Majorette Honda Prelude and 2003 Nissan Murano

Majorette tends to make a lot of cars and trucks that are focused on what is found in European countries, but every once in a while they will also make vehicles that come from other countries.  One of them is from Japan and here's a few examples that Majorette has done.

Honda Prelude

The Prelude was a sports car introduced in the 1980's that was based on the Honda Accord chassis, but styled on a sleeker coupe body.  Later in the 1980's the Prelude would gain acceptance as the technologically advance Honda in the lineup.  The second-generation went from a previous bodystyle that was very 1970's to a sleeker wedge-shape design that was modern at the time.  Headlights were hidden away in the front, a taillight bar spaned the back, four-wheel independent suspension, and digital instrument cluster.  That was in the third generation, which was an evolutionary design of the second-generation.  The second-generation still retained the basic layout of a sporty Accord coupe.  This Majorette version is a rare misstep from the company as the front-end lacks enough detail to distinguish which generation it is, but after some studying I found this casting to be a second-generation Prelude.  The giveaway?  The black plastic bumpers front and rear.  The front bumper lacks so much detail that I had to add signal lights and foglights to give it some identity.  This red example sports a Honda logo on the hood and Prelude on the sides.

The side profile shows a sleek sporty look with the C-pillar kink mostly found on BMW models, while the rear has a taillight bar with carved-in PRELUDE in the center and all of it is part of the window trim piece.  The doors open which is nice, but inside you'll only find four detailed seats and that's about it.  No dashboard details or even a shifter on the floor!  The suspension works on this car, but during some performance tests it really does not feel sporty with some body roll.  Thankfully the suspension was a bit firmer so the body roll was not too excessive.  The inside of the real Prelude has a sporty dashboard design that is low with 3-spoke steering wheel and seating for four.  The engine up front is a front-wheel drive unit with a 5-speed manual transmission and a 1.8L SOHC I-4 that produced an estimated 105 horsepower.  Later in this generation a 2.0L DOHC I-4 was offered though the hood had to be raised to accomidate the larger engine.  It seemed like a nice casting, but it seems too bare to be a model from Majorette.

2003 Nissan Murano

On the other end of the spectrum the 2000's saw the growth of car-based SUV's.  Pioneered by Toyota with the Lexus RX300, car-based SUV's solved the problem of drivers with bulky, body-on-frame SUV's that guzzled gas and had features buyers used less often.  The platform starts by using a car-based sedan, then raising the ground clearance and adding a wagon body shape.  The end result is an SUV that has more characterists of a car with better handling and fuel efficiency than a traditional SUV at the time.  Now car-based SUV's make up nearly 90% of the total SUV, and also car, population in 2017.  Unfortunately most of these SUV's also suffer from the cookie-cutter styling with that me-too persona that is so close that some companies have SUV's that look identical to one another.  The Nissan Murano takes a different path with a more stylish look.  When Nissan bought Renault in 2000 the styling between the two started to merge together as newer Nissan's adopted the artistic curves and angles found on some Renault products.  The Murano was one of them.  Based on the Altima sedan platform the Murano was rounded  with flowing curves and angles that makes the Murano a really stylish SUV.  The interior even carries the theme over with better materials and designs than other Nissan products at the time.  Powering the Murano was the 3.5L DOHC V6 that produces 245 horsepower through a CVT automatic transmission and available all-wheel drive system.  The tough part about the Murano is continuing the styling in the second and third act, yet Nissan has found ways to keep the Murano stylish and fresh for each generation.

Thanks to limited sales finding one of these Majorette Murano's is nearly impossible, especially if you're looking for the orange version as I have finally found.  This one had some light wear here and there, but nothing that some additional details would not fix.  The front has detailed headlight projectors with upper signal lights that flow into the Nissan grille in silver, while the lower rounded bumper has a grille and foglights.  The opening hood does not flow in well with the rounded front-end as crude edges are often visible.  The side profile has that smooth flow with rising beltline at the D-pillar and those 5-spoke wheels really fit this SUV quite well stylisitically even if they are a bit too wide.  The rear has taillights that conform to the rear fender shape, a rear liftgate with rounded window and center plate area, and a trailer hitch that seems to ruin the smooth looks of the SUV. The base is plastic and shows off the exhaust system leading out to the rear muffler and dual exhaust tips, though the engine layout is incorrectly laid out as a rear-drive unit.  Open the hood and you'll see the V6 motor properly detailed from the hoses to the engine cover and all of it is done as part of the window trim (on the Mitsubishi ASX it is also served as the connection to the headlights up front).  The interior has seating for five with detailed seats, though door panels are missing.  The front dashboard has the proper layout design with 3-spoke steering wheel, three-pod gauge cluster, and center stack design is properly laid out despite lacking andy control details.  This is a very nice SUV that is very unique (only a few diecast manufacturers have made the 1st generation Nissan Murano) and leads the way on how Majorette deals with car-based crossover SUV's leading into the 21st century.