Desert Island Cars Vol. 10: a6m5's Top Ten

Yours truly: a6m5 from Japamerica

This "Desert Island" list was my idea.  If collectors could keep just ten cars, which cars survive the cut from their collection?  Very first post in this series debuted in March.  The very guy who came up with the idea(me), I'm now finally getting around to sharing my list.  You know exactly what that means:  It was a very strenuous process for me......  narrowing down the list to just ten cars.  Yes, it also means I'm a very lazy person, but we don't need to get into that right now.  In no particular order:

#1 Hot Wheels Vintage Racing John Morton's BRE Datsun Bluebird/510

This thing looked unbelievable to me at first.  I had just begun collecting, and pretty much at awe whenever I saw Real Riders(rubber tires).  Plus, 510/Bluebird was one of the castings that got me into Hot Wheels, and this BRE livery....  It's a "ten".  It's worth way over $100 today.  I got mine years ago & hated having to pay $9 for it(shipped).  lol

#2 Tomica Limited Vintage NEO LV-N24a Hino TC343 Ladder Equipped Fire Engine

I doubt it's the most coveted TLV, but it is one of the largest & one of the most well detailed.  Also happens to be an fire engine from my childhood(in timeline & geographically), so it scores more points there.  Add to it that I'm a big fan of TLV's "working" vehicles(you'll see two more in this post lol), this Hino makes the top ten.  Oh, and I paid $139 for it.  :D

#3 Hot Wheels Red Line Club "Real Riders" Custom Mustang

Real Mattel fan would scoff at this, but when I think of an ideal vintage style of "Hot Wheels", this car is what I think of.  While it's not popular, it isn't worth a lot($15-ish on a good day?), its livery alone may carry it to the Top 3.  It's a jewel of toy car if you ask me.

#4 Kyosho Mazda Rotary Engine Minicar Collection - 1991 Le Mans Winner Mazda 787B 

I'm not a Kyosho collector, but there were two I had to have.  One was Circuit Wolf Lotus Europa(from vintage Japanese manga), other was this.  Only Japanese car ever to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  I'm also a big fan of the livery & the sound it makes.  It was actually a close call, but it makes my Desert Island list.

#5 Tomica Limited Vintage LV-92a Nissan Diesel 3.5 Truck Coca Cola Route Car 

One of my first TLVs, and it still ranks very high in my collection, obviously.  Coca Cola logo, hand-truck, crates of coke bottles, they all do it for me.  Tomytec put lot of effort into this model, and the final product in my opinion is something very special. 

#6 Kyosho Circuit Wolf Lotus Europa SP

It sucks to be the Hot Wheels RLC Baja Bruiser right now.  Let me explain.  One: There is no Baja Bruiser post in all of this blog(it is now on the blog, check it out!).  Not because I don't have one, or that I don't like it.  I have it & I liked it enough to put it in my Top Ten Desert Island list.  However, while posting the Kyosho Mazda 787B couple spots above, I remembered this Kyosho Lotus Europa from very old, but very popular manga called "サーキットの狼"(Circuit Wolf).  Think of it as the Japanese 70's version of the Initial D/Fast & the Furious.  It's that awesome.  Yeah.

#7 Hot Wheels Red Line Club "Real Riders" '83 Chevy Silverado

It was a love at first sight.  Initially, I think I found out how much the going rate for this truck was & it was like "forget it".  Eventually, I think I ended up paying around $80 & change for one.  I had to have it.  Good news:  It's worth lot more than that now.  I think it's the bright green Spectraflame paint job + the chrome stripe.  Love this unique & unusual look.  

#8 Tomica Limited Vintage LV-N49a Shell Hino KB314 Tank Lorry

Cost me $123.  Really wanted it though.  Shocking that I haven't written a post on this one yet.  I used to have the Idemitsu version as well, but I preferred this one(same with the Tomicarama sets).  Like I said for the TLV fire engine also on the list; I like 'working' vehicles a lot, when it comes to 1/64.  :D

#9 Playart Lamborghini Miura

This is one of the handful of items from my childhood that survived.  It even has store price tag on on the bottom of the car which instead of the price, it says "Lamborghini Miura" handwritten in Japanese.  By my late-grandfather.  She's a keeper.  ;)

#10 Tomica Limited Vintage - Tomica Skyline Super Silhouette(1983 Early Vers.)

In the early days of collecting, I hated spending $20 on Super Treasure Hunt Hot Wheels, so I never thought I'd be able to own on of these TLV Super Silhouette cars.  Not exactly sure how it happened, but basically my taste got more expensive.  As a kid, I thought Super Silhouette race cars looked cool(never followed racing though), also liked this gen Skylines in red & black, so I definitely had soft spot for this thing growing up.  While I have in my collection all six existing TLV Super Silhouettes(just released 7th model is on the way from Japan), this Early-1983 version is my favorite.  I think it has the coolest headlights.

Thank you for checking out my Desert Island list!!!

CHECK OUT OTHER "DESERT ISLAND" LISTS HERE!!!

Hot Wheels Red Line Club "Real Riders" '83 Chevy Silverado

'Nuff said.  Pics.

I uncarded this one, but carded, I paid about $80 probably around two years ago.  These days, I think they've actually topped $300 for carded ones.  I thought $80 was a lot!

I have few more interesting Silverados here.

Tomica Limited Vintage NEO LV-N24b Hino TC343 Ladder Equipped Fire Engine Guest Starring LV-N24a

Old photos, but since I don't have any posts on ladder trucks yet, it would be a waste not to put these pictures up.  My apologies for lower than already generally lower than average photos.  :(

There are two types of Hino Ladder Trucks, and the most notable difference between the two trucks to me are the red lights.  LV-N24b, which is the more commonly available model I've seen(still generally $100 or more) has the single beacon rotating style lights on the roof, and the LV-N24a(rare/more $$$) has midget light bars.  I preferred the LV-N24a, so as soon as it came up for cheap on Japan Booster eBay store(still $139!), I jumped on it.  I sold the LV-N24b seen in this post for $99.95.

Few more comparison shots of LV-N24a/b.

LV-N24a on the right, you will notice that on the side of the ladder, it's missing the hook things.  It was damaged in transit.  Truck was more than properly packaged, and it was the only damaged item I've ever received from Japan Booster(and I've bought a lot).  Postal service must've beat the hell out of it.

I couldn't recommend this store enough.  Japan Booster immediately brought up that I probably wanted replacement rather than refund because of how rare LV-N24a was(CORRECT!).   

However, instead of going back to Japan, damaged ladder truck would end up getting ship to Utah.  Long story short, John from Lamley Blog(another stand up guy in the industry) wanted the damaged one, so he ended up working out the details with Japan Booster.  I got my replacement in perfect condition, everybody was happy.  More comparisons:

I kinda want the LV-N24b again.  lol

Tomica Limited Vintage Toys Club Toyota Toyoace Kitahara Air Conditioning

I finally know, dude.  On my last "Toys Club" Daihatsu Midget post, I didn't get into it because I didn't know, but thanks to this Japanese blog, I am lot closer to the origin of these Toys Club cars.

I googled the subject today, because I just realized how the business name on this truck, also the name on the rice store Daihatsu Midget are both "Kitahara".  It turns out the name belongs to the gentleman who runs this Toys Club & Kitahara Toy Museum.  Mystery solved.  Pretty Cool.  

It seems that Mr. Kitahara Teruhisa & his staff even operates a blog(in Japanese).  I'd love to check it out right now, but I'm pressed for time.  Pics.  :(

I think the "Vintage" impression is turned up a notch compared to other Toyoace trucks I've seen from TLV.  Well done.