No milk needed

It's Friday and it's also time for another black die-cast.

Cayenne peppers are red in color and according to the Scoville scale, they register about 30,000–50,000 units of heat... which isn't that hot at all. They're at par with tabasco pepper as far as the scale is concerned.

If these peppers aren't that hot, then why did Porsche use "cayenne" as a model name? Why not base it on the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper, which basically sends your tongue on a one-way ticket to the netherworld? Hmmm... maybe the Moruga is just too hot.

So why not use names of other pepper princes? Naga Viper pepper? Dodge has got that one. Infinity chilli? Nope. Nissan already got dibs. Bhut Jolokia chili pepper? Nah-uh. Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper? Too horoscopey. Bedfordshire Super Naga? Sounds like worcestershire sauce's long-lost neighbor of 106-plus miles. 7-Pot chili? It might get pulled over so very often by narcs.

Let's go one level of heat lower. The cayenne is not there. Another level. Still not in sight. Three levels further down (this is getting quite frustrating!), but we'd still be disappointed. Four levels displaced from the top and the cayenne's shadow can barely be seen.

The fifth level of heat, not including the top, is where Porsche settled to have the name taken from. The metal namesake looks like this:

Put away the milk.

Spot the difference

The Porsche 911 Turbo by Matchbox is probably the best casting of the iconic sports car which, incidentally, turned 50 years old this year.

Sadly though, for reasons unbeknownst to collectors, Matchbox has been on a tampo-stripping rampage as of late (read: recent years). This pathetic (mis)strategy leaves some of their models half-baked and unable to attain their full glory, such as the case with the red 911 from one of MBX's 5-packs. Tampos, except for the "Turbo" on the side, are practically non-existent for this model.

However, with a steady hand, several images of the actual car referenced by Google, and a few dashes of paint here and there, one could bring the casting to the attention it deserves.

Here's the nekkid casting straight off the 5-pack. Note the lack of tampo detailing...

Upon counting, which basically means heading over to Matchbox Database and looking at their list, 6 out of 19 Turbos lack details for the head and tail lamps, while only 4 among them have painted bumper grills.

It seems that the only properly detailed models come out of special releases, like the 60th Anniversary line, which costs thrice as much. This sorta thing sucks.

I shouldn't have written this piece. I should've let the pictures speak for themselves. I should stop ranting. I marred the legacy of this great cast with a tirade. *sigh*

Click on the thumbnails below to see more on Flickr.

Further diversity

Time to diversify a bit further, both in scale and in brand.

Siku, which is seeing a revival in my part of the woods, came up with this beauty - the Porsche 911 Carrera S - in 1:50-scale.

The overall casting is fairly decent - opening doors, glass (i.e. plastic) head and tail lights, and nice tampos around. The Porsche badge on the bonnet could've been smaller though.

A little lick of paint on the window trims, side mirrors, front turn lights, front bumper grills, wheels, and everything's a bit better from the stock cast that came straight off the pegs:

Click on the thumbnails below to see more images on Flickr.