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Greenlight’s second wave of Muscle Car Garage series castings includes this 1965 Dodge Coronet 500 hardtop
photo courtesy Greenlight
Breaking from its tradition of Indy-500-based vehicles, Greenlight made a splash in early-to-mid 2006 with its 1:64 scale range of muscle cars. High quality, limited production (just 5,000 pieces each color), metal bodies and chassis, opening hoods, great-looking wheel and tire combos and spot-on subject matter (including vehicles not done in small-scale before) were all part of the appeal.
The Indianapolis-based company’s second wave of castings has just touched down: the latest in their Muscle Car Garage series includes a 1970 Olds 442, two flavors of new Mustang (GT500 coupe and GT convertible), the 2006 Camaro concept, and two that haven’t been done in small-scale previously, a 1965 Dodge Coronet 500 hardtop, and a 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T hardtop. Each comes in two styles, stock and custom (limited to custom wheels and paint). Proportions and paint on all of our samples are flawless, and the grey-painted chassis (a nice touch) are individually serialized to maintain collectability. The Mopars come with plastic tops, indicating that convertible variants are on the horizon. You wouldn’t know it without touching them though.
Not all is perfect as we survey the landscape though: the otherwise gorgeous ’67 Coronet R/T is marred by painted roof trim that doesn’t match up to the vent window (making the one-piece roof look like two disconnected pieces), the hood doesn’t seem to want to close all the way, and the detail in the grille is so fine that the silver paint simply obscures it. The yellow inserts in our Mustang convertible are indifferently sprayed. And it’s impossible to open the hood on the Camaro.
Still, the good overwhelmingly outweights the bad. Keep in mind also that Greenlight is still a relatively new company that has not yet reached the height of its powers. Who knows what other treats we can expect in the months and years to come? For information on what other new releases are coming, including releases in other scales, check out www.greenlighttoys.com ; we got our sample case from our pals at www.1stopdiecast.com .
(This post originally appeared in the January 4, 2007, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)
