It’s a very nice mail call I had last evening with 2 brands I collect sporadically : Tomica Limited Vintage (Tomytec) and Mini GT. I’ve already hammered that collecting Tomica Limited Vintage has become more than expansive, prices have gone nuts. You can still trust our fellow Japan Booster or head to eBay, mine come from a German seller I use for small purchases like this. Mini GT models come from French seller and are easy to find as part of the Minimax (Spark, TSM, Top Speed, Schuco) group.
I’ve decided to add two TLV models to my now strict TLV collection as I wanted an S2000 in premium form in my collection. I’ve hesitated with a Hobby Japan version but I’ve chosen TLV because they also offered the configuration I wanted : yellow with hardtop. Nothing else would have reached my collection. The seller had a reasonably priced Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona in blue, which I wanted for a while. I love to have Ferrari model configurations I don’t have in my Kyosho collection, being known that Kyosho never did tan interiors. So, a dark blue Daytona with beige Daytona seats was absolutely fine! I adore blue Ferraris from TLV, I have now a very nice trio.
The two other news are coming from Mini GT I also collect with a lot of restraint. The brand is making his first step into vintage formula one (in fact, almost everything has already been tooled by former Kyosho, but they are quite old molds now and I don’t think they tooled this exact P34; Kyosho doesn’t have the hype some brands can have nowadays, which makes me smile a little). I am very positively surprised by the quality Mini GT is able to bring into those vintage formula ones. I’m a Spark 1:43 resin model collectors and I have a lot of vintage formula ones, mostly expansive. I must admit that for some euros, the Mini GT are great. You can find them on eBay easily.
The choices are obviously not a big risk if I may say so. I guess that if you ask someone about F1, he will tell you “Schumacher, Ferrari, 6 wheels car, Lotus and Red Bull”. Oh look, a Tyrrell P34 6-wheeler and a Lotus JPS. The Lotus is a Lotus 78 that brought ground effect into Formula one back in time with the genius of Colin Chapman and the Tyrrell P34 is a 6-wheels car that did not really work as well as expected, but it became a legend.
What I appreciate the most are the marked tires, details of the engine (reverse Ford logos on the Ford Cosworth DFV) and the tiny window of the P34. JPS decoration is also very neat, great job on that. I think our Canadian resident Graham Heeps will make a full article about the P34, so be ready!
For me, it’s time to store those 4 into their respective displays and enjoy this new strict way of collecting premium 1/64 stuff!
See you soon for more mail calls and Inno64 reviews!
@Willdiecast
The lotus is one I will add to my collection but I have to prioritize. There’s a seller on ebay with some older kyosho Le Mans racers, and those are the biggest part of my collection. I was recently able to find the 2017 porsche 919 #2 car by Sparky. Still the 1/64 Nissan GT-R LM eludes me. With so many cars to collect, formula cars keep getting pushed down the priority list.
Lovely Daytona, a nice distraction from all those Japanese power wagons..!