Spend some time on this post. There is a lot to look at, and a lot of it should be pretty easy on the eyes. A took awhile to photograph all of these, but it was a lot of fun. Sit back and take all these beauties in.
These "beauties" we refer to are the numerous Kenmeri Skylines in the Lamley collection. There are a lot of them. But not ALL of the 1:64 Kenmeris. Collecting all of them would be next to impossible, kind of like trying to collect all 1:64 Mustangs.
So with the release of the Kenmeris in the Kyosho Skyline & GT-R Neo set, we thought it would be a good time to pull them all out. So today you will see a few from Kyosho, Aoshima, Hot Wheels, Tomica, and Tomica Limited Vintage.
And before we start, there might be a few of these you want. From what we know, here are links to the best places to find them:
- Kyosho Skyline & GT-R Neo Kenmeris at Japan Booster
- Older Kyosho Kenmeris at Curitiba Customs and on eBay
- Kyosho Beads Tokyo Auto Show Kenmeris
on eBay
- Hot Wheels Kenmeri
- Tomica stock Kenmeri
- Tomica Limited Vintage Kenmeri Wagon
& Van at Japan Booster
So we should start with the Kyoshos. Three Kenmeri 2000GT-R's were released with the just-released Skyline set, all with aftermarket wheels:
I have seen a lot of grey and white Skylines, so I am especially fond of the red. It definitely stands out, but all are welcome additions to the collection. This casting isn't new, as it debuted with the original Skyline set in both white and grey, with two different sets of wheels. We have one in the collection, which sits on black Watanabe rims:
The other version is on black steelies, and is one we hope to acquire soon.
This might be a good time to mention how much I personally am into stock Japanese cars. While I am a huge fan of all the modifications we have seen over the years, I still much prefer my favorites the way they came off the assembly line. While these Kyosho GT-R's are perfectly stock, their stance makes them close. More on my love for stock cars in a bit.
As great as these are, the cake-taking Kyosho Kenmeri is most certainly the 1972 Tokyo Motor Show edition from the Beads series. We have shown this model several times in the past (and it still sits at the top of the blog), but we will never pass up on a chance to show it again. It remains one of my personal favorites in the entire collection:
That model brings it, doesn't it?
Which takes us to the other side of the spectrum, to the Aoshima GuraChan Kenmeris, in all their bosozoku glory:
Sure, they aren't stock, but we feel lucky to have these sharknose beauties. They are not easy to come by, and they represent an important part of the Japanese car experience.
So stock on one end, modified on the other, and Hot Wheels in the middle. Jun Imai's take remains my favorite Hot Wheels casting, and the First Edition in white is still my all-time favorite Hot Wheels model. It is one of the cleanest castings, and looks great with the rear detail:
The Hot Wheels Kenmeri has returned in two incarnations since the First Edition, including the rare single-seat variation on the Flying Customs. Of course we will see it soon on redlines as part of the upcoming Heritage series.
Single seat:
Standard seats:
Now we said we like stock, and one of our biggest hopes is the best "stock" 1:64 carmaker in the business, Tomica Limited Vintage, takes on the standard C110 2000 GT-X one of these days. There is precedent, as several years ago Tomica did what we think is the only stock 2-door Kenmeri in 1:64:
One of the reasons we love the stock Kenmeri? It shows off one of our favorite features, the "Waveline" that moves from the front to the back before splitting right before the rear wheel. The C10 shares a similar waveline, and in all the GT-R versions, bolt-on fenders cut right through. Thanks to this Tomica version, you can see how good it really looks.
Which takes us to the most unique model in the Kenmeri collection, the Wagon, or Van as most call it. I have said it before, but if I was given the choice between a Hakosuka or Kenmeri GT-R, or a DR30, or a C110 Wagon, I would ALWAYS choose the wagon. There are only a few around, and don't even appear in Japan that often. That is why we are especially happy that Tomica Limited Vintage decided to tackle it:
(There is that fantastic waveline again...)
That makes for quite a collection. One that we are very happy to have. We could probably add more, including the Aoshima and Kyosho Yonmeris, but we will stop here.
The entire collection, along with our single 1:18 scale model, the resin Kenmeri GT-R by Ignition Models (acquired from Carriage House Models), in their 2015 family portrait:
Yummy...
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