I thought about what title to give this article for a long time, and then decided to use a very popular way. On the one hand, it may make people disgust Made in China scoff, but since you are here at mb140.school, you are right in many ways. On the other hand, it’s deceptive because many toys were made in China, even today it’s difficult to buy model cars made in Europe or the United States, or any nation you might appreciate.
Why Chinese? In my opinion, the meaning of “Chinese” is different from “made in China”. For example, the iPhone made in China is often not called a Chinese phone because its main wisdom has nothing to do with China. Chinese phone usually refers to those phones developed in China, whose brand no one cares about, so you can say lightly: whatever, it’s just Chinese, no one cares about it. Therefore, term Chinese refers somewhat exotic, it is described as something that is not well understood. This is the big toy today, so I call it the Chinse 140 toy.
First, a visual photo. I honestly don’t know how to describe it in words, maybe you can take a good look at it, determine how you feel, and then continue reading my words. In my words, this toy is a bit porcelain. First of all it is an old object, something from the last century, once used by someone, like a piece of china. Secondly, its main body is a car, but it does not seem to intend to present itself exactly like a car. It’s a Chinese creative product. Finally, like some Chinese porcelain, it’s hard to find a second one, at least I haven’t seen a photo of a second example on Google. Even in China, this is a very rare item. Tell you what, I have never seen an example of it for sale in China in my life, even though I have owned one in childhood. And, even though I spent my childhood browsing almost every toy store, I was shocked when I saw it, it was something I had never seen before and after. I still vividly remember how I encountered it.
How did mine came up? This is a long story. When I was little, I grew up with grandparents and my parents were very busy. They did right, China in the 1990s had the best opportunities. So my grandpa would take me and my cousin out, who was in the same situation as me. My cousin is 5 years older than me and she knows all the cool places. One day we got into grandpa’s tricycle. When we got off the wagon, we arrived at a shopping mall, went up the five-story escalator, and entered the so-called “Arcade game hall” first time in my life.
It’s a hall full of arcade machines. It is probably very popular in Japan and was introduced to China in the late 1990s. I think my cousin had a great time, but I just found it very noisy. There were some racing machines out there, but I was only 5 and wow, there was no way I could have access to the pedals and the steering wheel at the same time. So I started looking for other things that related to me, soon I found “The Lost World” by SEGA. That was my first movie in the cinema ever and I’m a big fan of that movie and Mercedes ML 320 AAV! It was a shooting game where you needed to use a pistol to shoot the dinosaurs and crocodiles in the screen. Unfortunately, I’m not tall enough! Only part of the screen can be seen, but I enjoyed standing far away and watching the adults complete it. Alas, not much people seem to be as interested in it as I am.
photo: Shadaloo Xtreme Arcades
Although I haven’t had any substantial arcade game since that time, I would love to check out The Lost World again. So one day in the summer of 2000, my dad and I made an appointment to go to the arcade on Friday night. He doesn’t get much time to spend with me, so when he gets the chance, he’s happy to do so. However, dad took me to another arcade, which was bigger than the one in shopping mall but looked a little shabby. I thought it might be cheaper there. Dad is an economical person like me! Luckily, I found The Lost World there too. Dad can finally hold me and play games, but shooting is a bit difficult. Especially that machine didn’t have any Chinese text so we didn’t even know how to adjust the difficulty. So I was quickly persuaded to find something less frustrating. This is the first time I know that after you complete the game, the game will spit out custom redemption tickets. If you accumulate a certain number, you can exchange them for some merchandise. We got it in The Lost World, one! That might just be an encouragement.
Dad and I went to play another “shooting” game, it was a sports game where you actually had to throw the basketball into the basket. Getting redemption tickets on there is much faster and easier than shooting hundreds of dinosaurs. You’ll always get caught up in what you’re better at, and I remember we had a lot of fun there. Before leaving, dad took me to the redemption office. I honestly wasn’t expecting any cool stuff, maybe just some stuffed animals. I’m not here to exchange toys. I know that using tickets to buy toys is much more expensive than buying them outright.
That was a tiny dark room and an old man seat in front of a showcase with full of toys. I found a nose of Mercedes that I never seen before. Big and black, about 1/18 scale on the top of the showcase. Like I said, I wasn’t tall enough to see what it was, I could just see the nose and immediately tell it was a “big Benz”. Yes, I didn’t know what an S-class is, let alone what W140 refers. All I knew was that it was the big Mercedes used by the gangsters on TV, and I had never seen this in any toy store, in any mall, or at any friend’s house! But I’m too shy to ask the old man show it to me, apparently we don’t have enough tickets, we only ended up with a small stuffed toy. I had no idea what money is and how much this thing worth, but I determined to get it. As a child, every time I passed a place with toy cars, I would check which ones were new and which ones I wanted. Somewhere along the way, I felt like I might never encounter this thing again. Now that it was here, we had to take it home from here.
It was like a real plan. I decided to collect enough tickets next time and take this black Benz back. But I won’t tell dad my intension because I’m afraid he’ll refuse to take me if he knows I’m there for the toys. So pretend nothing happened – I simply fell in love with shooting! You see, it doesn’t even harmful to my eyesight, we can totally consider it as a gym. Next Friday I told dad to start early and headed straight to the basketball machine. We were like farmers working at the ticket farm all night, during which time dad even got bored and went to do other things. But I have no choice! I had to get the most tickets in the shortest time, and every second was important because I didn’t even know if the big black Benz was still there. Since it wasn’t a toy store, they probably only had one in stock and it had been a week since I last saw it. I’m sure I’m not the first person to discover it’s a unicorn.
Forgeting The Lost World or any enjoyment, I played there with dad whole night to make sure enough tickets collected. When we got there right before it closed, I saw the big Benz again! We have more than twice tickets as it cost. That was a really happy night and we put this 140 and another Ferrari F50 in dad’s bicycle basket. The F50 is rough compared to the 140, it was just change for me, the black 140 cost far less than I thought. I remember asking dad how much we probably spent, he said 80 CNY (about $10 in 2000). The price is not cheap compared to what it looks like. But we have to consider the revenue of the game arcade, so it may be retailed for less than half.
I finally saw what it looked like. After many years of sobriety, let me explain how this impulse occurs. First of all, I’m not a fan of the S-Class or any Mercedes, while I don’t know much about how much a Mercedes will cost, obviously we’re on bicycle bikes and any kind of automobile was far away from us. My dream at that time was something more accessible, like a VW Jetta. On the contrary, as a child I resisted these big black Mercedes, they were always the cars of the bad guys in TV series. The accompanying tags were luxury, rudeness, and regime, our kindergarten says these are wrong ways to live.
But as the most common Mercedes on the road I’ve never seen any toy of it, the German-made Schabak should still be stuck in Europe at this point. There were many Mercedes model cars at that time though, but none of them were being driven on Chinese roads. As of 2000, 90% of Mercedes in China were S-classes, most of which were 140s. I really wanted something familiar, so even though I had no interest in the 140 itself, it was much more appealing than the 300 SL Gullwing.
Let’s look at it first, I think we have a pre-facelift. The material, is some kind of plastic, without any metal parts. But it’s still not light, it’s quite thick plastic, maybe you can feel it from the pictures. The windshield is integrated with the body rather than transparent. The plastics are spray-painted in different colors, a less common process. Usually the color of plastic toys comes from the material itself. Painting the plastic is a bit luxurious and not very strong. But the investment does not disappoint, and after many years of wear and tear you can even see a better mirror finish than the die-cast mold. So the craftsmanship of this toy is also unusual.
Its shape can be better understood from the side. The scale is unknown because it is cartoonish. If the headlight dimensions are accurate, the body is too chubby. If the body is accurate, well, it can’t be accurate. Its length on a measuring tape is appox 295 mm, so it’s about 1/18 scale. Maybe it would make more sense to guess the proportions by measuring the dimensions of the headlights or wheels. The upper body part may be relatively accurate, but the lower panel and wheels are stretched. In modern video software, many women lengthen their legs in this way to make themselves appear slimmer, but this will make the car behind them fatter. The details are very good, the cover where the two jack supports are carved. However, maybe you have discovered a problem with the front and rear bumpers, which we will discuss in the next picture.
Yes, we have a facelift front bumper, but the overall body is pre-facelift style. You could assume that this was due to faulty reference, that the 140 this toy is modeled on may have undergone a convenience repair: a front collision. The repair shop grabbed the most reachable bumper, which luckily turned into this toy’s reference object. The star on the hood is made of soft plastic, it will never break! At least in my childhood, it never lost its star as quickly as other Mercedes toys! So this is also a pioneering work. But to that advantage, it’s now a little crooked.
Overall, this toy is actually asymmetrical from left to right. In the development of a toy or model, a sample is usually first made using plaster and resin, and then the other half is scanned to replicate and the mold sculpted. Here it has no technology trace and may be entirely hand-carved molds. The whole toy gives me a feeling of no technology but full of craftsmanship, so as I said, it is like a Chinese porcelain.
The optics are the absolute highlight of this toy. It doesn’t even have a clear windshield, but it does have fancy headlights! You can see the actual reflector and texture on the lens. The struts that hold the lens in place are placed in the most inconspicuous places to make it look as real as possible. But once again, it’s held back by technology, the edges of the plastic part are very less than ideal, a result of the poor mold design and materials. Overall, it’s still better than those die-cast models from the same period. You can compare it to some models made by UT, Bburago or Maisto, and the lights on this toy will most likely win.
The raditor grille could be the right pre-facelift. On the inner plastic frame, there are up to 7 grids on each side. For a real 140, the pre-facelift has 10 grids, the facelift has 5 grids, this one is in between. The curvature of these moldings seems odd, it’s inconsistent with the aluminum moldings, like the right parts were photoshopped onto the body from the wrong angle. The license plate is JY 08008. The blue license plate is Chinese style. 8 has an auspicious meaning of wealth. This may be the real number of the car.
The lower panels on the side are all pre-facelift. Look at those freestanding stainless steel moldings! They are sparkly tucked between the upper and lower body. This way you have a three-dimensional molding, rather than just painting a line on the body. The painted plastic body is very reflective. I must praise another excellent aspect of this toy, its lower trim has a matte texture just like the real car, although the color may be darker than the actual 7700 Alto Grey. Even today, NOREV makes the entire body completely glossy for Mercedes, and Mercedes Classics is indifferent. It’s hard for them to admit that a 24 years old Chinese rough toy is more dedicated.
If you’re like me and can forgive the sizing, the rims are fantastic too. Each hole of the 8-Loch was reproduced and the star in the center was placed in the correct position: the three ends targeted 3 of the 5 small holes, like what Mercedes did in the press photo. It even has a lip so you can hang balance weight on the outside. Check out KK Scale’s recently released 1/18 600 SEC which has the same 8-Loch, it is so pathetic in detail compared to this toy. The tires have the spelling JIN YU, which is the name of the toy manufacturer. The other side says MADE IN CHINA. I think who ever decided this must be proud of it rather than feeling inferior. All toys today have this line hidden in the most inconspicuous place, and if you wrote it where everyone could see it, it would probably get stuck on Walmart shelf forever.
Guess what? The wipers are movable! This was one of the most surprising discoveries of my childhood. I’m sure many kids are as obsessed with wipers as I was and want something to imitate their movements. Unfortunately, almost all toys and fancy expensive models have a fixed wiper blade that is a fragile part that is glued on, or is just part of the windshield at all. So when I discovered this, wow! I like to keep pouring water on it and then using my hands to start the wipers, which left a lot of scratches on my black windshield. I’m not even shy to tell you a true detail – I use saliva when there’s no water around. This feature gave me great joy as a child, I can please myself everywhere at any moment. Today, as an adult 140 expert, I have to say that although it does a good job, the wiper direction is reversed.
There are more facelift elements at the tail. For example, 3-piece taillights (corresponding to MY1995-1996) and rounded trunk lid. The name plate on the trunk lid may tell its true identity: 300 SEL. The rear bumper is a bit strange, it’s neither facelift nor pre-facelift, probably closer to the latter. However, with the name plate, I am positive that it is pre-facelift: few people are willing to remove the S 320 with the 300 SEL if they have newer vehicles. The star on the trunk lid is also soft plastic, so, it doesn’t line up well. It’s a flexible part, once it installed, it can be twisted around, but it’s difficult to adjust to the correct angle.
Taillights even have more aesthetic value than headlights. Note its shape and structure, the shell has completely restored grooves. As for the interior, it even has the reversing lights hollowed out. At certain angles, the reversing light area does appear darker than the rest of the taillights. Once again, the fixed pillars are placed in the most inconspicuous position to avoid them reminding people that this is just a toy. It’s a bit of a pity that although the stainless steel moldings on the sides are separate parts, the front and rear bumpers are missing moldings.
There’s nothing special about the flat bottom. It has a power system, and the first thing any boy will probably do when they get a toy car is try out how it drives, and then they realize it’s a friction power toy. There is a friction motor above the wheel axle, and when you push it forward, it continues to move forward, making a loud noise. For this most creative and rare toy of childhood, I really can’t bear to see it hit the wall, so I prefer to play with it statically.
This is its trademark, with the words “Jinyu Trademark” in Chinese. The year 2000 is written below the logo, which may be the year it was produced, so I spotted it right after it was launched. The Guangdong-based company was founded in 1994 but has kept a low profile in the Chinese market and appears to produce toys more for foreign companies. I haven’t found any other items from them in China. Obviously not for this 140, because it does not appear in other markets. When I found it in the game arcade, it was sitting naked in the showcase. Later, it made limited appearances at some 140 owners’ meet, but never with the original packaging, perhaps it never came packaged.
I must not lie, after many years I lost the original copy. We moved with parents to a new place in 2003 and the toys stayed in the old apartment, as they were considered low-value items by us. The apartment was later given to relatives by my parents to live in. They threw away two boxes of my toys, including this one. The copy in the article was acquired from a 140 collector in Germany ten years ago. As I said, I’ve never seen it for sale in China, so I’m sure he put a lot more effort into it than I did.
I did see one other surviving example in China, which is in the childhood collection of a 140 owner. That was in 2015. When others saw this one with me, some said they had owned it too. This object wouldn’t be a unicorn, of which at least a few thousand were produced. But they all discarded as a rough toy by most children’s parents. That’s why they are extremely rare even in its origin country today.
A few years ago I found a real unicorn at an antique market: a white counterpart, but remote-controlled. It uses the same casing as the black original, but has different internals. Below I will just describe some of the different parts.
Just like the original version in black, without any original box. I can’t be sure if the remote is original, the style of the remote looks newer than the toy itself. This is the only one I have found and no one else has seen it yet, if any of you know more please contact me immediately.
Since it is RC, it can naturally be turned. It can not only increase dynamic fun, but also increase static viewing fun. I can turn the front wheels and take some cool photos.
This white example was also painted, and the paint was so thick that it cracked. Overall it is still well preserved. As an improvement, it added stainless steel molding between rear body and rear bumper! But the front is still missing. This makes me wonder if the absent piece is missing.
The name plate 300 SEL on trunk lid is gone, which is wise. People buying this may prefer the V12 over the 300 SEL which can’t be removed. Now they can print and even write what ever model designation they want.
Since it is designed as a remote control car, the bottom of the housing has been completely changed. The transition from a friction toy to a remote control car may be a big part of what makes friction toys so rare. Because mold changes are irreversible in terms of economic value, now that they have decided to turn it into an RC car, if they only have one set of molds, the friction toy is discontinued. Obviously this remote control car was not successful, and few examples remain. Just think, in 2000, people might still be able to accept a giant plastic Mercedes friction toy. But in 2001-2002, there were already many stylish RCs that turned on the lights and opened the doors, and were the most stylish cars. Jinyu technically started producing its toys after a 1991 car was discontinued, without Daimler’s consent, of course. It is difficult for these toys to succeed commercially.
The black toy is almost perfect for a child, although it reproduces some incorrect details. Mercedes has established aftersales network in China since 1993, but few owners afford genuine parts and dealer repairs, even S-Class owners. The car’s owner apparently didn’t get the right repair advice and lend the car to this toy manufacturer owner. Or this car belongs to the owner himself. This is a microcosm of China at that time. Maybe I should have separated my impression as kid and adult to keep the best parts of it.