On my 201st post is a seldom seen minibus which was never sold in the US with the Toyota Coaster from Tiny.
This is also the 4th showcase of items that came from Dek34.
Info from wikipedia: This casting is a Toyota Coaster which is a single-decker 17-passenger minibus produced by Toyota Motor Corporation. It was introduced in 1969, with the second generation introduced in 1982, followed by the third generation in 1993 and the fourth generation in late 2016.
The Coaster is common not only in Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia, but also in the developing world for minibus operators in Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.
In fact a number of unlicensed clones of third generation Coasters have been made by chinese owned automobile companies like Jiangnan Motors, Joylong Motors, etc. Not surprising since I’ve read from car magazines like ‘Car and Driver’ or something similar which showed quite a few models from China with lookalike SUVs and sedans from famous Japanese branded cars.
To those who are not familiar, Tiny is a Hong Kong based company that produces die cast and diorama accessories that is geared towards the look of the city of Hong Kong.
This company is not as well know as Tomica or Kyosho as I believe it might be due to the limited model selections which are mostly emergency and commercial vehicles that are used in Hong Kong.
Although not quite correct on how the passenger door should open, it still has good play value.
The headlights are chrome plated instead of lens and the taillights are painted on. Tiny die cast although has good detail still needs some polishing on the rough edges so to speak as there are some obvious gaps as seen on the photos. The printed chinese characters and letters on the casting are almost readable and look slightly washout if you enlarge it compare to TLV.
Here is the 1:1 of the model which seems to be based on the 3rd generation.
Although it would be great if this casting is available in TLV but if you are a JDM fan that does not limit themselves only to exotic or popular models, the casting by Tiny is still a good one to have.