Wasn’t able to get pics of the Ferrari for Ferrari Fridy in time, so this will have to do instead. As I’m sure many of you know by now through my many posts and comments on it, I’m a HUGE Skyline fanboy, and a fan of it’s successor/younger brother, the GTR. I’m also a big F&F fan as well. So we’ll start with that.
Going back in the day, my very first car was a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse. I didn’t see The Fast and the Furious until a few years after it came out, after I already had my Eclipse. I finally saw the first movie and instantly connected with Brian O’Connor since his hero car for the first part of the movie is a 2nd gen. Eclipse. So after watching the first one, I went out and rented 2 Fast 2 Furious as well. My connection with Brian continued even more with his hero car for the first part of that movie being an R34 GTR, and me being a huge Skyline fan, it just made sense. Brian continued his string of GTRs throughout the subsequent movies so my connection has always stayed the same. GTRs and F&F just go together, as strange as that may sound.
So naturally, with F&F 7, they sent Brian out with a bang, with a dark metallic blue R35 GTR being his hero car for the majority of the movie. And with how big this film was, I knew that there would be a ton of merchandise released, and that somewhere in there would be a diecast of Brian’s GTR.
Well walking through Target last weekend, I just happened to pass an end-cap on the backside of an aisle and found 2 different variants of that GTR; one in 1/32 scale and on in 1/24 scale, both made by Jada. I decided I had to have both of them. And now, after bearing with me through all of the back-story, I will finally review them both, in one post.
The 1/32
We’ll start off with the smaller one. It’s a 1/32 scale, and very disappointing. The fist thing that caught my eye on this car were the wheels. The wheels are stupidly thin. If we’re going on scale, I’d say the wouldn’t be much wider than a comparable spare doughnut. And they don’t fit the width of the vehicle, so there’s that ugly fender overhang as well.
The casting is decent, although the front bumper doesn’t match it’s 1/24 brother, but is a little closer to the movie car, as it has two splitters sticking out on the front bumper instead of one straight across piece like the 1/24 has. It still doesn’t actually look like the one from the movie though. The front emblem is not detailed very well either. I know it’s difficult to get the badges right on something on a smaller scale, but still, they could’ve done a bit more. They didn’t even paint the side markers that they casted in. Oh well.
Moving around back, it’s more of same. The tampo for the GTR badge is meh. Not scaled properly, but whatever. The taillights are decent, but the exhaust bothers me. I know it’s only 1/43, but they still could’ve done a little something to make the exhaust tips stand out instead it just looking like there are weird circles on the bumper for no reason.
Neither the hood or trunk open on this car, but the doors do. That’s about what I would expect from a $7 1:43, so no complaints there. The mirrors are metal and part of the cast, so that’s good.
And finally the interior. Pretty lackluster, but again, it’s a $7 1:43, so I wasn’t expecting much. I’d have liked to have seen at least a little more detailing with the center stack / shifter, but no dice there.
All in all, for $7, not a bad little car to have sit on my desk.
Now, on to the big boy; the 1:24!
First thing I noticed when pulling this thing out of the box where the wheels. I don’t know what they did when they were packaging it, but the tires on the driver’s side were slid off the rim somewhat. Luckily it was something easy to fix (just slide them back in place), but still weird to see. Especially considering the tires on the passenger’s side were perfectly in place.
So out of the box, the casting looks pretty nice. Starting with the front, you can see the proper badge and grille, the painted side markers, the clear plastic headlights, etc. Everything you’d expect from a decent 1:24. The only issue here is that the front bumper does not match that of the actual movie car. The movie card had two little fins on either side of the bumper that stuck out. But, I actually like this look better, so I can overlook that.
The car has an opening hood, trunk, and doors. Looking under the hood, you can see a decently detailed VR38DETT. Pretty accurate. Obviously not a 100% replica, but still pretty good. I might have to do a little paint work to make it look how I want, but that’s a project for another day.
Looking at the rear, it’s much better than it’s 1:43 little brother. The badge proportions are better, the lights are nicer, it actually has a license plate, and they even did the chrome exhaust tips. Again, it leaves a little to be desire there, but it’s a $15 Jada model. I would like to have seen actually exhaust tips that were hollow, but that’s another thing to add to the list of upgrades I’ll get around to one day, maybe...
And now for the interior. I got my wish from the 1:43. Accurate details! The steering wheel looks much more like the real thing with the GTR logo in center and all. The pedals are even painted, which I wasn’t expecting.
And one of the last, but one of my favorite details (I dont’ know why) is the nicely done brake rotors and calipers. All they’re missing are the Nissan and Brembo logos.
And to finish it all off, here are a few side by side shots.
So, if you’re going to go out and buy them, get the 1:24. I recommend it for any Skyline/GTR/F&F fan.