A newer find awaiting a cleaning and set up. Manufactured by Kiso Suzuki known in the 60’s and 70’s for producing high-quality, lower cost copies of iconic American brand guitars. The Tomson brand continued until 87 and will forever be known as a popular and affordable mail order brand in Japan!
For me toy cars started an appreciation and passion for all things automotive from my very first HW (Jack Rabbit Special). What budding car enthusiast would not cherish a miniature version of their favorite make or model or unobtainable dream car? Exactly. When I bought my first car (black 73 Jav-AMX 401 4 spd) in 79, it was not soon after a neighborhood friend gifted me a used orange Aurora Javelin pro stocker from his AFX set and said this is a your car! Well he was right, but was it actually better? Mine did not have a scoop like that! It took a while but collecting AMC toys seemed to go hand in hand with being an AMC fan, and owner. Yes of course toys are generally less expensive (smaller investment) and take up less space than their full size counterparts (unless things get out of control!). Here is that first gift and a few other Orange examples from my collection. There is no shortage of options out there even for a perhaps less well known car brand like ours. I personally prefer commercially available items from the past or present rather than one-off customs (although I do have those too). PS. I concluded years ago that the key to collecting is to first know that it was made and exists….then the search can begin! Happy hunting!
Who doesn’t like hors d’oeuvres or cake? Acquired from John Conde in the early 90’s… he had the smarts to save and archive many AMC corporate and dealer items, photos, negatives, brochures, etc., etc., but why not as he was their head PR man. Small party paper plate with 6” diameter (no markings or manufacturers marks on reverse). This was an exciting year for American Motors and would eventually spark my interest in Javelins and AMXs of the same year through ‘74.
A fun part of the car hobby for me was finding and “collecting” parts. This is a great example I would like to share. First saw it for sale in 94 but could not afford it. 4 or 5 years later it presented itself again and I made a deal for significantly less than the 94 price. Alas, as with most of my other treasured parts, cars, and parts cars, the many projects I was acquiring for never got off the ground, and today they are in custody of a new owner (who has a great track record of builds). Beware of imposters however we know of at least one incorrect clone out there!
Functional cowl induction, manual steering, 3.54 rear, T-10V in P1 paint with with white hood stripe, am/fm, no air. Exactly what I wanted - then finally saw the add in a local paper two towns over one night after my restaurant job! Went the next day to put $20 deposit (can you imagine that today?). Car was 6 years old and sold for less than 1/2 its original price. 1979 view with one of my neighborhood friends (still friends today, but the car was sold in 2024, new owner since completely restored). Back in the day did mild rebuild: valve job, cam, rings, bearings, R4B intake, dual point, headers, Cragars with L60s, and changed the black carpet for red and painted the engine bay red as well before the engine went back in. The velocity stack was for the photo op only, cowl air clear went back on. If one could only be 17 again!
Can anyone help with manufacturer, model and year(s) produced? Fan of MIJ, and got from a seller in Japan but has Samshin (MIK) pickups. Bolt on neck, white trem cover on reverse. Head stock could be Samick and I thought with the unusual/unique pick guard it would be easier to identify. Body is down scale from its inspiration. Currently de-stickered but no identifying marks found on a minor disassembly (neck not removed). Sorry poor picture was the listing photo.
Found in 1998 but sold in 2024 and regretted instantly. Not a true factory shadow mask and was a driver not a perfect show car but awesome color combo and rare red leather. Some restoration between 1985 and early to mid 90’s. Was happy to be the caretaker for the time I was the owner.
New to learning guitar but have been a fan of 80’s MIJ explorer type and V guitars for some time so when I found this in a small guitar shop near where I work I had to take this one year only example home. No VX case or even gig bad sadly, but will continue to look. Also hope to find a nice VX-2 someday.
One of Matsumoku’s finest (IMO) even without the zebra stripe finish, but was happy to find this one prior owner example with OHSC and paperwork.