So it would seem that Michael and I received our respective parcels from hayatonka within a few days of each other, because today I arrived at work to find an EMS delivery sitting in the logistics area addressed to me.
Ewan said I was gonna chuckle heartily upon seeing the box my stuff was packed in, and he was right. Problem is, so did the rest of the office!
my t-top shades arrived from Japan. In this box. People got the wrong idea.
inside the goofy “Leg Wing” box I found a mint pair of AW11 MR2 t-top shades as ordered… plus a couple of extra goodies as a gift for ongoing custom. As per Michael’s update Ewan had similarly warned me that my brain would most likely explode from the coolness contained within, and he was right: the extras comprised a G-Works magazine similar to Michael’s but the latest issue (Oct ’09), and also a tiny diecast of Machine RS-3, one of the famous Seibu Keisatsu KDR30s – complete with swivel-out machinegun.
Machine RS-3; yes I know it looks like a fuzzy red blob, my phone camera sucks.
Apologies for the abysmal picture quality, but my phone was all I had in the way of image capture devices, and I don’t often tend to use it for that purpose. might grab some decent scans of the magazine in the next couple of days if I happen to be up at my folks’, but no promises.
Also, no photos of the shades – but if anyone was wondering, they’ve been installed and are now doing a fine job of, er, shading things, without sagging or falling down every time I go around a corner or hit a bump in the MR2. High five!
I think I may have just found my new favourite magazine.
tried taking a few snaps of the content within, but got infuriated with the quality of the phone camera and gave up after the first couple of photos. Kinda wish I’d taken my point-and-shoot to work… but I wasn’t expecting the parcel to arrive for a few days yet.
A comparison between the early RS sedan and facelift RS-X coupe. My Japanese reading skills aren't the best, but I'm sure the text reads 'Iron Mask > Uglyfront'.
More comparisons.
I found this page slightly uncanny, as a few days ago I'd actually been on the ESCORT-JAPAN website compiling a list of items to buy for squid's eventual FJ21 build - rods, pistons, headgasket, manifold, everything.
From flicking through the rest of the magazine, it’s chock full of just about every kind of modified J-tin retro ride you can think of, from Geminis to S130 Fairladys to slammed Crizzes, and the technical articles look fairly informative as well – driveshaft/UJ strength testing, how to restore old rims, even a primer on rotary engine apex seals! As Michael said, it’s a shame publications of this sort don’t exist in NZ, and what we do have is of dubious quality at best. I’m sorry but “How to do a handbrake D1″ simply doesn’t cut it as far as technical articles go.
Once again, many thanks to Ewan @ hayatonka for sorting out my latest order, and for adding the extra items without any hesitation and at no cost – just another example of the company’s stellar shipping service!
The tech articles in these magazines are amazing, I mean sure, I can’t read the writing but the pictures tell a million stories and the advertisements are from supporting industry in a technical modification sense, not in a how to make your car have polish and neons kind of way.
Also. I’m sure my Japanese is better than yours and it says. Sweet-front vs. Almost an R31
Well if Japanese magazines like J’s Tipo translate and reprint articles from English-speaking ones like ZOOM, what’s to say we won’t eventually see the opposite happening? you only have to look at publications like Japanese Nostalgic Car to see there is a niche market for that sort of thing.
BTW, you have my permission to list that DR30 on oldschool and/or datsuns forum. My G-Works has a photo of an uglyfront sedan in the same colour all done up, it’s hawtness but I need to ban myself from even thinking about buying that car.