The Celica was introduced in 1971 as the Asian version of the Ford Mustang, direct competitor and everything. It was a two-door coupe with a short end and long front, nippy looks and feels of it, birthed out of a four door(the ’64 Falcon for the ’64½ Mustang and ’71 Carina for the ’71 Celica) and… well, I was gonna say “giant engine with stupendous speed” but, the Celica didn’t do that. The Asian market was and always has been all about ripping the absolute most power possible from a small block, and the power of any of the available engines from 1971 through 1977 was… well, it was anywhere between 50HP and 90HP, nothing to brag about. But! It was still, y’know, a little fun car is all it had to be, right? It doesn’t need 375 horsepower and all, but I can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if it had a slightly-less of a giant ball of iron engine block, maybe a beefy V6 but, still. It’s just history. I should point out though, as to what bottlenecked the power of the Celica, Japan had extremely tight engine displacement size/overall car size rules(to some extend a relic-rule that originated in post-World War II years to cope with limited supplies and very small roads/places for cars to drive) that basically disallowed cars to have a engine bigger than 2.0L, or it would face penalties or simply not allowed on the road(go figure, this was while the very much bog standard American engine was 5.0L at the least). Coming to think of it, looking at both the Celica and Mustang, no matter how close they are, they are truly opposites, huh.
All the while the Celica, which became ever so slightly sportier during its first years(albeit, once again, with a power capacity of 80 or so horse power), was already a very small car, with hardly any weight to it, so it had that opposed to the still ever so brick-like Mustang II, though what is truly odd is that the 1974 Mustang II had give or take the same amount of power output in horsepower, yet any reviewer basically scolded the shit out of it for being anemic, pathetic and sad, once again that cultural divide showing hardcore given the Celica, over in Asia and Europe, was actually quite adored for the little nippy 2+2 that it was, and had the Mustang II ever been thoroughly turned into a export, I reckon Europe would’ve appreciated it a lot more(as it eventually would prove true with the Ford Escort, basically a Mustang III in spirit). This is one of those cars that perfectly puts the whole ordeal into perspective, as the Mustang II was being dragged through the dirt for being anemic and underwhelming, the Celica LB was being loved for being quicker and sportier looking than ever before, despite the two honestly from the outside could’ve been Goddamn brothers.
Like I’ve only got two issues with the kit as a whole, one being that the stock wheels are molded in black and you gotta do the chrome ring yourself. Luckily, Molotow pens to the rescue, which honestly, holy shit, can you tell the difference between chromed parts and parts painted/drawn on by a Molotow chrome pen? I honestly can’t tell anymore these days. The other downside is that the detail is quite faded, or so called “soft-detail”, slightly raised in the plastic rather than sharp detailed edges. The kit does remedy this by giving you a lovely set of photo etched parts, just about any emblem on the body is given to you in P.E. parts, which y’know, for a on average 20$ kit… I’m into this! The last kit I came across with included P.E. parts and still retailed same price and any other was the Revell Torino kit.
It’s just interesting to me, to see how the Asian market just… booms. Aoshima, Fujimi, Hasegawa and even to a extend Tamiya just keep on churning out new stuff, whether its re-releases with updated parts or entirely new tools, around the clock. And even then, when there’s a older, it’s still a good kit. Not every kit is top of the line, not even two thirds, to name a few like the Fujimi ’81 Camaro, their Lancer VIII series, most of their 1980s kits that were clearly motorized like old fashioned Arii kits of yore. But if I were to put the MPC ’76 Mustang II besides this kit, or even a more recent better attempt like AMT’s ’71 Charger and ’71 Duster kits… This one is a more pleasant build, more in-depth even without a engine than just about anything else offered. But then again, it’s just lamenting, if not pure whining on my part, maybe fueled entirely by the pure wish of a perfect mash-up of some mid-seventies American muscle car offering, with the quality of a Tamiya or Aoshima kit.
’77 Toyota Celica LB 2000GT specifications:
Kit: The Model Car series, #37
Skill Level: N/A
Parts: 121
Molded in: White, Black
Scale: 1/25