[REVIEW] Tomica Audi 5000 Turbo

Tomica time is finally here again. Today we examine Tomica F32-2, the Audi 5000 (C2) Turbo. This model entered the lineup in January, 1983, and was made for at least a few years. This casting was obviously intended for the US market, so I will refer to it as a 5000 rather than a 100/200. I really like this casting, it is such a piece of the 80s, as one can see:

The tampo proudly announces the period when this was made, and the pearly white paint is nice. It is pretty decent from all angles - the quirks in my eyes are that it doesn’t have a soft pillar at the end of the rear door, and that the proportions are a little off, making it look like a slightly chopped top. Scale claims to be a relatively small 1:65, which I believe is accurate. The quad lights tell me this was made for North American consumption (not to mention that it is labeled as a 5000) - 1978-79 NA spec models had round lights. These cars were high maintenance and finicky, and real 1:1 examples are quite rare in NA today. I have always liked the crisp 70s modern German design of these cars. As usual for Tomica of this era, the interior is nice, and steering wheel design appears accurate:

The front leaves no doubt as to what this is, rear is fine too. Of course the suspension is nice and springy, and doors snap shut with trademark crispness:

Base is plastic, decent amount of detail typical for the era:

No box, but I am still very happy to have this. This casting is apparently quite hard to find when not in taxi livery. Yeesoo posted a taxi example not long ago, along with a blue one from his childhood fleet - blue is also quite rare. The first time I saw this casting I knew had to have one, and got lucky finding one almost in my backyard. I am only aware of one other small scale casting of this car from the era - a Siku (which has the soft pillar mentioned earlier). This is a fairly unusual piece:

And the real thing:

With a couple shots from the 1982 classic “E.T.” - if one is an 80s movie obsessive like me (I’ve even visited the filming locations), they will remember the family who sheltered E.T. had one of these cars: