Playart Isuzu 117 coupe, Tomica 1989 Nissan Bluebird sedan, and Majorette Toyota Tercel 4WD “Breaking Bad” edition

Here are a trio of vehicles that each have a unique touch of their own, one being a famous T.V. star, and despite being made by different diecast manufacturers all share the same common Made in Japan purpose.

Majorette Toyota Tercel 4WD “Breaking Bad” edition

Let’s get this one quick out of the way since I already profiled the Majorette Toyota 4WD wagon in a previous post.  Majorette made lots of colors of this Tercel wagon, a special 4WD version called the Sprinter Carib in other countries and was a very unique offering for Toyota at the time.  Out of all of them this red one is the most important as it was Jesse Pinkman’s second car in the AMC T.V. series “Breaking Bad” and it was this series that spiked interest into this diecast replica.  I managed to find a red one in playworn condition so in addition to the added detailing I also blacked-out the spoke wheels to match the black steel wheels on the T.V. car.  I also had to clean out the interior because it looked pretty yucky in there; overall the car is now a T.V. star and the casting itself is a unique piece with working suspension, stylish wagon profile, and rear hatch that opens to the cargo area and not to forget the trailer hitch for towing.

Playart Isuzu 117 coupe

Here’s another unique playart with one thing I never seen on a Playart casting before: metallic purple paint.  Too bad it was playworn to really show the color off.  Isuzu is well-known for its trucks and SUV’s, but at one point they did make cars.  One of them is the stylish 117 coupe pinned by Guigiaro and is Isuzu’s four-seat gran turismo sports car.  The look is similar to comparable sports cars of the time with a sleek fastback roofline and lowered stance with slightly-canted down headlights.  The interior offered seating for four with a typical right-hand drive dashboard layout.  The engine is a 1.8L DOHC I-4 with the first use of electronic fuel injection to produce an estimated 110 horsepower through a 4-speed manual transmission.  The sleek coupe lasted for almost two decades before a General Motors alliance in the 1980’s booted the 117 for a modern Piazza coupe.

The look of this car is pretty striking even for a basic Playart design despite the sagging rear axle, missing rear bumper, and playworn paint of my example.  The front has a chrome grille with four large round headlights and a cross grille connected to the lower front bumper.  The sides show off the sleek fastback look and Playart wheels, though there are no opening doors and to conceal the massive paint chips on the roof I gave it a black vinyl top design.  The rear has slim rectangular taillights and this is the point where Playart coupe castings tend to look similar to one another (see the Fiat Dino for a good comparison).  The base is painted white instead of the usual black, while the interior has nice tan colored seats with black dashboard, but again it lacks any detailing.  There are finer examples of the 117 from Tomica, but no one can match the classy nostalgia of this Playart casting.

Tomica 1989 Nissan Bluebird sedan

We all know the popularity of the Bluebird sedans of the 1960’s and 1970’s, but what about the latter models?  In the case of this 1989 front-wheel drive version not so much, but thanks to Tomica they are out there.  The U11 generation in 1983 saw the introduction of the first front-wheel drive Bluebird and by this U12 generation in 1987 with a more modern and aerodynamic look of the previous-generation and shared some styling characteristics with the Nissan Maxima though both were completely different vehicles.  In the U.S. it was sold as the Nissan Stanza and this would be the last-generation of this styling as the next-generation went for a more rounded look and for the U.S. a new name: Altima.  Four-wheel drive was offered for the first time and all models were four-cylinders to separate from V6-powered Maxima’s.  The engine is a 2.0L DOHC I-4 that produced an estimated 150 horsepower to a five-speed manual transmission; the interior has a more modern look at the time that cleaned up the crude design of the earlier 1980’s versions.

The orange of this Tomica casting stands out and looks pretty good for a 1990’s Nissan sedan despite a few paint chips here and there.  The front has chrome headlights that wrap around the corners and connect to the center grille, while adding black trim adds interest to the front bumper with 1964 plate.  The sides have typical sedan profile with 5-spoke skinny Tomica wheels on a working suspension, while the rear has oval taillights that connect to the trunklid with a red bar.  The interior is accessed through opening doors and show off some impressive touches for a Tomica at the time: the front seats have supportive bolstering, there is also a rear seats, while up front there is the usual Tomica detailed steering wheel and missing dashboard, but look close and you can see the center stack controls that flow up from the floor shifter.  While not as popular as the original 1960’s Bluebirds this 1989 version looks pretty sporty for a typical modern 1990’s sedan.