[REVIEW] Tomica Nissan Cedric 280E Brougham

Tomica time again, also Land of the Rising Sun-day. Today we examine a car that represents the era. This is Tomica 13-4, the Nissan Cedric 280E Brougham. This casting entered the range in July 1980, and remained until February 1984. This piece shows many Tomica qualities of this period:

This angular upmarket car would have been considered modern when new. The Cedric model is unknown to North Americans, as we did not receive an equivalent until the Infiniti M cars of the early 00s. This car would be a step up from a Maxima/Bluebird. The casting features pleasing medium blue metallic paint with a silver tampo stripe. Scale is a claimed 1:65, likely accurate as usual. Of course, it has the springy suspension, snappy door action, and crisp glazing we kn0w and love about vintage Tomica. From all angles, it is a quality item:

Front and rear lenses in translucent red plastic? Be still my heart. Doors open to reveal a detailed interior (being a Brougham, you know it is plush) with accurate steering wheel:

Front and rear have similar detail:

The base is metal, which adds heft, and has plenty of detail:

This example is lucky enough to live in its original black box:

This is a model I am happy to have in my collection, I think I also have one in white. I like relatively normal cars as would be seen on the street, and this one has plenty of period JDM flair:

Some 1:1s in different trims from innermobil.com. The little window in the C-pillar catches my eye, too bad this was not cast in to the scale model - I suspect it would have been difficult, there must have been a production-related reason to omit it. The mid-late malaise era was a time when unusual C-pillar treatments and windows were a fad, and this car joined in: