Once in a while you run across a die cast or set of die casts that make you “OOOO” and “AHH” like it is the Fourth of July Fireworks display – I had that feeling when I first opened the MiniChamps Bentley Brooklands released a few years back. So, when it Kyosho announced that Release 72 of the Minicar Collection was to be ALL Bentleys, my excitement was to be expected.
After finding a decent price-point, I pre-ordered the set from a respectable online retailer for all 15 of the pieces. I anxiously awaited their arrival – sadly some 8 weeks later I believe – but was not disappointed as they were astounding. I pulled each on from its packaging and looked at them through their bubble – I was giddy, yes giddy, with excitement. All 15 were quickly photo’d so they could be unscrewed from the base and the actual casting detail reviewed more closely. One after another I removed them, the next more beautiful than the previous. They were elegant, they were stunning, they were all Bentley and they were never before done in 1/64th scale.
As I was preparing to complete this article about the castings – I went on line to research the chase piece, as Kyosho regularly puts a chase casting in each series with a random insert. I found two! iI fell in love with those and had to have them as well. There were only a few available but they were out there and I quickly snatched them up.
The first known as the SECRET CAR is is the Continental Supersports Convertible in a matte black with black interior. It was a different color scheme that the two included in the set.
The second a release was a special casting from the main distributor known as Karuwaza online. They produced their exclusive Continental Supersports in matte black with red seats.
The castings themselves are gorgeous. While the bases don’t present much in the line of detail, the bodies and interiors more than make up for. The paint is impeccable, trim detail, mirrors and wheels; everything down to the logo tampos is perfect. They each were small pieces of art and well worth their (not inexpensive) purchase price. Details and accurate piece like these are is not always prevalent in today’s die cast market.
Bentley is not a brand we see often in 1/64th scale – the Continental Supersport has been done by Matchbox, Hot Wheels, MiniChamps and even Tomy recently, but the vehicles in the Bentley stable have not. They are new, fresh and accurate in their detail; welcomed addition to our somewhat overlooked outside the United States scale.
This collection strays fomr the traditional Kyosho MiniCar Collection offerings in that it is only 15 pieces – eight castings with two color choices of each and then one GTC race version – all are new body castings for the company. CircleK, Kyosho’s partner on these releases, has done more cars and more colors on previous releases. This tradition has increased pricing and created some redundancy – this smaller release is much more palatable both price and quantity wise. The cases are a packed as a box of 15, same as the collection count, so it was easy to acquire all of the regular releases in one box. Other series have been packed in counts of 20 and with 24-30 pieces per release you would need to purchase multiple cases to resolve a full collection.
As I gathered the pieces, including the arrival of the chase castings, and returned to my online research to pursue the original article intent – a comparison of the real Bentleys to their smaller die cast replicas – I found MORE Kyosho Bentleys! The find was bittersweet – there was excitement for additional pieces but discouragement screaming from my wallet. But where did the additional castings come from?
It appears Kyosho did a re-run of the line for their Kyosho Original Series in some secondary colors – I would suspect to leverage the value out of the casting molds. The additional series offers 14 pieces and were not exclusive to the SunKus/CircleK stores as the previous release. These pieces were also not package in blind boxes; opting for clear acrylic cases and simple black boxes. They were also at a much higher price point. While expensive, they were a must-have and raised the total number of castings in the collection to 31 total pieces:
15 original MiniCar Collection Pieces
1 Secret Chase
1 Bonus Chase
14 Original Series releases
My hope now is that they do an additional all Bentley series with cars like the Brooklands, maybe a stretch Mulsanne, the new SUV perhaps or draw from the endless subject matter in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and truly round this series out. Fingers and toes crossed. Now if only someone made a Bentley Dealership in the scale…….. hmmm…
Picture Reference is below:
KYOSHO MINICAR COLLECTION – BENTLEY
KYOSHO ORIGINAL SERIES – BENTLEY
Bentley Turbo R
Bentley Continental Supersports
Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible
(Note: Matte Black is identical to Secret Chase Car in MiniCar Collection)
Bentley Mulsanne
Bentley Arnage T
Bentley Azure
Bentley Flying Spur
MATCHING CASTING SUBSETS
Deep Red
Charcoal Gray
White Pearl
Matte Black
Please NOTE: Not to be out-done is MiniChamps who have also released three Bentley pieces as well:
Many thanks to 829Japan Shop, MINI-MOTORS, Inc. and Kyosho for use of the pictures.
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