This car was a little discovery for me, since I never heard of Shinsei before. It is the average size of a 1:43 car, although it real scale is 1:38. Probably the real DeTomaso was a very small car.
When observing it and deciding wether to buy it or not, I saw the Made in Japan text on the base, so I knew it had to be quite old, somewhere by the late 70s to early 80s, when die-cast was still being produced in Japan before moving to other countries in Asia.
Shinsei is another die-cast and toy manufacturer from which there is very few information online. I could just found that they are famous for several die-cast construction machines, a series of space toys and some other die-cast and toys. A weeks after I bought this car, I saw a mint on box truck by Shinsei, but I didn’t buy it.
Shinsei Japan shouldn’t be mistaken with the Indian toy company Shinsei, that is still active (it was founded in 1985) and also produces miniature cars.
The model I am presenting today is quite nice, it seems a bit bulky, but this is probably only because they had to put that pullback motor inside, so the car is higher than it should. Otherwise the cast is nice and has very good details, like the pop-up headlamps that can be activated by a lever under the car, practicable doors, or the nice stickers that it originally had (not the ones in my model), that actually correspond to a race decoration once used in this car (with black trunk).
I have seen this model in red and in yellow, although the red version could have either red or white spoiler.
Cool find! Find another great DeTomaso in entry #282.
FACTS AND FIGURES:
- Name: DETOMASO PANTERA (Nr. 408)
- Scale: 1:38
- Year: Around 1980
- Company: Shinsei (Japan)
- Size: approx. 9 cm
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