Now Available In Glorious 1:32 Scale Diecast: Hongqi CA770TJ Limo With Lights and Music
In what kind of limo did Chou En-Lai and the Great Helmsman ride during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution? The “Red Flag” CA770, of course!
Thanks to the very generous judicial bribes of many 24 Hours of LeMons racers, I’ve got a diecast-car collection that ranges from a Simca Aronde hitchhiking diorama to a Leyland P76 to a Moskvich 408 rally car. And yet, something was missing.
My collection of weird diecast toy cars, which now threatens to overwhelm my office, lacked Chinese cars. Oh, sure, just about all of them were made in the Middle Kingdom, but that’s not the same as a vaguely accurate scale replica of a Red Flag.
Did I say Red Flag? I meant Red Flog, which is what’s molded into the underside of the “Hongqi Luxury LED SOUND METAL CAR.” That’s right, for a mere $25.98 you can have this fine piece of automotive history shipped right to your door from Hong Kong.
That’s a bit steep for an admittedly low-quality 1:32 diecast, but look what happens when you push down on the back wheels or open either door (after wedging four AG3 watch batteries into the alleged battery compartment with cardboard shims). I do hope the real CA770 doesn’t make that terrible Vegematic-full-of-lug-nuts noise when starting. That’s a GAZ-M21 Volga in the background, by the way.
How could I ever top this? A diecast Renault-IKA Torino!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Nice sound-chipped 4 chair affair of Kiss, Nixon, Mao & Chou meet. Push the button beneath, the voices come up random Chinese & English. Most Chinese don't remember the visit - it was censored. Trump for me - a diecast crumpled Brezhnev Shadow with drunken, startled figure.
I am rather confused as to why it makes a horrifying grinding sound when you open the driver side door. I'd probably be tempted to buy this if it weren't so janky looking.