Have you seen the new 1/87th scale “Fresh Cheeries” cars in Wal-Mart? I purchased several new vehicles in different colors this evening - 1981 Ford Escorts, 1978 AMC Pacers, 1977 Ford Pinto Crusing Wagons, and 1974 AMC Gremlins. I also emailed the Motor Max company and thanked them for making these vehicles for us. I did suggest to them that it would be a great idea for them to also make cars and pick-ups of the '30’s - '50’s for those of us who like the steam era. Maybe a note from many of you both thanking them for getting into the HO market and encouraging them to make more of the older models for us as well would be a good idea. I am sure the more of us they hear from the more likely that would be to happen. Check them out they are really great little cars!
I think I owned everyone but the pace as a teen…buddy had the pacer!
Wally world continues to amaze me…I have a ton of the other 1/87’s the also carry.
Mike in Tulsa
Are you sure they aren’t 1/64 scale??? I think I saw the ones your talking about but they were 1/64, not 1/87.
I’ve seen on other forums that wally has the cherries in 1/64 and in 1/87. I checked but mine doesn’t.
More news on the auto front, Atlas has announced the 77/78 Ford Fairmont due out in June 07
Ch
The ones I’ve seen here in Wichita definately look to be 1/87, they do not have the scale listed on the package, at least not where I noticed it.
Rick
The Wallyworld here in Topeka didn’t have any new cars in as they were changing the toy area.
Ch
The are a series of HO Scale Fresh Cherries cars at many Wal-marts. The scale is in strange writing on the box but I cannot remember exactly where. Wal-mart also has the 1/64 models and I understand the confusion. I had the same issue with the 70’s van’s that Wal-mart had in HO and S and several other scales.
The HO Fresh Cherries are downsized versions of the larger Fresh Cherry Models. Motormax does have some nice models in their other ranges but might have some trouble issuing a number of them in HO because other companies have the license or because they are GM cars (GM is highly restrictive of what they will allow in HO scale). What we want are HO versions of the 1/24 or 1/18 models; the 1/64 models are not very good replicas.
Look for them on the shelf in boxes like the Malibu models. The Fresh Cherry boxes are green.
Hopefully they’ll make the 1977 Mustang from that series in HO too. My mom owned one when I was a kid only hers was yellow not black.
I’ll have to keep my eye out for them then. Our local Walmart doesn’t have them, they didn’t have the Malibu cars either. I found them at Home Hardware.
A lot of Wal-Marts are currently doing post-Christmas resets in their toy departments. Wait a week and check back to see if the Fresh Cherries are on the shelf.
Just my opinion, but the Motormax cars aren’t as nice as the Malibu models. On the other hand, they are nicer than Motormax’s 1/64 scale cars.
The new Fresh Cheeries are 1/87th scale. Yes, they do make many other size cars but these say 1:87 on the upper left corner on the front of the box directly across from the 8+.
I emailed MotorMax the evening I posted the first message about the Fresh Cheeries to this forum. Here is what I wrote the them -
"Dear Sirs,
Wow! What a wonderful surprise when I went to Wal-Mart this evening and found your new 1/87th scale “Fresh Cheeries” in the toy section. I have been interested in building an HO (1/87th scale) train layout for more than 50 years and finally have a home with a basement where I can begin. I have been collecting trains, buildings, trees, scenery materials, etc. for years. For a little more two years now I have also purchased dozens and dozens of 1/87th scale automobiles, John Deere tractors, and semi tractors from Wal-Mart stores. The problem I have had is that you can put only so many '55 Chevys on on layout and have it still look real. I have emailed many manufacturers of die-cast cars asking them to make cars in the HO scale and received answers from them saying they were going to stick with the larger scales they were making. I’m so glad you decided to get into the 1/87th market.
Since I was shopping with my wife I purchased only 8 of your cars this evening, but will buy many more in the future. Many, many HO railroad train enthusiasts have purchased tens of thousands of the 1/87 scale cars and vans from Wal-Mart and we contact each other through the Model Railroader Magazine forum on-line telling each other about any new products that come out. I will tell them about yours!!
Most model railroad enthusiasts choose an era to model and often those layouts are during the '30’s, '40’s, and '50’s when steam trains were giving way to the new diesel/electric engines. I know you would be amazed at how many vehicles you would sell if you made cars and pick-up trucks dating from those earlier years. The ones you already make are a great addition to my collect
In the Columbia, TN Wal-Mart I have recently purchased some of the following: BMW; Chevy BelAir 1955; Camaro 1969; Corvet 1957; Dodge Viper; Ford Taurus with a camper and 2 without; Thurderbird; Jaguar Mark II and XK120; 3 different colored Lamborghinis; some Mercedes Benz’ Pontiac Firebird; Porsche Carreta and Cayenne Turbo; Shelby AC Cobra; and VW bus; Kafar and Karmann ghia. All the boxes are clearly marked 1:87 at $1.97 each and $2.97 for the ones with a camper. The other scales were on sale for $1.00 as they are not going to stock them. [:D]
How about $3.00? The president of RBI Holdings (Motormax’s parent company) was complaining about the price pressures from “the market” (i.e., Wal-Mart) in the face of rising costs including the costs of goevernment-mandated higher wages and factory improvements, increased costs for tooling steel and much higher prices for zamac (the metal alloy used in diecasting). In fact, as I understand it from my sources in the industry, zamac has gone up in price something like 300% in the past couple of years.
Motormax has a lot of models in their various collections, but not all of them will be able to be offered in HO scale. A number of the GM vehicles will be too small to pass muster with GM’s licensing department and several of their other models would duplicate already existing licenses held by other companies, which would cause legal problems. However, the remaining models would certainly be welcome.
Bill C.
I think most of those, if not all of them are either Malibu or Model Power cars. They are nicely detailed.
Each time I have sent a message to Maurice Chan at MotorMax he has responded back within hours. He did respond back again this morning and is very interested in knowing what we want. He asked how he too could view this Forum so he would know what other HO guys wanted. I sent him info on how to join us on-line so he may be watching to see what others of you want.
He did say that it takes several months to tool-up for new designs and that new items would be coming out in May or June. I don’t know about the rest of you, but it is a real encouragement to me to have someone in the industry show such a keen interest in what we want. Many I have written to have expressed that they were going what THEY wanted to do and what I requested of them made no difference at all.
As much as I would like to see more GM cars in 1/87th scale, if MotorMax can make Ford and DaimlerChrysler cars and pick ups of various years, styles, colors, etc. I would be very happy. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t need to have the cars packaged in the nice little hard plastic cases they now come in. I am not collecting these to sell or trade, I just want to put them in service on my HO layout. If putting them on a card in a blister pack will save MotorMax money so they can keep the total price down, then I’m all for it.
Jim
I just managed to pick up the Pinto Cruiser Wagon, Escort and the Pregnant Turtle. I bypassed on the Gremlin. I hope that MotorMax releases a Ford Bronco and Dodge RAM SUV and some Ford and Dodge pickups from the late 70s-80s along w/a Mustang, Dodge Charger/Hemi and other cars
Ch
I have several vehicles that I would like to see in HO.
-
All VersionsFord Explorer
-
1980’s and 1990’s Ford Econo line Vans
-
All Versions Jeep Cherokee
-
1970’s- 1990’s All rendetions of the F150 Pickup.
-
1990’s Chevy Malibu
-
All Version Ford Taurus
I would like to have 10-20 of each of these in various colors for various applications in my collection. I would ask that the focus on the more common paint colors and more comon cars instead of the luxury extreems. The new Fresh Cherries are definitely a pleasent suprise.
I really do not know if Wal-mart will make the committment to stick with the 1/87 market and it may make since for Automax to find way of reaching the us directly.
It would be nice to see some HO scale Ford Broncos and Dodge Ramchargers SUVs. Also it seems there is a woeful lack of japanese import cars like Toyota, Mazda, and Honda. Granted I know alot of the rednecks hate anything that doesn’t sport a red bowtie, a goat, or a blue oval and I myself am a diehard Ford loyalist but if you’re going to model modern day layouts realistically you do need a few of them.