Table of contents for Spring 2021 in Die Cast X

IXO Kenworth 521 Bull Nose and Ford LTL-9000 1:43 | $30ea (approx.) IXO is delivering two unusual big rig models in 1:43 from different eras of trucking history. Kenworth’s first post-war design, the 500 “Bull Nose” shared characteristics with both cab-over-engine (COE) and conventional series trucks. It was in production from 1948-56 and IXO’s model, wearing “Ross Mackie Transport” livery, is from 1950. Ford got into the Class 8 long-haul truck market in 1976 with the introduction of the LTL-9000—a long-hood, tandem-axle version of its L-series truck. IXO labels its 1:43 version an early production LTL from 1978, but the square headlights and blue oval hood emblem didn’t appear until 1991 so this is a late-production 1991-95 model with a sleeper cabin and a 375hp Cat 3406 turbodiesel for power.…

Although introduced in the 88, the Rocket V8 was used across the flagship 98 as well, powering the top trim vehicles in both lines. As the number of Rocket-powered offerings increased so too did the size and power of the Rocket V8 itself. The first upgrade arrived in 1952 in the form of a four-barrel carb version of the 303ci Rocket making 160hp. It was used in the new Super 88 and top-option 98s starting in 1952. The Rocket V8 was bored up to 324ci to go with the newly restyled 1954 model 88, and horsepower climbed to 185. By the final year of the second-generation 88—1956—steadily increasing compression ratios had the top Rocket boasting 240hp! Olds enlarged the Rocket to 371ci for the gorgeous 1957 Super 88 and a…

In 1968 Olds released an enlarged version of the lowdeck 330 small block Rocket that displaced 350ci. It was available across most of the Oldsmobile range and, like its predecessor, was designed to be the more economical option for those who didn’t need the brawn of a big block. While most of the 350 Rockets lived in family sedans and station wagons, Olds recognized the demand for a less expensive performance car among younger customers so it introduced the W-31 package for the 350, nicknamed the “Ram Rod.” By contrast, the Rally 350 was designed as more of an all-around performance and appearance package for the Cutlass rather than just a hot engine option. It was available for one year only—1970—and was perhaps the most visually arresting car Olds ever…

Prior to 1970, GM’s corporate rules prohibited engines larger than 400ci in production intermediates like the 442, but there were no such strictures on special models built by outside aftermarket firms. Olds had utilized Hurst Performance shifters in the 442 since its introduction, but for 1968 the company took the partnership to a new level. It collaborated on 515 silver and black Hurst/Olds coupes based on the 442/Cutlass that used a 390-horse 455 borrowed from the full-size Delta 88. The Hurst Olds H/O returned for 1969 wearing an updated grille and hood and a new color—white with gold stripes—that would come to be synonymous with the Hurst Olds in the coming years. After taking two years off, Hurst again produced the H/O based on various Cutlass models from 1972 through…

Even if you’re not into commercial trucks, chances are the Peterbilt 359 looks familiar to you. It—and its successor the 379—are perhaps the most iconic, most desirable big rigs of the last 50 years. Think of the 359 as sort of the muscle car of big trucks—kind of like a ’68 Charger with 18 wheels. Ok, the big Pete technically only has 10 wheels (the other eight are on the trailer) and it was introduced a year earlier in 1967—but you get the idea. This was Peterbilt’s first long-hood truck, and it was designed specifically with long-haul and heavy cargo in mind, so the hood, cab, and sleeper were all made of aluminum—saving weight that could be used for the payload. Commercial tractor rigs like the Pete generally don’t come…

Maisto has one of the largest libraries of diecast tooling in the industry, and it covers numerous genres across a wide variety of scales from 1:64 all the way up through 1:12. In addition to its role as a value leader in the entry-level market, one of the things the brand is great at is presenting its castings in new and interesting ways to keep product lines fresh and give collectors something to look forward to. A perfect example is the Elite Transport series, released this past year as part of the Maisto Design line. Think of it as a grown-up version of the 1:64 Tow & Go series, but in 1:24 and focusing specifically on car haulers that pair tow vehicles with a thematically related show car or racer…

Which of the Elite Transports is best probably depends on your preferred genre, but the “Pony Up” Ford Performance pair is definitely the fastest and most radical! It consists of a 1948 Ford F-1 step-side pick-up and a 1967 Mustang fastback, both treated to some pro-mod upgrades. The F-1 definitely won’t have any trouble hauling the ‘Stang (or hauling ass!) with a giant supercharger sticking out of the hood! While the tailgate opens, the hood is sealed so we can’t actually see what the blower sits on top of, but fair to bet it is not a vintage Flathead. Judging by the frame-stiffening braces in the bed and meaty Firestone slicks mounted on Center Line drag wheels sitting in the fenders, it’s got plenty of ponies. The Mustang’s hood is…

Question: What do you get when you decide that a one-of-a-kind super exotic sports car isn’t unique enough for you? Answer: the Lamborghini Miura Jota SVR—a car that probably shouldn’t even exist, and very nearly didn’t. Aficionados of the classic bulls of Sant’Agata Bolognese will speak in reverent tones about the fabled one-of-one Miura Jota, the special test mule that Lamborghini’s legendary development engineer and test driver Bob Wallace cooked up—largely on his own—to explore the racing potential of the company’s flagship P400 Miura. As a mid-engine, V12-powered supercar, the Miura looked like it had the makings of a world-class race car. But Lamborghini was a small company barely three years into the sports car business when it built the first Miura in 1966, and founder Ferruccio Lamborghini was understandably…

DNA Collectibles Saab 9-5 Sportcombi Aero and Audi RS3 Sportback 1:18 | $155ea In many ways, late-model sport-wagons and hot-hatches have become the new muscle cars of the millennial generation. The slick styling of many of these cars has changed the boring stereotypes associated with wagons and hatchbacks, while their nimble handling and potent turbocharged engines give them enough performance to surprise owners of many traditional “fast” cars. DNA Collectibles knows it, and they have announced a pair of cars with five doors and plenty of guts. First is the 2005 Saab 9-5 Sportcombi with the Swedish aerospace firm’s facelifted Aero styling, and a 260hp 2.3L Turbo engine makes sure it takes advantage of those advanced aerodynamics! From Audi comes the ultimate hot hatch—the RS3. Ingolstadt’s signature Quattro all-wheel-drive system…

The original Gen I Rocket V8 architecture pretty was much maxed out at 394ci, and plans were underway for a new Gen II Rocket to carry the Olds brand to new heights in the 1960s. The Gen I wasn’t quite done though. Borrowing the name it had used on 98 convertibles in the mid-’50s, Olds launched a sleek new standalone convertible called the Starfire in 1961, powered by the ultimate version of the 394. The Starfire 394 was good for up to 345hp and 440 lb-ft of torque and was made optional on Super 88s and 98s until its retirement after the 1964 model year. In 1964 a special, hardtop-only version of the Starfire called the Jetstar I shared the Starfire’s engine and styling but made do without some of…

Olds had scored some styling triumphs in the full-size category early in the 1960s with the Starfire and Jetstar but they had been largely overshadowed by the arrival of the exquisite ’63 Buick Riviera. In 1966 Olds reasserted its aesthetic and technical dominance in the luxury GT category with the introduction of the Toronado. Built on the same platform as the Riviera and notable both for its ultra-modern design and its innovative technology as GM’s first-ever front-wheel drive vehicle, the Toronado was the darling of the automotive press and won several major awards. It was popular with customers too, selling more than 40,000 in its debut year. One reason was the unique powertrain configuration allowed a perfectly flat floor with no need for a transmission tunnel or driveshaft hump, yielding…

For a brand that arguably invented the concept with the 1949 Rocket 88, Oldsmobile had a bit of a dilemma by the time the muscle car era was reaching its peak in the late 1960s. While the division’s sophisticated 442 certainly measured up in terms of performance, its image was rather conservative—a little too understated to grab its fair share of attention in the crowded field of extroverted muscle machines—and its sticker price was a little too high to compete with the bang-for-buck leaders from other divisions. When it came time for the Cutlass/442 redesign, Olds decided it needed two things: a more affordable performance package and a more charismatic image for its performance cars. The image was aided by the more compact dimensions of the new-for-’68 A-Body. The new…

This set pairs a truck and car across more than a quarter-century of Nissan history! Serving as a tow vehicle is Datsun’s little 620, which is a cool compact pickup from the early days of mini-truckin’. This one is a satin white version of the Tokyo Mod 620 Maisto previously released as a stand-alone vehicle in the Maisto Design series. Now, towing a 3500-pound R34 Skyline (plus trailer) is a big ask for a ’73 620 that came stock with a 96hp 1.6L motor, but popping the hood of this truck reveals what looks like a KA24 motor swap (a popular one for ‘70s Datsuns) so this 620 probably has close to double the grunt of the original—maybe more if the decals on the side (Comp Cams, RHS) indicate further…

All pretense of stock vehicles goes out the window with these VWs. Both castings have been in Maisto’s roster for years and have appeared in both stock and modified forms in a few different lines. Both VWs carry the livery for one “Kool Käfers Garage” and this particular Käfer (“Beetle”) definitely lives up to the name! While Maisto doesn’t specify the year on this particular set, this Bug has the small oval single-piece rear window so that would make it 1953-57 vintage. It is a chop-top custom and it’s slammed nice and low, riding on modern large-diameter two-tone 5-spoke wheels and ultra-low profile Toyo tires. The bumpers and running boards have been sprayed flat black; the only exterior chrome bits remaining are the windshield and headlight surrounds and the custom…

French manufacturer Delahaye has a proud history of potent racing machines from the 1930s, and none were more successful than the 135MS. In 1937 the 135MS scored the victory at the Monte Carlo Rally and finished 2nd and 3rd at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The following year it improved that to 1st, 2nd, and 4th at that most prestigious French endurance classic. Many road-going versions of the 135 rode on the standard 116-inch wheelbase Delahaye chassis, but the competition MS cars were based on a wheelbase 10 inches shorter, making them lighter and more nimble. the ‘M’ designated the larger of two available engines—an inline-6 displacing 3.6L—and the “S” denoted triple Solex downdraught carburetors feeding a special highflow head. Many 135MS Delahayes used in competition wore more modest,…

Like Cadillac’s V8, the 1949 Olds V8 was based on Charles Kettering’s design for a high-compression OHV V8 using crossflow heads, hydraulic valves, and a lighter skirtless block. It was dubbed the “Rocket V8” to play off of the burgeoning space race that was a pervasive cultural image at the time. That first Rocket V8 displaced 303 cubic inches and was rated at 135hp—not a lot by later standards, but it outgunned the Ford/Mercury Flathead (which was its closest rival in ‘49) by more than 30 percent! While Cadillac portrayed its V8 power as a facet of luxury, Olds went straight at the performance market. It launched an all-new model powered by the V8 and called the “Futuramic 88” but it was quickly dubbed the “Rocket 88” and that’s the…

Going into 1964 most of the automotive world’s attention was on Oldsmobile’s corporate sibling Pontiac and its genre-igniting Tempest GTO. Seeing the explosive success of the muscular GTO (which, coincidentally, replicated the big-engine/midsize car formula Olds had established 15 years earlier with the original Rocket 88) Olds introduced its own performance option for its model that shared the Tempest’s A-Body platform, the Cutlass. It used pieces from the BO-9 police package and powered it with the all-new Generation II Rocket V8. They chose the rather cryptic designation “4-4-2” for the hotrod Cutlass, denoting a four-barrel carb, a four-speed transmission, and a dual exhaust system. Unlike the original Rocket V8, the Gen II was designed in two distinct versions. The 442’s 330ci V8 came first, using a lowdeck “small block” configuration…

One of the most interesting Rockets came in an unlikely wrapper—the Olds Vista Cruiser. Introduced in 1964, it was a station wagon built on an F-85/Cutlass chassis that had been stretched an extra 5 inches in wheelbase to offer more room for rear passengers and cargo. But the most interesting feature (and the one that gave it its name and separated it from the more traditional Cutlass Cruiser wagon) was the bubble-shaped raised roof over the rear half that incorporated curved glass roof panels, making a brighter, more spacious, and more vision-friendly space for rear-seat passengers. The first-generation (1964-67) Vista Cruisers all came with the 330ci Rocket small block, but starting with the redesigned ‘68 model the full range of Cutlass engines became optional, including the 442’s 400 (’68-69) and…

Trucks are an indelible part of American motoring culture. More than two million big rigs prowl the nation’s highways log hundreds of millions of miles and delivering an estimated 70 percent of all consumer goods sold in the United States each year. Police departments and other civil services use trucks and trailers in a variety of capacities, and race team haulers are absolutely vital to the world of motorsport, serving as both transportation and rolling billboards. They move the cars, personnel, and equipment that make racing possible even as they promote the sport. And of course, many individuals use small trailers to transport race cars and collector cars to and from tracks or shows. The blend of style and capability with which trucks have been designed has made many the…

The past half-decade or so has been an exciting time for those who are into the tabletop gaming hobby. With three powerhouses of gaming each releasing a brand new game, and with increased media exposure thanks to some high-profile TV shows and wildly popular streaming content on channels like YouTube, the prospects for the gaming world have never been better. The biggest gaming franchise of them all—Dungeons & Dragons—is published by a subsidiary of Hasbro called Wizards of the Coast, and in 2014 they released the 5th Edition, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the original game. Thanks to the streamlined new rules and high-profile exposure from mainstream TV hits like The Big Bang Theory and Stranger Things, the population of tabletop gamers is seeing its largest growth in decades.…

This next pair looks factory-fresh, but then when the lesser of the two is a $200K supercar with 610hp perhaps you aren’t in urgent need of aftermarket parts? We’ve actually seen Maisto’s 1:24 Huracán before, and we’re fans of the amount of detail they pack into the stock package—especially given the asking price. It has opening doors and a rear deck so you can get a better look at the engine. It is painted Eleos Blu, matching the Urus SUV tasked with hauling it around on a color-matched tandem trailer (all of the Elite Transports use the same trailer tooling). Like the Huracán, the Urus appears perfectly stock, right down to its huge 21-inch rims, needed to clear the gargantuan 17.3-inch carbon-ceramic brake discs—some of the largest ever fitted to…

Our friend Mike Zarnock first showed us the Hot Wheels Car Culture Team Transports last year in Hot Wheels Highway. At the time, the series was comprised of 15 two-vehicle sets pairing a car with a transport truck in matching livery. Six sets were released in 2018, and another nine in 2019. The sets are part of the Hot Wheels Premium line, meaning they are equipped with Real Riders rubber tires and metal bases, among other features. Since Mike last discussed them Hot Wheels has added another 10 car/transport pairs for 2020, and seven have been announced so far for the series in 2021—bringing the numbered sets to 32. But that isn’t all—four exclusive vehicle sets have been released to Walmart which include three cars and a matching transporter in…

No matter what theme we have going on in a particular issue of DCX, it always seems like Johnny Lightning has something in their line-up that fits the occasion. A case in point is the latest from JL’s Truck and Trailer series, which ties in nicely with our haulers and tow rigs storyline. The Truck and Trailer line has been around for a couple of years and JL tends to do one or two releases per year. This latest one came out late in 2020 and is comprised of three castings: a Toyota Land Cruiser, a Chevy Caprice Wagon, and a Ford F-250, each paired with a unique trailer. As with most JL releases, the Truck & Trailer sets come in the primary color schemes shown, but an alternate “B”…