I like to thank Jeff for helping me get my Hot Wheels Skyline autographed by Mary. I am referring to Skyline Mary who was once shot to fame because of the Nissan Skyline commercial aired from 1972 to 1974 in Japan. I understand from Jeff that every Skyline has got an unique name such as "Hakosuka", "New-Man" and the C110 is known as "Ken & Mary Skyline" or "Kenmeri Skyline". If you have not watch the 8 instalments of C110 Skyline commercials, you might like to watch the below clip (in case you haven't seen it) which is a compilation of all 8 commercials. Nissan was targeting at American market then so Ken & Mary are born. It's aMARY-KEN, got it?Mary is definitely not her real name. "Mary" was played by Diane Krey-Wesley and "Ken" by Jimmy Zinnai. I did not managed to get Ken's autograph because he passed away at the age of 17 in a motorcycle accident. That explains why the series of commercials did not continue after Ken's death. I think Ken & Mary would be best of friends today if that tragedy did not happen. As for the song which had a catchy tune in the commercial,I don't know if you like it but I like it so much that I bought the CD from Japan. The song is sung by "Buzz" who should be the "boy band" of Japan then.
When Jeff told me the story of Mary, I got interested and got myself hook since. I bought the Buzz CD as mentioned, I got Jeff to send me magazines which had articles written by him. I even suggested to him to request for Mary to autograph on my Hot wheels Skyline. So, I got it finally after a long wait. This should be the first Hot Wheels I will treasure as there are stories which I can relate to my friends.
Way before Hot Wheels made the Kenmeri Skyline, Tomica did it 40 years ago. Maruka had one too, see my die-cast oddities. I still prefer the Tomica though. I like to thank Jeff for everything or I couldn't have this special Kenmeri Skyline.
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Great car! I have another version made by Tomica, the 2000GT in black, but it is slightly different.
ReplyDeleteVery nice the HotWheels! model too, but it is a brand I do not collect.
I am a complete ignorant in japanese cars before 1990, so many thanks for showing the videos and telling the story behind Ken and Mary.
Hi Juan, you are welcome. I do not collect Hot Wheels too.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the detailed story behind "Kenmeri". I was aware of the basics, but I had no idea why they dropped the successful AD idea. (RIP Ken).
ReplyDeleteA little criticism: I always jumps out off my pants, whenever I visit your page, because of the autostart music. 8-)
Julian, is this the only version of this Tomica casting? I knw there are plenty of versions with flared wheel wells, but is green the only color it came in?
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