The New Jewels from Macau : Inno64

So. Here we go. Let’s talk about one of my favorite new brands of the moment : Inno64.

When John asked minicar lovers to write articles for the Lamleygroup blog, I was pleased (I had already written for the blog though, an article about Nascar minicars made by Lionel Racing), and asked myself what I would be able to talk about. There are so many things now. Minicar manufacturers have literally exploded the last few years, from new brands to more obscure little production runs in resin, mainly based in Asia. But why not, I personally think it is such a pleasure to collect in 2020.

I’m Guillaume, from France, in Europe, and collect mainly JDM premium die cast. I am known as @guillaumewillpics on Instagram.

So I thought. And it sounded like an evidence: what are we aimed at? The joy of collecting. Talking about what we love, shooting what we like, buying what makes us happy.

Inno64 makes me happy.

Inno64 is a newcomer in the 1/64 premium quality world.

What we can read on their website is that the brand was founded by a small group of friends who share passion for cars and motorsport, established in 2016. They believe that model car making is an art itself. Oh yeah.

For me, it began with the Honda Civic EF9 SiR White Edition. At first, i couldn’t believe it was a 1/64 model car. Then i couldn’t believe it was a €16-20 range model car.

And then again I couldn’t believe how cool it was!

What I propose is, for this first article, to focus on this particular Honda Civic, in order to share with you what seems to me so incredible with this minicar. And make you want to have one.
I believe the first model was this white one. There is also an aqua blue one with white rims I would be very happy to have in my collection, a red one with black rims made for Japan market, and many race versions.

If you like it, I propose to focus on other models from the brand time to time.

I don’t have all the Inno64 models in my collection – as you may obviously have guessed, they have now quite a big range of cars, variants, exclusives, special models and on and on …. which makes nearly impossible to have everything – but I have around 3 to more models of the same casting, which can make each focus quite interesting.

Back to the Civic. Ah, the Civic. A few years ago, I would have counted less than … 2 in my collection. I think I have around 60 models of Honda Civic in my collection now (all manufacturers included).
Civic has been such a craze. Many manufacturers have done their « must-do-exercice-of making-a-civic in the line up ». So, we start with a Civic.

It is a JDM (= Japanese Domestic Market), yes, but whether we like it or not, Japanese cars are part of the landscape now. Most of us are Gran Turismo kids, cars have been popularized, and who can blame the best model manufacturers of the planet in 1/64 scale based in Asia to replicate their own cars!

Choosing a Honda Civic EF9 SiR is a clever choice (a car made in 1988), as this particular generation of Civic started a kind of revolution in the word of the tuners scene and car preparation. Above all, who doesn’t love the famous V-TEC engine?

The replica is white, and it is low (I mean, looooow), it is detailed, fine, and very highlighted by the transparent base in my opinion.

It comes in an acrylic display case like almost all of the Asian premium minicars, with a cardboard on the top, highlighting the model, with drawings, or color schemes reminding of the car.

One of the concept of the brand is to offer extra decals sheets with the car, sometimes extra wheels, sometimes both. Sometimes nothing.
In this case, it comes with an extra decals sheet to customize your own model.

Quite good idea. But, if you are a purist like me, you will not want to « risk » your only model. So you will want two, which turns to be not a so good idea for budget, and shipping costs. Besides, personally hates water decals that i always break. So, this is not for me, but the point is you can have your very own model if you want to (carbon bonnet, sponsors, numbers …).

On to the base : I-just-love-it. Transparent base so well highlights the model. Clever, simple. Cool.

The car itself is very high quality for a minicar of this price range.

As you can see on the pictures, we can note : detailed interior, seat belts, mirrors, transparent headlights and taillights, fine painting details, nice tampo work, rubber tires of course, disks and calipers. They seem to use accurate materials.

And the stance. The stance. Look at the stance !! It is low, so low, but low just what it has to be low. It is not LB or exaggerated, it is low to get a sporty look. It could be a perfect complement to the Honda Civic EF9 SiR made by Tomica Limited Vintage.

To me, it is a replica of a minicar of the guy that has a sporty car in his garage, who loves it, and takes care of it.

But as a consequence, most Inno64 don’t roll, but I think they are meant for display, so it doesn’t disturb me at all.

All in all, this is a very interesting new brand making very beautiful minicars with authentic likeness.

It is indeed very JDM like (but based in Macau eh), although very recent new castings include BMW and Mercedes classic legends of racing.

I’m in. You ?