It’s coming along nicely: Matchbox unveils the 1971 Nissan Skyline EP Prototype on Instagram…

Well will you look at that?

This Matchbox team loves to share, and they just dropped a bomb yesterday.  And from what they are hinting, this isn’t the only one this week.

Yesterday the team received the first EP of the upcoming ’71 Nissan Skyline 2000GT-X, and in fashion typical of this team, threw it up on Instagram right away.  I have been staring at it for quite awhile now, and am very happy with what I see.  Hopefully you are too.

If you remember, we previewed a 3D mockup of the Skyline last September after the Matchbox team debuted it at JCCS.  While the response was 99% positive, there were a couple of concerns some of you expressed.  The cool thing?  Matchbox addressed them.

First off, the window.  Many of you noticed it sloped up a little too quickly around the C pillar.

Looking at the actual Skyline, the window line is straight until the C pillar, and then it curves up a bit.    You guys noticed, the message was received, and the changes made.  Like in the case of the wheels on the Miata, this team does pay attention, and where changes can be made, they make them.

The other concern, at least for me?  The fender mirrors.  The 3D prints can sometime be more detailed than the actual model, and while the mirrors look great on the mockup, I was concerned that they would end up as blobs on the actual model.  Guess what?  No blobs:

While it is pretty obvious the mirrors won’t be colored a different color, they are wonderfully detailed.  I don’t know if this is the first Matchbox with fender mirrors, but they nailed them.

Other than that, there were no concerns at the beginning, and there are definitely none now.  The casting is beautiful.  It sits at a stock stance, it is beautifully detailed front and back, and oh, that surfline.  As cool as the Hakosuka GT-R is, to me the prettiest thing about this car is that surfline.  It is really too bad so many Hakosukas have been cut into for GT-R clones.  That surfline needs to stay on some, and it looks beautiful on this model.

And while I know some of you don’t read what I write here, I hope you are reading this: This is not the color the release will be.  This is an EP, meaning engineering product.  The casting is made at the factory, wheels put on, and the interior and paint color are made from whatever is lying around.  What the Matchbox team is looking at now is the casting itself.  How do the pieces fit, are the wheels aligned correctly, is it safe?  That is the status of the casting now.  In a few months, we will see the FEP, called the final engineering product, which will be the model with its correct paint and deco.  You know the FEP by the code printed on the hood or roof.

And as much as you might not like the color, it is the color of the interior and bumpers that is throwing you off.  That is just the color used on the EPs.  My guess is the base, bumper, and interior will be chrome, grey, or black.  We will have to see.  The color of the model hasn’t been announced, but my guess is grey.

But hey, don’t knock the color just yet:

It isn’t that far off.  I cannot wait for this thing…