Maisto Lamborghini Murcielago LP640

After my flea market visit yesterday, I went to a departmental store in Chinatown to check out their latest toys and other items that I might be interested in like bags etc.  The departmental store was also having its yearly anniversary sale, hence most items were at 20% off!  I didn’t find any new My Little Pony figures while the Justice League range there seemed unchanged for months.  Boring I thought.

Then I checked out their die-cast model cars section.  There were mainly repeated stocks for the Bburago section, and the Maisto section looked quite well stocked up with car models that I had already seen before.  Anyway just out of curiosity to see if I could by any chance find a 1:24 scale Bugatti Veyron model car, I went through all the Bburao and Maisto boxes.  Alas, I only found an “antique-looking” Bburago Bugatti.

However while searching through the Maisto boxes, I was pleasantly surprised to find 2 white Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 in the 1:24 scale!  I had waited for a white Lamborghini in the 1:24 scale for a long while and it is finally here!  It was also on 20% discount and I bought it!  Actually I wanted to have a white Lamborghini Gallardo and a white Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder in 1:24 scale, but the stunning white Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 is a good start.

I much prefer Bburago’s products and I rarely buy Maisto model cars.  My only other Maisto model car is my white Audi R8 (1:24 scale) that I bought from another branch of the same departmental store in May.  Since then, I’ve never managed to find another similar Audi R8 in any of the departmental stores here.  Anyway now that I have a Maisto Lamborghini, I can compare its quality with my other Bburago Lamborghinis.

Bburago pays more attention to the details of its 1:24 scale model cars.  The Bburago Lamborghinis have more detailed engines, interiors (e.g. seats and dashboard), better wheel fixtures and axles, and even a has ‘mirror’ stickers for the rear view mirrors.  You can turn the steering wheel and the front wheels can move! However Bburago uses a ‘thinner die-cast metal shell’ to ‘cover’ the cars.  Its paintwork is more at risk of being scratched off if you are not careful.

Maisto uses a ‘thicker die-cast metal shell’ to ‘cover’ the cars. The paintwork is thicker and not easy to get scraped off.  However the engine and interiors (e.g. seats and dashboard) have little details, the ‘loose-fitted’ wheels and axles make the car move more ‘noisily’, and it doesn’t even a have a ‘mirror’ sticker for the rear view mirrors.  The 1:24 scale Maisto cars do not come with a display base that all my Bburago cars have.  I pay the same price and I get one large piece of plastic less and no sticker label with the name of the car model on it! 

My 2 Maisto cars also came stained with some extra bits of color that shouldn’t be there.  My Audi R8 had some stray bits of silver stains on its boot, while my Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 had half its name (that is printed on the boot) stained with some brown coloring.  The part below the back number plate had a line of green stained across.  I nearly wanted to go back to change for a ’cleaner’ car but I decided to carefully scrape off the ‘dirt’ to see if they could come off.  Luckily they did but there are still some very faint green marks.  Fortunately Maisto uses very sturdy paintwork that can withstand ‘light scraping’ and I hope it’s not for this reason that they use better paint than Bburago.

Overall would I buy Masito model cars again?  Well, my answer is no, if I can help it.  However Maisto seems to have a greater variety of luxury car models.  Bburago has a mix of all levels of cars.  I’m just waiting to see if Bburago will make a Bugatti Veyron in pearl and ice blue colors.  So far only the high-end model car maker AUTOart makes the Bugatti Veyron but this brand is too expensive.  Hence I look forward to a cheaper version from my favourite model car maker, Bburago soon!