Tomica - Mitsuoka Viewt
This is a die cast car model of Mitsuoka Viewt at 1/61 scale, produced by Takara Tomy thru their popular Tomica series.
The Mitsuoka Viewt is a modification of the Nissan March, intended to resemble the Jaguar Mark 2. Mitsuoka Viewt, along with Mitsuoka Galue, encouraged larger Japanese manufacturers to produce retro-styled versions of their own cars.
Mitsuoka's skilful adaptation of Jaguar styling themes to an already-popular car gave Mitsuoka a huge boost in publicity, which allowed it to satisfy the conditions to be recognized as a car manufacturer. After the Viewt other manufacturers modified the March to resemble either some particular classic car.
The Mitsuoka Viewt is a modification of the Nissan March, intended to resemble the Jaguar Mark 2. Mitsuoka Viewt, along with Mitsuoka Galue, encouraged larger Japanese manufacturers to produce retro-styled versions of their own cars.
Mitsuoka's skilful adaptation of Jaguar styling themes to an already-popular car gave Mitsuoka a huge boost in publicity, which allowed it to satisfy the conditions to be recognized as a car manufacturer. After the Viewt other manufacturers modified the March to resemble either some particular classic car.
Not many of us can buy the real Mitsuoka Viewt but at least many of us can afford to get this die cast scale model.
I personally dislike the metallic green color scheme of this particular car model, I would prefer it to be in white or maybe red., but apart from my personal preferences on the color, the paint job finishing on this model is quite good. Exterior detailing is nto great but quite decent.
There is no openable door features on this car and thus it's quite hard to peep on the interior but from the very little that I can see, nothing great about the interior detailing, it is the typical level that we could expect from Tomica series.
Overall, this is a brilliant miniature version of Mitsuoka Viewt. Tomica did a good job on this car, nothing spectacular but still it's quite decent. I guess it would be nice if we can get openable door but no luck on this one. I'm not sure how many people would love to own such a retro-classic looking cars but for me personally, if I can afford it, I don't mind to own this car as long as it's equipped with all the latest gadgets and technology in automobile industry like ABS, air-bag, variable valve timing, fuel injection, turbo charger , Denso air cond, Brembo disc brake and bla bla bla......
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the retro trend is more often in japanese car designers than in other countries’ designers... actually they apply this kind of style to daily use vehicles including the so called micromachines... i like this odd design, the color is fine, the pad printing job is above average, the metal chassis is unusual i guess but when it comes to buy one of this Tomica cars i quote what you said: "I never like them at all... not much to comment, sorry pal :-("... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
ReplyDeleteIt's OK, Tomica is meant for Asian collectors who have great passion for typical Japanese/Asian cars. It is never intended for the Western or Non-Asian market at all because the European have their SIKU, Matchbox and Majorette while the American have their own Hot Wheels which now also own some of the other brands and not to forget the Johnny Lightning.
ReplyDeleteSo in other words, we never expect you people (non-Asians) to like or appreciate any of Tomica or Takara Tomy or perhaps any Japanese/Asian products because this is meant for us, not you. In fact we don't care even if non-Asians consumer like or hate the Japanese/Asian products at all. I think it's good if the other continents hate Tomica so that we in Asia can always get all the best items since they are quite limited in stocks anyway coz Tomica don't produce as much as Hot Wheels or Hasbro did. It is really a unique market.
In fact Takara Tomy never bother much about those other continents market, they only focus in Japanese market and a little bit interest on the Asian market because Asia is where the big money from toys collectors came from nowadays.
Remember Hot Toys brand? they are Asian and the majority of their customers is... you can guess it... Asian.
Look at Bandai, another big Japanese or probably one of Asia's biggest toys company, their big chunk of their incomes are generated from within Asia and not Europe and Americas. And look again at Takara Tomy, they have exclusive license for Transformer toys in Japan's market which eventually also offspring to other Asian countries but that don't make Hasbro a push over, in fact, Hasbro still have an overall strong global market but the point is Takara Tomy can still make good money by just focusing on Japan and Asian market.
The emotional and political effect of "World War II" is another factor where Japanese product will find it hard to be in the other continents. Maybe they do have some small base but not a big deal.
Since the movie "Fast and Furious" we can see some improvement of Japanese cars demand (or rather sports cars) in the USA thru LA but that doesn't mean a demise for the great American sports cars either like the Mustang or Corvette and so on. Just like the American, they never bother to make certain sports car for outside American market either and the same approach is preferred by the Japanese as well. There are specific target market exist for that particular segment.
The Japanese and Asian never expect an American or Mexican or even a British or a Germans to have interest for Mazda RX-7 or Honda Civic SIR-II or even Toyota Crown for instance, they knew those other continents will never be their strong hold, so business wise, why bother? Yes, maybe they are a few enthusiast happen to like those "Japs cars" or "Japs products" but not many of them if compared to the local brand fanatics and those "practical customer".
Back to the toys business, the craft and the pricing of Tomica, only Japanese and Asian people can understand and appreciate it :-)
yeah, i got your point and seriously i didn’t mean to offend you (or any of my other countries’ colleagues) because i’m clear that we have different cultures and background... the products from Japan and other Asian countries are in a sort of niche and somehow closed to the western understanding of things, in toys matters is not so different... However, at least in my country, there is an appreciation for the japanese culture and products which have a good will...
ReplyDeletefor example, the cars and/or bikes by Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, Isuzu, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda, and Daihatsu have a good share in our market, also the cars by Hyundai and Kia... i have seen even some micromachines rolling our roads and i remember specifically the Daihatsu Materia, an odd and squared Microvan, but i love the concept and design... there is also a good assortment of European brands sharing the place like Peugeot, Renault, Citroën, Porsche, Mercedez Benz, Fiat, Vespa, KTM, Husqvarna, Lambretta, Aprilia, Skoda, Volkswagen, Seat, etc...
i have some items by Takara in my collection, kinda few because they’re really expensive and i have heard some complaints than even in the Asian market they’re in the high level of prices and hence unaffordable for many collectors there...
is not precisely that i hate Tomica diecast because, as you already know, the trucks are appealing for me but the rest of vehicles are below my expectations and the price point here in my country makes them unaffordable anyway... the case is similar with Tomica Limited, but i’m managing to get at least one diecast by Tomitec (bearing in mind that their price here is around US$35 per piece) just for the sake of variety...
again i give my apologies, just in case... =)