Today's Classic 1970s TV Ad™ - Chrysler Cordoba

Ah yes...soft, Corinthian leather!

1978 Ford Thunderbird Diecast Car

The Motor Max 1978 Ford Thunderbird American Graffiti is My Diecast Car of the Day™.

Don't know why this is in the Motor Max American Graffiti collection since that movie took place in the early 1960s. But who cares. This is a sweet 1:64 scale diecast car. It looks good.


That expansive front end with the big grille and massive metal bumpers (remember them?) is perfectly captured in this tiny model. The painted roof on this diecast successfully recreates the bizarre vinyl roof treatment that even Rolls Royce didn't offer: the vinyl top is in two pieces, separated by a thick band of the car's sheet metal.


The real 1978 Thunderbird - actually the 1977 through1979 - was Ford Motor's most successful model with sales of over 300,000 cars. And why not? It's a huge, plush, and powerful personal luxury coupe. It shared its platform with the recently deceased Ford Torino.


Motor Max did a fantastic job by cramming so much detail and accuracy into such a small package. This diecast successfully captures the essence of high class 1970s style.

Reminds me, anyone catch "Kotter" last night?

1970s Memorabilia of the Day™ - Cannonball Run Diecast Rolls Royce from ERTL Toys

Check it out! Burt Reynolds and Jamie Farr in the original Cannonball Run movie.

This is my 1970s Memorabilia of the Day™. It is ERTL's diecast version of the car that Jamie Farr's politically incorrect character of The Sheik drove.

The Rolls Royce Silver Shadow is still in the box. From what I can see of the car through the packaging - I'm keeping it in the box! - the detail is pretty good. The only weird thing is the car's beltline doesn't run straight but curves down as it flows through the rear door and up again over the rear wheel. That's how the two door Corniche is designed, not the foor door saloon.

So, ERTL got a detail of the car wrong. Hey, at least it has the movie's title stamped on its side.

About that movie, anyone remember The Cannonball Run? Quality-wise it falls below Smokey and the Bandit but is way above Stroker Ace.

Long live Dom DeLuise.

1992 Rolls Royce Corniche Diecast from the Franklin Mint

The 1992 Rolls Royce Corniche from the Franklin Mint is My Diecast Car of the Day™ .

What a beauty, eh? This Franklin Mint 1/18th scale diecast car is a copy of a limited edition model - only 25 built - offered by Rolls Royce in celebration of the Corniche's 21st anniversary. It is painted Ming Blue and has a beautiful Magnolia interior.

As American luxury carmakers like Cadillac and Lincoln were forced by Government regulations and wacky environmentalists to downsize body styles, engines, and gas tanks, Rolls Royce continued to build oversized, gas guzzlers with monstrous engines.


The real Corniche was powered by a 6.75 litre V8, a massive hunk of metal and aluminium that was on par with 1970s American engines like Cadillac's 7.7 litre V8.

The real Corniche is over 204 inches in length, stands as tall as a truck, weighs in excess of 5400 hundred pounds, and averages about eight miles to the gallon/city. Just like your typical 1970s American car.

My diecast Corniche is only about 11 inches long, a couple inches wide, and gets zero miles to the gallon.

I love the design of this car, the Corniche. I love its sleek, Coke-bottle shape, the perfectly proportioned grille, the long wheelbase.


The car continued the tradition of over-sized luxo-barge convertibles that the Americans were so good at during the 1970s. But, alas, by the early 1990s, classics like the El Dorado and Lincoln Mark Series were reduced to chintzy, ill-shaped shadows of their former selves.

The classic Corniche body style remained virtually unchanged for almost three decades. The car died out in the mid 1990s and was replaced by the beautiful Bentley Azure (also a monstrous gas guzzling behemoth). In 2000 a Corniche convertible was offered as a limited edition model. It was styled after the Silver Seraph/Arnage saloon.

The Franklin Mint did a stunning job with this diecast. The paint is deep and rich. The interior is full of neat details like the realistic looking burled walnut dash. The switch gear in the dash and center stack also look very real. Beneath the bonnet is a detailed miniature version of the classic 6.75 litre V8.




Franklin Mint, I salute you on this fantastic diecast.