Shinsei Toys

I was on a business trip in Mumbai, India, for a week. It is the first time me going India, first time our company set foot into India and first time our company participate in a major exhibition. We never had one in Singapore and the first exhibition was done overseas. More details of my adventures in India will be shown in my other blog known to friends. I did last minute shopping on last day in India as there is really no time to enjoy whenever on business trip. I had bought 18 Shinsei pull back plastic toy cars in all. Cool buy as these are found only in India and made in India too. I was quite surprised to see that India made these Shinsei toy cars because Shinsei is a Japanese toy maker (for toy cars and other toys) in the 70s. Read up a little on the internet and this company is founded in 1985, did Min (Made in INdia) Toys bought them over then? Logo is similar to Japanese Shinsei too. I bought some for my collect friends too if they don't mind Indian made toy cars.

Old Fiat taxi are commonly found in Mumbai, old school but interesting. It has a huge meter on passenger side sticking out and natural air con (the wind)
This is not Fiat but a Indian built Hindustan Ambassador Classic

Rickshaw of India, another mode of transport in Mumbai but my colleagues call it "Cockroach". Imagine viewing the rickshaw from the top if you are really giant and imagine they are everywhere and running without direction to fill up every possible gaps.
Actual Rickshaw has black top actually. These are interesting toys to look at so I bought all in the shop. Rickshaws are completed with driver.

This is my favorite of the lot. A Tata double decker bus but the bus in Mumbai I saw are mostly "Ashok Leyland" and they look really retro like from 30 years ago.

This is a smaller scale of the above bus, approx. 1/50 I guess (Dandy Size)

I guess the whole world knows Tata Nano by now. Strange enough that I only see a red one since I am on the road everyday while in Mumbai. How can that be since it is supposed to be the world's cheapest car and India's Proton Saga.

I bought this toy truck as a general purpose holder since it has a big loading space on its back. Wow, can put pen, name card, stapler, eraser, kaya, jam (sorry, one of my lame jokes known to my friends only)

Maruti Suzuki Omni Van. Maruti is building Suzuki in India and Maruti is currently the best seller in India. There are Swift, Swift Sedan, Wagon R, Alto, A-Star, Esteem, 800 etc

Weird find. A Honda Civic Type R (Shinsei) and made in India??? But I hardly seen any in Mumbai.

This is India 4WD at its best. Tata Sumo. But India 4WD specialist is Mahindra, something like a Indian Made JEEP or old school Land Rover.

One of the "better" cars in India. The hotel we stay, Le Meridien, actually charges us 1500 rupees per trip to the exhibition hall (15 mins) when we can take a aircon (real aircon) taxi for just 300 rupees (Tata Indigo or Suzuki Esteem usually). Other cars the hotel uses are Mercedes E200 and Toyota Camry. I know because I was in the Camry once and saw someone took the Mercedes.

This is quite badly made, bought it since not many toy makers made the Maruti Suzuki Wagon R.