Hope everyone are recovering well from food coma and or Black Friday. Lets make it more jolly with something diecast related.
This is one of the latest product from GL, the Mechanic’s Workshop diorama sets. It’s offered in two different layouts, one is the Vintage Gas Station and the other is the Weekend Workshop shown here. For series 1 of the diorama release offers 3 liveries: Texaco, Gulf, or STP Oil you see here.
The packaging for this already got a flying start. Typically, when it comes to packaging, Greenlight is the last word for friendly packaging. They always go for the industrial grade plastic that severe your digits before you even made a dent in the packaging. Granted, the purpose is for theft prevention but for us diecast collectors that enjoys DLM our diecasts make it feel like a punishment.
This however, was very well thought out, with a cardboard outer case with resealable tabs that were easy to release and plastic case inside holding the set that slides out. No damage to the packaging or your fingers and can be reused for storage.
The diorama comes with a detachable wall to provide better access to place your diecasts as well as give you more photographing options. The wall has very well defined brick texture with painted wall and poster in the form of pre-applied stickers
The whole building is plastic with several pieces such as the garage doors and all the cabinets inside are diecast metal. The thing doesn’t feel flimsy and I can move or carry it with confidence.
So that brings me on to a little comparison, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve done a diorama review of my car dealership diorama by Tomicarama which you check out here: http://liveandletdiecast.kinja.com/tomicarama-1674437112
How does the GL diorama compare. For a start, the all assembled piece and its compact size makes this easy to move around compare to the Tomicarama which is larger with a base designed like a puzzle that makes it a task to move even inch on the table. Prices between these two are completely on different planets. The Tomicarama cost a little over $100 while the GL cost just a mere $21 including tax. However, the Tomicarama does come with accessories for in and around the diorama like furniture, tires, and even a figurine. While GL diorama doesn’t comes with any accessories which I’m rather perplexed by, since GL makes an array of garage accessories and even if it adds an extra $5-$6 to each set to include them it’ll still be worth it. Another negative for the GL diorama that many already addressed which is lacking the option of a roof over the diorama. Me personally isn’t that concerned since the diorama mainly had photography in mind and a roof will hinder lighting. However, this is one of GL’s first attempt in entering the diorama game and there’s no doubt it’s very impressive. Hopefully it’ll branch out from here with more features and different dioramas for different occasions.
The verdict is that both have equal fortes and foibles, both provide countless hours of fun whether from a diorama standpoint or for photography. These two now live alongside each other with the workshop as an expansion to the dealership for cars needing tune up and move over to dealership once work is complete.
Choosing which of the GL Mechanic’s Corner to purchase was extremely difficult since they all look great, I spent no less than 20 minutes standing in the middle of the aisle being a derp trying to figure out which one I want. Both the Texaco and the Gulf oil are the Vintage Gas Station however the Gulf Oil always wins out for me. So then, it was between the Gulf Oil and the Weekend Workshop. After a long game of mental tennis, I chose the Weekend Workshop because I feel its got more value for photoshoot than the rest.
As it turns out, I’m not the only that thought of this; most of you on here that picked up a GL Mechanic’s Corner went for the workshop and I have seen the photography potential and I couldn’t stop experimenting the possibilities since. Check out the Part 2 of this review where my experiments are showcased.