The other day Rod asked me if I could post up some of the Nissans from my diecast and toy collection and, I had to tell him that I don't really have much of a "collection" to post. Here in Japan at least. I have some things packed away in storage back in the states, but the collection here in my apartment consists only of a few random miniature cars and a ton of car magazines that my wife is constantly telling me to throw away…

Luckily though, last weekend I was at the neighborhood bookstore when I saw this '67 Fairlady 2000 from the "Nissan Mei-sha Collection" by Hachette Collections. I decided it was worth adding to my shelf and brought it home with me. "Mei-sha" basically means "famous car", and the series includes a number of historic Nissan vehicles which are released over a period of time. 

It's kind of strange to find diecast cars in the bookstore isn't it? Well, these 1/43 scale diecast cars come packaged with a booklet that includes details about the car, as well as a chapter of Nissan's history. This is the first car in the series, so the book covers the earliest part of Nissan's history between 1933-1958.

A view inside the book shows some of the cool period photographs of the Fairlady Roadster. There is also an article about Nissan racing legend Kazuyoshi Hoshino and the Calsonic R32 Skyline from the Group A series. Each "issue" also includes a special photo section highlighting Nissan's motorsports history. This particular one has some really cool black and white photos of the Nissan Bluebird 1300SS in the 1964 African Safari Rally.

The Fairlady replica itself is very well done and includes its own display case and stand. The cloth soft top looks particularly well done as do the period correct whitewall tires. The whole model is executed very well.

Some very nice details on the front grill as well…

When I was taking these shots, I discovered the how much fun taking pictures of diecast cars is. Maybe I need to buy some more "subjects".

And the price for this? 690 Yen. That's only about $7 USD for a super detailed diecast replica as well as the book! There is a catch though, and that's the fact that only the first car in the series is that cheap. From there, the prices go up to between 1000 and 2000 yen for the following cars in the collection. I think the idea is to get people hooked on collecting the whole series. Even then, I still think it's a good price for what you get.

Some of the other cars in the collection include a 510 Bluebird SSS, a couple Prince Skylines, and a 1966 Sunny 1000, among others. The one that I have my eye on is the '69 Fairlady Z Z432 that will be released this week.

Hmm…seems like my "collection" might be growing a little.

Ncars.jp

-Mike Garrett