Tag: japanese (Page 2 of 3)

Densha Otoko would be proud

April 20, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

Densha Otoko would be very proud on this guy: he built a giant beetle robot in his garage all by himself:

The robot is shaped after kabuto-mushi (also known as the rhinoceros beetle) which has a big antler on its forehead to be used in mating battles.

His controller looks pretty complex:

RX-03 control box

However when we zoom in on the title of the controller:

RX-03 control box zoomed in
Kabutom Ragio Controrea? Maybe that’s how it is supposed to be pronounced by a Japanese… :D

He named his robot Kabutom RX-03 since it is the third incarnation of his robot. I wonder what Kabutom RX-07 looks like… Maybe something like the RX7 on the right?

Kabutom RX-07?

Old school Japanese police cars

March 5, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

I just happened to stumble upon this nice video of all pre 1984 Japanese police cars:

I think the people loving the Seibu Keisatsu regulars at Japanese Nostalgic Car blog will recognize a lot of the cars in this video.

I did spot a lot of Crows, Glorias and Cedrics. But also rare cars like the Ford Mustang Mach 1 and a 240Z and a 300ZX highway chasers!

Useless Japanese car innovations: spoken reverse warning signal

December 11, 2008 / banpei / 2 Comments

I managed to find another useless innovation: we all know the reverse warning signal, short beeps indicating a big truck is reversing (with no rear vision at all). That’s very useful and people are used to it and act upon it.

In the early 80s Toyota innovated the reverse warning signal and equipped their MarkII with a spoken reverse warning signal:

Of course this innovation is only useful for people understanding Japanese, if they are used to it at all… If someone would reverse with their Jaguar and that car would tell me in English “Watch out, big lump of iron is reversing! Keep away! Do not stand in the turning circle! Etc. etc.” I would not really act upon that: I’d probably first start laughing my ass off and then probably congratulate the driver with such cynical car!

You see, that’s why this can only fall into the category of useless Japanese car innovations!

Video: Japanese 1983 Celica XX advertisement #2

July 23, 2008 / banpei / 0 Comments

Last week I blogged about the Toyota Celica XX advertisement with the ELO (Densha Otoko) theme in it. This week I have a Japanese Celica XX advertisement with Grace Jones!

I can understand why they compare Grace Jones with the Celica XX: both are square muscular superstars but I personally would prefer the Celica XX above Grace Jones. ;)

A nice detail is the mirror shot at 19 seconds: it is a bit the same as the mirror shot of the New Carina catalogue (S59-3):

Same style, same era?

Video: Japanese 1986 Celica advertisement #3

July 1, 2008 / banpei / 0 Comments

I found this 1986 Celica advertisement on Youtube:

It features the TA64 Celica which surprises me: the A6 Celica wasn’t sold after 1985, so why advertise with the archaic (in that era of course!) A6 triumphs instead of the new FWD or AWD Celicas, or could it be that the AWD Celicas didn’t hit the market by then?

AE86 nominated as Japanese musclecar of the 80s

January 15, 2008 / banpei / 0 Comments

Jalopnik nominated the AE86 as Project Car Hell musclecar of the 80s and it is nominated against the Mitsubishi Starion.

Jalopnik:

The AE86 is a pretty cool car, of course, but these days it’s akin to what the ’69 Camaro was to my generation: just about the only old car that every high-school kid can identify.

You can find (and vote) here:
PCH, 80s Japanese Muscle Edition: AE86 or Starion?

I wished they would have taken my old AE86 as example of how the AE86 looks:

instead of this: