SIKU - Mercedes SLS

This is a 1/55 scale die cast car model of Mercedes SLS from "SIKU". SIKU is a toy vehicles and related products produced by Sieper GmbH in Lüdenscheid, Germany.

A little bit of information about this SIKU and the production company from Wikipedia;

Sieper-Werke (The Sieper company) was founded in 1921. It was originally a manufacturer of metal tools and cutlery in zamac and aluminum and, later on, ashtrays, badges, medals, belt buckles, and buttons. The factory in Ludenscheid was outfitted with new casting molds in 1949 for grating, sandblasting and painting zinc cast goods. The company was even contracted to make Mercedes-Benz's star-shaped hood ornament.

The company also experimented with early plastics. In 1943 the company expanded to a facility in Hilchenbach, about 30 miles from Lüdenscheid, though the latter has always been the headquarters for Sieper-Werke. Still, consumer products like plastics, furniture, mirrors and cabinets have been developed and manufactured in Hilchenbach. Lüdenscheid, by contrast, focused on promotional items for major brands, such as the 'elephant shoe' and 'Zeller black cat' which were produced by injection molding.

It was not until 1950 that the company started producing toys in Lüdenscheid, registering the trademark SIKU for the new products. SIKU originates from abbreviating the name of the founder of the company, Richard Sieper, and the German word for plastic, Kunststoffe (e.g. Sieper Plastics). Originally, there was a broad variety of SIKU toys which at first were plastic, including figures and animals. These were often called 'margarine figures' because they came in margarine packages in a food promotional The success of the plastic figures gave capital to start a post-war vehicle line.

Between 1951 and 1955, the first vehicles were generic representations of a fire truck, a race car, an amphibious truck, a moving van, and finally, in 1955, a Porsche 356. The scale chosen was approximately 1:60. By 1958, SIKU had dropped figures to focus exclusively on the plastic vehicles, except where animals attended farm series vehicles.


As for the car, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is a luxury grand tourer automobile developed by Mercedes-AMG to replace the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. The car is the first Mercedes automobile designed in-house by AMG and is described by Mercedes-Benz as a spiritual successor to the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing.

The vehicle was unveiled at the 2009 IAA. Sales began in mid-2010 in Europe with the price of around EUR 177,310.00 and in the USA in mid-2011 for less than $200,000.00

With FMR layout, this car is equipped with a powerful 6.2L V8 DOHC engine that can produce 500 plus horse power - in fact close to 600 hp.... enough to kill a horse standing at the middle of the road while you driving this car at maximum full speed LOL...

And so now, let's have a look at this die cast scale model from SIKU...

The packaging;

Eventually, this is the first model I bought from this brand. I've been monitoring their products for quite some time, since last year in fact and I noted that the scale of cars are slightly bigger than those from Hot Wheels and Takara Tomy (Tomica / Tomica Limited / Tomytec). In addition, I also noted that some of their cars are way much better detailed than those from the other brand/manufacturers.

The price in here is SGD 5.95 (about USD 4.70 / EUR 3.70 / 373 yen), the same as those from Tomica (Takara Tomy of Japan).

Eventually, I've been wanting to buy a Mercedes at around 1/60 scale since last year but somehow I either missed the model that I wanted or maybe I'm not at all rushing to get it either. Suddenly, recently, I saw this Mercedes SLS with this beautiful red color and since I never tried any products from this SIKU brand, I decided probably now is the best time to buy this car. Furthermore, since this SIKU is a German brand and Mercedes is the "national automobile brand" of Germany, I believe that they surely did a great job on this one.... and just like that, I grabbed this car and here it is now;

So far, the painting finishing seems to be excellent. I'm quite impressed with this item.

Features includes the nicely detailed front lights using plastic part instead of just normal paints. You can see the Mercedes logo on the front there;

The wheels are nicely sculpted and detailed. Tires are separated from wheels and made of rubber, while other manufacturers make theirs in single cast plastic pieces.

On the rear part, you can see the SLS label (car model name) and also the AMG logo (the designer/producer). The brake lights are also made of plastic instead of just using paints and I like that a lot.

This car comes with openable wing doors that will swing open upwards;







And with that, it's easier for us to observe the interior detailing, thanks to my Raynox DCR-250 Macro lens, we can go a step further to see all those tiny interior detailing;





And here it is, the interior detailing.... have a look at it;

In my opinion, the interior detailing is certainly one of the best I've seen so far for die cast car at this size and price point. I'm quite surprised but nonetheless extremely happy with it.


In addition, if you look at underneath the car body, on the chasis cover, you can see a little but of key technical spec info engraved on it. From what I can see and understand they list down the following information;

571 PS / 6208 ccm (I guess this means 6.2L engine capacity) / 420 kW / 317 km/h (surely the maximum top speed) / 6800 U/min (I guess this means the maximum engine rev is 6800 RPM)

You need to click and zoom/enlarge the picture above to see everything that I mentioned earlier.

Overall, this is a very excellent die cast car model of Mercedes SLS from SIKU. What better way to try a new toy brand than with a nicely finished product of a popular and fantastic Grand Tourer (Gran Turismo) car from Mercedes-AMG Germany. The painting is excellent, the detailing, especially the interior, is certainly top notch, there is nothing that I can criticized on this particular item, end to end, I just love every bit of it.

I'm glad to finally have a Mercedes in my collection and in fact this is not a regular Mercedes but rather Mercedes SLS, a powerful car enough to run riots on the road. In addition, I'm lucky to have it from a German brand (SIKU) and I guess that explains how they fully understand and appreciate the important on producing a nicely finished product for this particular car model. This is certainly one of my favorite now!!!!

At the price of SGD 5.95 (about USD 4.70 / EUR 3.70 / 373 yen), I believe this is great value for your money considering the following reason;

a) The size is slightly bigger than those from Hot Wheels and Tomica (Takara Tomy)
b) The painting finishing is quite remarkable.
c) The extra detailing on certain external parts using plastic is a welcome addition as the other brands tend to just use paint to minimize production cost.
d) The interior detailing is brilliant.
e) If you want a German car, I guess the German did it better than the others, right?

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