When Toyota introduced their Toyopet Crown to penetrate the American market, it was a total failure and was yanked in 1961 after fewer than 2,000 were sold.
That was the time when the abbreviation JDM was unheard of and there was this belief that Japanese car was known for its unreliability. I even heard a story where I grew up that if your Japanese car ever breaks down you might as well just leave it to be pick up by a junk yard truck.
But Toyota did not give up and the Corona which was introduced in May 1957 became Toyota’s second sedan in their hierarchy of products, just below the Crown.
Let me introduced to you the Toyotpet Corona PT20 1960 by Ebbro
This 2nd generation Corona T20 was also known as the Tiara, when exported by Toyota Motor Corporation.
It sold better than the Crown and had a lot less mechanical problems. The Tiara ended up being the only sedan sold by Toyota in the USA until the reworked second-generation Crown appeared. By that time, the Tiara had been redesigned and given the Corona label from the Japanese domestic market.
Although the Corona (latin for Crown) was discontinued in 2004, this with the Land Cruiser pave the way for Toyota to become one of the top brand in the U.S.
It was said that the front mask of the T20 Corona is reminiscent of the 1955–1957 Ford Thunderbird and if I may add the Opel Rekord P1.
Ebbro did a good job with this replica with a lot of details and individual parts. And it freely rolls. As expected with this kind of replicas, there are no opening parts.
Lastly this model was also made into 1/64 by Tomica with their TLV series.