Mattel Brick Shop Gets into the Vintage Nissan Game with the Original Skyline GT-R

• JDM enthusiasts are finally getting a brick building set of a boxy hero car.
• The first to wear the Skyline GT-R badge, the full-size version of this fierce little coupe racked up the victories in Japanese touring car racing.
• The set comes with additional parts to customize the car for racing, metal pieces, and a matching Hot Wheels model.

The enthusiast nickname for the KPGC-10 chassis Skyline GT-R is hakosuka: “hako” for “box” and “suka” as an abbreviation of the Japanese pronunciation of Skyline. It’s literally the boxiest of the Skyline breed, and as such, you have to wonder why no one has ever made a model out of interlocking bricks. Only the Volvo 240 would be a more suitable subject for the medium.

Well, wonder no longer, because Mattel’s Brick Shop has finally given vintage JDM iron fans just what they wanted. Released in a hefty 1:16 scale, the model is made up of 833 pieces, can be customized for road or race spec, and of course comes with a matching Hot Wheels die-cast to go with.

It’s also the first Nissan to be built in partnership with Mattel Brick Shop, which means there may be more models in the pipeline down the road. A classic Datsun 510 or 240Z? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Mattel

If you’re not up to speed on what made the first Skyline GT-R so special, here’s a quick summary. As part of the 1960s homogenization of the Japanese auto industry, Nissan had snapped up Prince, a higher-end manufacturer. The former Prince engineers operated a bit like the specialists within Porsche that build its GT cars, and they were strongly interested in motorsport.

First, those engineers pulled off the classic trick of taking the engine from one of their larger sedans and stuffing it into the nose of a mid-sizer. This move created the inline-six-powered Skyline 2000GT, which had some initial success.

The C10 generation of Skyline received further sorting out, and in 1969, Nissan launched the 2000 GT-R, first as a sedan and later a coupe. These cars were enormously competitive in Japanese touring car racing, with 50 racing victories by 1972.

Part of the hakosuka’’s heritage is the internal rivalry between Nissan’s engineers and those who had originally worked for Prince. The GT-R’s 2.0-liter inline-six was also installed in a rare version of the contemporary 240Z called the Z432, and these competed directly against the Skylines. However, the team formerly working for Prince kept all the best racing parts for themselves.

Mattel

In the case of this scale model, you can do your own pint-size wrenching. There are two sets of interchangeable wheels, a racing splitter and headlight covers, and even an external oil cooler. A 1970s Skyline GT-R on black Watanabe racing wheels is as iconic overseas as an orange Mustang Boss 302 would be here with the latter’s Trans-Am racing history.

The set also comes with functioning doors, an opening hood, and working steering, and the tires are even actual Yokohamas under license. For $59.99, the set seems like the usual solid offering Mattel Brick Shop is becoming known for, and it should certainly please JDM enthusiasts in the audience. Availability starts in January 2027.

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Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.

Source: www.caranddriver.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.