Alfa × Ferrari

The 1920 Targa Florio was the first major race that Enzo Ferrari participated in as a driver for Alfa Romeo—a role he would stay in until the 1930s, when he transitioned over to a management position.

Ferrari parted ways with Alfa Romeo in 1939, but it wasn't until after WWII, in 1947 that he founded his renowned car company.

The Ferrari company logo was based on the emblem used by Francesco Baracca on the side of his aircraft in WWI.

Ferrari cars tend to be prohibitively expensive for most, but Alfa Romeo cars are a bit more affordable (though maybe they aren't particularly reliable).

1:1 Alfa Spider (105/115 series)

There are many diecast models of both Ferrari and Alfa Romeo cars, but the only ones made in 1/72 scale were manufactured by Kyosho.

These models are often used as promotional items for canned coffee in Japanese convenience stores, and known as can coffee omake (缶コーヒーおまけ).

The brand of the coffee is often conflated with the brand of the models, perhaps because of the packaging that some of the cars come in.

The first set to be covered in this post will be the Alfa Romeo × Kyosho Famous Car Mini Car Collection (アルファロメオ×京商歴代名車ミニカーコレクション).

These models were used in the Georgia European Rich Black sales campaign (ジョージア ヨーロピアン コクのブラックキャンペーン), and were available at 7-11 (and possibly other) convenience stores.

I didn't bother verifying the scale accuracy of these cars, but they seem fine to me. I would have preferred if the cars windows were made of clear plastic instead of opaque black plastic though.

The second set is the Ferrari Legacy Masterpiece Collection (フェラーリ 軌跡の名車コレクション), which I believe was exclusive to Lawson convenience stores (at least for this particular campaign).

These cars are often classfied as Hot Wheels, due to the legalities surrounding the use of the Ferrari logo on the models.

Again, I didn't verify scale accuracy, but the cars are all really nice. The one issue with these models is that some of them exhibit paint blistering/bubbling, which really detracts from their character as high-end sports cars.

I have seen other Ferrari Legacy sets with cars in different colors, but I don't have any examples.

I wish they also made a model of the 308 GTS, which became an iconic car of the 80s through exposure in Hollywood movies and on TV shows.

National Lampoon's Vacation, 1983

Mustang

The car that led to the birth of the "pony car" classification with its iconic logo celebrated its 50ᵗʰ birthday this year.

The first generation of Ford Mustang was clearly influential to both the auto industry and drivers, but by the time I was interested in cars the brand had degenerated to the execrable third generation Mustang.

The Mustang has been reproduced in 1/72 scale by a few different companies, but classic first generation models are still relatively scarce for such an iconic car.

The most commonly found first generation model is the '64½ Mustang manufactured by Kinsmart. These are toy cars with a pull-back motor, and do not seem to be well thought of in the diecast car collecting community. Most of the ones that are available now are sold as keychains.

The keychain versions still retain the pull-back motor, so I guess you might be able to send your keys to someone nearby in a pinch.

More elusive models belong to the Kyosho MiniCar Collection, and were released as part of their Ford 100ᵗʰ Anniversary Collection. These models were given away as prizes for buying two cans of coffee at Lawson in October of 2007.

The models are a 1967 Ford Mustang GT-390 (green), and a 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302 (blue).

The most easily available model is probably the Yat Ming Mustang GT, which represents a fifth generation vehicle. I believe that the model is the same as the one from the Schuco Jr. line.

I only checked the dimensions for the wheelbase, and going by that, I'd say the models are definitely accurate for 1/72 scale.

Classic 1967 Mustang