The RAD King - OttOmobile’s BMW E31 850 CSi
Even the model car world wasn’t safe from everything that was The Year 2020. At the tail end of 2019, OttOmobile announced that they would be reissuing their beloved E31 850 CSi model in black; slated for a March 2020 release. I pre-ordered it almost immediately, and then the pandemic reach global scale. Manufacturing sites were shut down, priorities shifted, and my pre-order (obviously the least important thing regarding the pandemic) sat in limbo for what felt like an eternity. Eleven months later, it arrived on my door step.
A top-notch E31 model is very hard to come by. For decades, fans of the big Bimmer had to settle for either an ancient model from either Maisto, Revell, or Road Legends, which I’m pretty sure are all based on the same casting. OttOmobile released a resin model of the top-of-the-line 850 CSi in a striking red paint color a few years ago, and its value shot up higher than $GME stonks.
This follow-up release from OttO certainly takes the silver metal, but it still looks the business with its ultra-rad throwing star wheels. My only complaint about the car is that it had massive amounts of excess glue dobs all over the place. I can only assume that this was due to the manufacturing delays and everything that went on, but it certainly had more left over glue on it than any of my other OttOmobile models, probably combined. I was able to scrape most of it off with a plastic tool, but still.
I’m going to close this post out with an interesting anecdote a fellow CastHead Tweeted the other day. He noticed that Jason Statham’s character rolls up in one of these at the beginning of the ‘Italian Job’ remake. At the end of the movie, he buys an Aston Martin DB7 with his heist money, driving around with the top down like he’s finally made it. He should have kept the BMW though, because 850 CSi’s are worth wayyyyyy more today than those Aston’s he dreamed about in the film! Just goes to show you what a legend the E31 has become.
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Casthead Admin
01-02-2024
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