Working vehicles. Anyone familiar to my work here on Lamley will know that I’m a fan of them. The hard working unsung heroes of life delivering our food, taking us on adventures, delivering our mail, keeping our streets clean and tidy. They’re omnipresent, familiar to us all and make great subjects for diecast. Case in point:
Meet the Toyota Coaster bus and Isuzu N-Series delivery truck by Hong Kong company Tiny. They’re not a new brand to me as I have been an admirer of their work for a while, but these are the first Tiny branded cars in my collection. And I’m very impressed.
We’ll deal with the Toyota Coaster first, replicated by Tiny in the livery of a bus that serves the Shek Mun area of Hong Kong. Firstly though it’s important to point out both vehicles are 1/72 in scale, so don’t expect to line these up alongside your TLV buses and trucks. But the smaller scale doesn’t mean they’re any less cool. The Coaster is brilliantly replicated, and the Hong Kong bus livery looks great backed up by sharp decals and a quality paint finish.
There’s some really neat touches like the opening door (though it does seem to catch a little on the interior), and the rubber used for the exterior mirrors. The rubber means they can withstand those horrid knocks that send chills down your spine and wing mirrors, spoilers and aerials flying off into oblivion. They do lose a little in detail but for the clumsier collectors amongst us (me included) it’s reassuring.
The Isuzu N-Series is also a strong casting, and very weighty thanks to a metal box body on the back. The livery on this particular N-Series is also fantastic. The UPS colours have always been rather cool and this particular vehicle is a replica of a Taiwan based truck. The dark chocolate brown looks brilliant with the Chinese text and the paint quality is great.
Quality control has slipped a little in places: the UPS logo on the front sits a little wonky, as does one side mirror, and there’s a little burr left behind on one edge of the box body, but it’s small things that also slip through the nets of the major manufacturers. And with a price between £10 – £12 the quality is more than agreeable.
If you’re a fan of commercial vehicles or just some diecast Asian cool then Tiny are definitely worth a look in, and I hope to cover more of their work in the future so stay tuned!
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(Find Tiny HK on Ebay and at the brand store)