Wednesday, July 11, 2012

4x4 Hauls: Tonka Turbo Trucksters & Tomy Choro Q

I have been mentioning that one of my sources for my hauls are flea markets also known here in the Philippines as "Ukay-Ukay". I make it a point that I try to visit all of the flea markets that I know once a month, particularly during their "New Arrivals". During one of my visits I found this Hilux No. 02 Choro Q HG Big Tire Series, there are broken and missing parts but for a mere 10  pesos and considering that this is the first time that I saw a Big Tire Series, I decided to buy it. 


(Just ignore the cars at the background :D those are for later)



I really liked the details of the truck, specially the shovel and the winch. At the back of my mind I was saying that I will restore this car. Well, that did not happen. :D I just did not have the time to restore it and the lack of pictures for reference in the net discouraged me. I do have several Choro Q's in my collection, I did try to collect them but the Choro Q's where pulled out from the stores and that made me stop collecting them. One of my favorite Choro Q haul that I have is my Jeep Wrangler, one of my Choro Q colleague mentioned that this is a pretty hard to find model. I am really not sure how true that is but here it is. 







What I really liked about the Choro Q's is the detail that goes with these little cars. With a little touch up and modifications, you can easily make them look like the real thing, and they have a huge line of different make and models. 

I know you saw a couple of Big Tire's at the background so let's get going. Years after my first Big Tire series catch, I found these trucks displayed among the cars that were tagged as new arrivals at the same flea shop where I got the first one. The cars are labeled Tonka Turbo Monsters, and I believe this series were released together with the Tonka Turbo Tricksters and Tonka Penny Racers in the U.S.A.. Here is a quote from Choro Q Wikipedia:

"In addition to "Penny Racers", Choro-Q pullback cars were also marketed under the Tonka branding in the late 1980s as "Tonka Turbo Tricksters". "Penny Racers" in the US are still marketed by Funrise, but are less popular for collectors compared with their true-to-life counterparts marketed elsewhere, and versus the ones formerly sold by Tonka. "Penny Racers" tend to be garishly colored and given silly names, ignoring the actual names of the makes and models, and marketed for US children, whereas the Choro Q in the far East are made to a much higher quality standard and many are specifically designed for the adult collector, with high detail and/or tiny, incredibly detailed racing graphics and occasionally other realistic gimmicks such as fold-out headlights."

There were a total of four cars displayed on the shelves and I picked them up immediately, they were priced at 20 pesos each, after I have secured the four cars I started to look for other cars that may have been placed somewhere inside the shop, but there was none. I went to the cashier and checked out with four cars for more or less $2. 

I am really not sure of the models of the cars, but two of them has the same Big Tire Series Hilux casting, one is sporting a Mercedes Benz emblem and the last one looks like a two door box type sedan. (I hope you can help me with the models, information about these little cars are really rare.) Some of the cars has paint chips and missing parts but over all they are a much much better samples of the Big Tire models compared to my first haul. Well, it's time for me to stop talking and start showing the pictures. 



















Well that is it for now, thanks for looking and Keep on Over Haulin!

2 comments:

  1. black suv is a mercedes benz G-wagen(from the 80s to present model of MB) and the boxy car with eight ball design is a honda city turbo R. its a popular car in japan in the 80s

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing that information to us sir!

      Delete