For fans of the miniature model car, it’s a great time to be kicking. And ifin you have a hankering for ’70s boats, so much the better! Some of the recent diecast companies are coming out with stuff I never dreamed would have been released. Case in point: Today’s Broughamtastic twosome.
I’ve always loved little model Cadillacs, dating way, way, WAYYYY back to my early childhood and a certain 1/64 scale 1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham my parents got me. Along with an identically-hued blue Continental Mark IV, these baby Broughams were always in my mitts between, say, the ages of two and four.
I never lost that love for model cars, and my living room, with myriad 1960s-70s dealer promotional models, 1/18 scale diecast, and other assorted four-wheels miniatures attest to it.
Anyway, my two newest acquisitions are today’s subject, both recent releases by Auto World. AW has done some really cool cars over the past 5-6 years. They eschew the usual Mustangs, Chargers, Camaros and Corvettes, Corvettes, Corvettes and instead do cars like the 1961 Dodge Dart, 1967 Cadillac Eldorado, 1964 Ford Galaxie 500XL and 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger.
The Buick is a fairly new casting, and is also available in cream with tan interior or as a non-woodgrained ’74 model in your choice of burgundy or light green. The ’76 Coupe de Ville has been released in several colors, including Sable Black, Phoenician Ivory and Crystal Blue Firemist, but when I saw they were going to do a red-and-white variant, I couldn’t wait for it!
The detail is really well done, and each car comes in its own tiny cardboard box, just like the Made-in-England Lesney Matchboxes of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. Since Toys R Us has vanished from the scene, the only local emporium that stocks them here is Wally World, but I’ve found them via diecast retailers as well, such as American Excellence and Diecastdirect.
I highly recommend them if you’re into ’70s land yachts! And if any AW higher-ups are reading this, how about a Continental Mark IV or ’76 Eldorado convertible? *fingers crossed*
It is nice that on well done classic die casts, you can still get whitewalls. Great detail!
What scale are they?
1/64, Matchbox size.
I got my drivers license in my dads 1972 Buick estate wagon, white with wood grain sides and a brown interior, turbohydromatic 400 and a 455, fun car
I probably had that same Caddy, along with the Mark IV, a Datsun Fairlady Z, lime green-over-red 911, blue W126 S-Klasse, older Rolls Phantom, and maybe a couple others I don’t remember, from a “Luxury Car” set out of the Sears X-Mas catalog one year.
That Caddy got scratched up something terrible, so a few years later, I found a brown bustleback Seville to replace it in the collection.
The detailing on these two puts those older ones to shame! Wow! I just spent two hours looking through some of the offerings on those two sites mentioned in the article—still a kid at heart!
Nope..just those six cars. (Seven, counting the Seville which replaced the Talisman in the set.)
I had all those model cars too, my Rolls was champagne colored, and the Porsche was a silver 930 Turbo. I still have most of them now. And bought more than a few on eBay in the recent past. Got a mint Seville, to replace my original, which I destroyed, haha.