counterpart in SS.14 and this one actually looks cooler. On the other hand, the new Datsun Violet bears strong resemblance to the counterpart in Nissan series. This will be the last complain you hear from me because I am glad that the company finally makes new Nissan diecasts since fall 2007, the time Nissan series was out in the market.

Nissan Set (Violet and 200SX)

I do not understand why CMS keeps producing Subaru, Citreon and Lancia because they are very saturated in the market and I am actually bored with them. I pray CMS will continuously delivery sexy diecasts to their fans who have been following them for years.

CMS, if you can hear me, let make Porshe rally cars or Honda rally cars.

Porsche Series 3 will be released in Feb 17, 2009.

I am so excited.
Last month, I found out that Kyosho will release Porsche Series 3 in February 17. This series is a definite upgrade of Sport USA collection and F1-McLaren collection. Of the 30 cars, my favorites are 911 GT3 RS and 936, especially 936. Two of the three 936 cars are race cars with Martini printed on car body; the third one is test car in pure white. I am surprised to see the re-release of 911 Turbo in this series, wonder what the manufacture year of this real car was. When they are out in the market, I do not think I can keep my eyes off them. Everything is cool with the series but I am not cool with the price due to high Japanese Yen exchange rate.