Going heavy on the die-casts because there just hasn’t been a lot of slotting activity of late, but this time around I’m questioning my plan. Buying the two cars you see profiled here-paying what I had to pay for them (one from ePay, one from Mercari) and seeing what they’re like, I find myself asking: do I really want to buy back EVERY die-cast car I even owned, even the really crappy ones???
And that, dear readers, is what we have here: a couple of “really crappy ones,” a pair of Zee/Zylmex diecasts that were probably sold new as “Pacesetters” or “Wind Racers” or some other variation of the dozen or so lame names that appeared on the blister cards of these toys. One of these is kind of funny though, which is why I chose to recapture it. The other one…well, I’m not sure what my excuse is for that…
Nissan Skyline…labeled as a Toyota!
A lot of collectors have pointed out the nuttiness of this one! I had this car in my collection when I was very young; I was still living in Temple City so it has to have been around 1979 or 1980. This is one whose fate I cannot recall; I don’t know what happened to it. What I do know is that the baseplate just reads “SKYLINE”, and in the pre-internet days, I never was able to identify it. I knew the labels said “TEAM TOYOTA” but it didn’t look like any Toyota I was aware of. At the age of 8 I figured it must have been one of those Japanese-market models we didn’t get in the US, but it turns out I was smart to be skeptical of it even as a kid, since as adults (with internet access), we all know that a Skyline is a Nissan, not a Toyota!
And in fact it is a model of a Nissan Skyline sedan from the mid ‘70s, although not a great one, to be sure. And in fact this car was a Japanese market model-or at least, one that we didn’t get in the States, so I had that right. I’ve seen a couple of these for sale with the labels removed and they look more like the car it is actually a model of without them, but part of the charm of this car is the goof, so the labels stay!
“Cobra Street Racer”
Yeah, so…here’s the thing…unboxing this one emphasizes that there may a few cars from my childhood that I really don’t want back, and this should have been one of them. I found a small handful of these for sale online and none of them were in mint condition and they were all remarkably expensive. I actually chose the best one I found and paid $15 for this PoS and now I regret it, because the toy is just about as ugly as the real car! I despise Mustang II’s-a LOT of people do!-and the only thing uglier than a Mustang II is a Mustang II with a body kit, which is what this model appears to be. Honestly it’s a little hard to tell, because on top of being a model of an ugly car it’s a bad model to boot! Whatever it actually is, it’s ugly as sin. Seeing it today, I excuse my childhood self for demolishing the one I had as a kid!
Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on Zylmex. They did make a couple of decent castings and these cars are all metal, with metal baseplates and plastic brace suspensions and opening doors, so they don’t deserve the scorn I might heap on a truly terrible piece of 75% plastic crap like…well, like the last cars Zylmex made in the ‘90s after they cheapened them even more, I guess!
Actually, there are a couple of models of “Malaise era” cars they made back when the real things were new that I would kind of like to have, including a Ford Pinto and a Chevy Monza, but if I were to acquire those, they would not be “GET-BACKS,” since I never owned them in childhood. Unfortunately both of these appear to be rare and are thus expensive…so probably not gonna pursue that, but time will tell.
Well, whatever; I had these when I was a kid and now I have them again, so, yay, I guess. What do you think, dear readers? Who out there collects Zylmex die-casts? And…why?
You know, I am pretty sure I had that Mustang too! Seeing now, I can see why I had forgotten that I had it. If it wasn’t that one, it was a similar one of the same car. It must have been a gift or maybe part of a set, since like you, I was never a fan of the actual car and tended to get cars I liked. You do bring up a good point that maybe everything isn’t worth getting back. I know I had some toys that I don’t have an interest in having again. If there are any from your “junk yard” that you would like to replace or others that you had that have fond memories or like, definitely go for those first. Of course, there is always getting the models you had (and liked) and then getting all the variations! Ha Ha!