Jun Imai Bosozoku Crazy or Kyusha Classy

Nigel opens up about the KAIDO HOUSE DATSUN 510

Is it a place? Named after a Manga Character? Or is it reference to someone born under the star sign Aries? According to Japanese culture the word Kaido has many meanings, unsurprising. The most common being associated with road or highways which is probably the most obvious answer.

Kaido House www.kaidohouse.com is the creation of Jun Imai who is legendary for his work with Hotwheels as a designer for 14 long years. That’s tenure. Then he had a hand in ROBORACE and now in collab with MINI GT another brand that is just kicking LP (long posterior in case you were wondering what LP means with Lamborghini’s) KAIDO HOUSE launches the first car-built ground up, built specifically for collectors.

Up until now KAIDO HOUSE has been an online store for the brands fashion line, accessories, branded stickers, and customized HotWheels Datsun’s. But this new collaboration marks an exciting new time for the two brands. I have been waiting to get my fingers on one of these collab models and with great vibes to MINI GT we thank them for sending this over. Of course, the first thing I did was whip out the #dreamcustoms, lit garage diorama which makes a great model studio for 1/64 cars and got down to business.

It’s a known fact the Jun Imai loves the Datsun 510 having the wagon version of his own and a lot of design and color inspiration for the Mini GT model comes from his 510 wagon. Now you know where that inspiration comes from. The other inspiration comes from Japanese car sub-culture and I’m not sure whether the body modifications stem from either the Bosozoku culture of oversized over the top everything or the Kyusha culture of tastefully making few adjustments to the body to enhance the shape. The KAIDO HOUSE DATSUN has design cues of both.

Earlier I mentioned that this is a piece specially created for collectors. And, it is. Packaging looks attractive and iconic, stylized like as a car + fashion brand, large typography, art styled product, clear branding on every single side depending how you would display it in the box. Definitely well thought of from a display point of view.

Out of the box, the car is truly exquisite. The paint feels thick and heavy. The car rolls well even with the lowered ride height. The lights are plastic at both ends instead of being painted on, the gap on the opening bonnet is not noticeable but the bonnet opens well and sits perfectly when closed no unevenness at all.

Porsche had a spoiler that looked a BBQ grill this looks like an all you can eat DIM SUM platter table

The wheel rims are well constructed and nicely polished off. And the engine a well detailed engine with Greddy painted red manifold sits under the well-fitting bonnet. The large spoiler looks well made and has to be one of the best-looking spoilers I’ve seen on a 1/64 sized branded car.

Even the underside has been done up with a metal baseplate that changes to rainbow colors like an oil slick.

I once had a Zippo that looked like this. Good memories of another hobby gone by.

This model is the result of careful consideration. Jun has called upon 14 years of his experience in designing cars that will sit on shelves forever to produce something that is quite unique in the diecast world.