By The Numbers

Today's post features a baker's dozen of diecast vehicles painted up in racing colors and numbers. Look through them and see how many you can identify. Try to name the company they were made by and the type of vehicle being represented.

And now for the answers:

1. Summer Toyota Celica LB Turbo GR.5

2. Hot Wheels Thunder Roller
3. Matchbox Fiat Abarth

4. Hot Wheels HW Prototype 12

5. Zee Porsche 910

6. Matchbox Ford GT

7. Hot Wheels Turbo Streak

8. Hot Wheels Side Kick

9. Hot Wheels Pro Stock Firebird

10. Hot Wheels Mirada Stocker
11. Ertl Mountain Dew Buick

12. Hot Wheels Shadow Mk IIa

13. Hot Wheels Dodge Charger Stock Car

How well did you do?

Customs I've Made

To me, there's a certain satisfaction to be gained when you can customize one of your favorite diecast pieces and paint it in a color of your own choosing. That way, it makes it special, and in a sense, a limited piece. Depending on the amount of detail you want to add, you can make them look quite eye-catching! Now, my skills at customizing are not even close to the level I've seen being turned out by some people out there, but I still find it something I enjoy doing. Above is a Summer Toyota Celica LB Turbo GR.5. I had a beat up old one that I acquired long ago and attempted to make it look nice again. Below, you can see my less than stellar attempt. But it was one of the first ones I ever repainted:

Recently, I dug it out and redid it again. Below you can see a transitional state it took before I applied the final coat of paint to it. There was a point that I almost left it with the chrome look because it looked kind of nice:

But, I went on and finished it later and it turned out like this:

Some of the other castings I have customized is one of my favorite Hot Wheels vehicle called a Letter Getter. It is basically a big panel truck with lots of room for the sponsor's logo on the sides. This makes it a nice choice to customize as you can put whatever writing on it that you want. I chose "Kodak" for this one because I like to take pictures and use a lot of Kodak film:

I chose "FedEx" for the side of this one simply because you see them everywhere:

Here's an old piece I had that was all but ready for the trash. I decided to bring it back to life and fixed it up. Here is the shiny, new truck it became:

One of my other early attempts at repaining a toy car was this Hot Wheels Gun Slinger. Originally, it was Army green and had a gun. Well, I had long since lost the gun, so I repainted it black. But, I did keep the Army theme by applying a star decal to the hood:

Another bodystyle I like is station wagons. My parents had one when I was little and ever since then, I've loved them. I've had three real ones of my own since becoming an adult! So, anytime one is released in 1:64 scale, you can bet I try to get one. Here is a Hot Wheels 8 Crate, based on a 1955 Ford station wagon that I started to customize. When it's finished, it will be two-tone, white over red. But for now, here's what it looks like:

Other station wagons I've customized is one put out by Matchbox, an Audi RS6 Avant:

And what some might consider to be a station wagon, a Volkswagen T2 minibus, also by Matchbox:

Matchbox also makes a Dodge Magnum station wagon model, in two varieties. Here is one of them that I am going to stripe and make into an Illinois State Police car:

Here's another Police vehicle I made, only it started out as a Hot Wheels Highway Patrol car and became an Arizona Border Patrol car:

Here is a Maisto Chevrolet Camaro Concept that I painted anodized blue over a chrome base. It is one of the first cars I ever drilled out the rivets and took it apart the right way:

A Hot Wheels '65 Mustang Fastback that I painted gloss black and used the old basic wheels they used to use:

I started customizing this Zee Volkswagen Beetle to look like Herbie, The Love Bug. All it needs are the racing strips and numbers to be finished:

Here's an old Lindberg Line Hertz Truck that I painted black long ago. It's essentially a 1:64 scale model car, so it was easy to take back apart and paint:

My most recent custom is a Hot Wheels Cadillac Seville. They only made it for a couple years and in a couple different paint schemes. For one release, they used the big, rubber tires known as Real Riders. I decided this one needed to be a different color, I had stripped it down to bare metal waiting to make up my mind what color that would be. The other day I decided what I wanted, so I finished painting it and putting it back together. This is how it turned out:

So, customizing your own cars can be quite fun. It can take as little or as much time and effort as you wish to put out and at any level of effort, you can come up with some nice results. As I said, I'm not really very good at it, but I think they turn out to be some great looking customs that I'm proud to display!

Corvette Mania

I thought this time I might feature some images of the quintessential American sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette. Probably every company that ever made a diecast car has put at least one Corvette into their line, and this post will feature just a few from my meager collection of the fiberglass-bodied speedster. So, please enjoy the show!

Summer 1956 Corvette

Maisto 1957 Corvette

Hot Wheels 1958 Corvette

Hot Wheels 1969 Corvette

Hot Wheels 1980's Corvette

Zee 1985 Corvette

Maisto 1997 Corvette

Hot Wheels 2009 Corvette

Well, I hope you got to see all the sports cars I just presented. Chevrolet Corvettes are fast and if you blinked, you might have missed them!

Follow Ups

Well, I haven't been able to post for the last two weeks because a tremendous thunderstorm moved through my area and lightning struck my computer - taking it out completely. But, now I'm back online and until I can get caught up on everything, I wanted to post a few images to follow up on some previous posts. Well, here goes!

This is a Yat Ming Ford Station Wagon, here displaying a Fire Chief paint scheme. This vehicle will have it's own special post coming up soon - when I get some time to take more pictures of it - but for now it can be an addition to some of the station wagons I've featured here on Diecast Destination. Just check out these previous posts, Hot Wheels Station Wagons and More Station Wagons.

Here is another image of the Summer Toyota Celica LB Turbo GR.5 that I restored, with different wheels. I thought they resembled the ones on the original vehicle better, but I haven't decided whether I like these or the original ones I chose better. Time will tell, I suppose. You can check out all about those other wheels and the restoration process here.

This is an unused image of a Steam Roller from a special road construction post I did a short while back. There just doesn't seem to be many websites that feature 1:64 scale construction equipment, so like me, if you can't get enough of these tiny workhorses, you can see plenty more of them here!

What's not to like about pictures of plastic cows? Here is a Hot Wheels Stake Bed truck hauling them back to the farm.

As previously mentioned, more pictures of plastic cows to look at. This one is riding on the back of a Suntoys fire vehicle, with the bed removed.

This little Road Master Express Wheels Toyota Sequoia, by Suntoys, certainly got around during this post here, but it's back on the dusty (grassy?) trail. What adventures await for this little SUV? Stay posted and see!

And finally, this Matchbox 1965 Austin Mini Van just makes my mouth water to look at it! I plan on doing a post soon to show off a few of these tiny delivery vans that are in my collection. They seem to be popular and have come in many different guises which feature a multitude of business uses and corporate logos.

Summer Toyota Celica LB Turbo GR.5 Restoration

Summer Metal Products Manufacturing, Ltd., began making 1:64 scale toy diecast vehicles in the mid-1970's and marketed them under the name Summer (SM). Their first cars released used the numbers S671 through S698, starting approximately 1976-1978. Later in the same decade, they came out with their second group of vehicles using the numbers S8001 through S8108. It is from this second group and time period that the title car of this post first joined my collection. By 1980, my collection consisted of only two Summer vehicles, both acquired around the same time. The first one was a silver 1962 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III, with the base number S692. It is pictured below:

Knowing that the numbering system they used for their first run of cars ended at S698, I noticed that my Rolls-Royce was among their final castings in this group. In fact, it was the next to last release in that first collection. The other car I purchased was the Toyota Celica LB Turbo GR.5, with the base number S8001. Seeing as how it was the first casting in the second list of numbers they used, it made sense to me that I got them both around the same time and that they had both been released close together. The Roll-Royce still looks like the picture above, but the Toyota Celica suffered more abuse. I suppose it was bias on my part that saw me treating the Rolls-Royce with more care than a Toyota. Through the early years I had it, the paint faded and chipped off in several places and the adhesive paper decals it had come with became very worn. Perhaps the paint on this first version wasn't as sturdy or something. Anyway, I decided to customize my Toyota and repaint it a bright red. Here is what it looked like for that first "restoration" attempt:

When it was originally released, it was blue and had a racing theme with decals that consisted of a number "1" and Esso sponsorship. Over time, my original car became so worn it looked a lot like this other one now in my collection:

I have also seen this same Toyota Celica with different decals, real tampos this time, and sporting the number "12" and Marlboro sponsorship. This model looks like this:

The reason I know that mine was the earlier release is by examining the base of both of these models closely. The first one, the Esso "1," has a base that shows the Summer logo, the model number, the name of the car and where it was made - "Made in Hong Kong. " The second release, the Marlboro "12," has had the name of the car and the country of manufacture routed out of the original mold. To me, that signifies that it is a later release rather than earlier. I'm told by Steve Masson that the reason the name was removed from the bottom of the car is probable licensing issues with Toyota. That makes sense, now that I think about it. Compare both bases and see what I mean:

Esso "1" base

Marlboro "12" base

Esso "1" base detail

Marlboro "12" base detail

Tampo detail on the hood of the Marlboro "12" version

Decal detail on the hood of the Esso "1" version

Back wing detail of the Esso "1"

You can see that the decals are obviously paper on the earlier version. Even though the name "Esso" was all but obliterated on the back of the car, I was able to recognize that it was the Esso logo. Compare below to see what I mean:

I have seen four different styles of wheels used on this model and they include a "5 Star" wheel, a "6 Point" wheel and a "4 Spoke" wheel. I have also seen a version with an un-chromed, white plastic "5 Star" wheel used.

The wheels on my car were all used up, but you can still see that they were "6 Point" wheels:

Seeing it's deteriorated condition, even after I had repainted it years ago, made me want to "bring it back to life," so to speak and make it look like it did when I first got it. It deserved that much. Most Summer models have a simple chrome-plated plastic interior, which in the case of my Toyota, held the front and rear wheels in place. Here is what the base and interior looks like, with the addition of the new wheels it so needed:

I decided to paint it close to the original color, a dark blue, but I wanted it have a little extra sheen. I used an automotive paint which first required a silver basecoat. Here is the basecoat with some early wheels holding it up for a picture:

I have since painted it with a couple coats of the upper color and reassembled it. I'd like to recreate the exact look of the original adhesive decals and add them on in the proper places, but I don't know - I think it looks kind of nice with no designs on it anywhere. What do you think?

So, there is the complete story of my Summer Toyota Celica LB Turbo GR.5 - from it's humble beginnings to it's colorful present restored appearance. Tomica has made a version of this casting, so it must be popular with other people besides me. Even though Summer vehicles are considered to be some of the cheapest made, I think there's a certain attraction to some of their models. Does anybody else have Summer models in their collection that they treasure? I'm almost certain that I've seen this same casting of a Toyota Celica race car in a group of non-descript vehicles packaged in a big set. It's tempting to buy this set just to have a new version of my old favorite to go along with it's older sibling!

Update:

I've also been informed by Steve that this little Toyota was based upon a real-life race car driven by Harald Ertl, in 1977, and Rolf Stommeln in 1978. While my car seems loosely based on the paint scheme that was used in 1977, the Tomica version of this same car is almost identical to the 1978 paint scheme. The actual car showed speed and promise, but in the end turned out to be disappointing in it's racing results. Too bad! But I like my little version anyway!

Update:

As you can see, I have found a new version of this venerable casting. The only thing about it is that it is a cheaper version - the seats (there are two of them now instead of only one) are molded into the base and there's no dash or steering wheel; and the body looks similar but it is slightly different. It's much thinner metal, too. There are also side windows molded in, not just the windshield piece. I suppose it's mainly interesting in that they just won't let this casting die. It's painted with no racing decals on it and made to resemble a regular car: