Collectibles

Kyosho's latest celebrates the pride of Milano

The latest round of 1:64 scale Kyosho models has hit the street, and this time the die-cast powerhouse has turned its sights on the history of Alfa Romeo. Thirty-three versions of 12 castings are available; since Kyoshos are sold in boxes of 20, this means it's a bit of a crapshoot as to which ones you get, although you'll get a complete set of cars one way or another.

The lovely presentation box gives no indication to what's inside, so you have to open the packaging to see what you get; cars are screwed to a plastic plinth, then protected by a plastic bubble. What's inside is a testament to how far 1:64 scale die-cast has come in the last decade and a half. Separate headlights and taillights, correct wheels on soft tires, nicely molded chassis, separate chromed grilles where appropriate, legible tampo work and picture-perfect proportions are all here. Many of the models haven't been done in small-scale in more than a quarter of a century, if ever: you have to go back to Playart to find another Alfetta GTV, and back to Politoys Penny in the '60s for a Giulia Sprint. We don’t recall a Guilia TI sedan, ever. It's cars like these that have made 1:64 a true collector scale, despite the prevailing European mentality that 1:43 is where it's at.

These look as good as any commercially available 1:43 scale model. If we have any criticism, it's that there's too much focus on newer models (eight of the 12 new castings are models of cars from 1990 and later) and not enough on the oldies: do we really need a 155, 147, 159, GT, and GTV in the line? Would not a Guilietta or another Spider or two, or maybe a BAT, have been preferable? Possibly. But the quality of what's here is unassailable. The only other bummer is that these aren't readily available here in the States. Since our favorite Asia-based online dealers like HobbyLink Japan (www.hlj.com) and ToyEast (www.toyeast.com) don't seem to have them in stock (yet), your best bet appears to be an online auction.
Check out Kyosho's official site at kyosho-minicar.com and find a friend who speaks Japanese.
- By Jeff Koch