You may have noticed I haven’t exactly been writing up a storm for Toyota Week. It’s not that I don’t like Toyotas, it’s just that my favorite ones from the 1960s to the early ’80s are very scarce around my area. But I will tell you that my most favorite Toyota is the Crown: From the early ones right on through to the current workhorse Crown Comfort taxis and plush Crown Royal and Majesta luxury sedans. So naturally when I saw this little ’71 Crown at a toy show in Galesburg a couple years ago, I had to buy it.
This gen-4 Crown was the last one offered in the U.S. The gen-3 was rather conservative looking–albeit attractive (and I loved David Saunders’s Crown cache post!)–but this one was much more Japanese.
Up front, it had a very unusual trim strip/faux grille on the hood, with turn signal lamps wrapping around the tops of the fenders. It actually bore a resemblance to the 1971 Dodge Coronet–at least from the front.
image: en.wikipedia.org
A very Detroit-like hardtop coupe was also offered, along with the station wagon, but the gen-4 didn’t really take off in America, and it was last available here for the 1973 model year. Finding any gen-4 Crown in the States these days would be a genuine find!
The Crown was more or less replaced in the U.S. by the Mark II in ’74, and later on the Cressida (Cressida woody wagon CC here). But I will always love these Crowns, and since I will likely never see one around here, this one will have to do.
This particular model is a reissue of the original casting by Tomica, and like everything else done by that company, the proportions and detailing are spot-on. I have always loved the old JDM-style Japanese cars–like the Australian Valiants, Falcons and Holdens, they are kind of alternate-universe cars to me–at least until Japan, Inc. went mainstream and started designing their U.S. offerings for American tastes. But forty years ago, a Toyota really was a Toyota!
This is an excellent model and I do not have it.
I made trips to Japan in 1979 and 1980 and found the joys of the toy departments of the major department stores in each city I traveled to. I bought mostly 1/43 scale cars but also the smaller approximately 1/64 scale ones. Tomica made the best stuff, both in the small scales like this but especially in 1/43. Other very good brands included Diapet (the most prolific competitor to Tomica) Kato, Shinsei, Sakura. There were some American, English, German and French models but by far the majority from all makers were JDM cars. Fun and cheap to buy; I now wish I had spent twice as much as I did back then.
That coupe looks a lot like a Mustang/Torino got in the mix,nice and it has a 6.My cousin had a wagon version of this sedan which was a good car
I love the wagons too! I am not sure if a faux-woody Crown wagon was offered; I don’t think so.
I’m pretty sure I remember a big Toyota woody,the big Toyotas were rare in the UK as cars over 2 litre didn’t sell well and most people buying a big car bought Fords and Vauxhalls.Cousin Roy’s wagon was a plain white one which was 10 at the time he bought it and he beat the snot out of it til a drunk driver centre punched it.I liked these cars in all the body styles especially the woody and the coupe
The next Crown along, the squarer version of the same cockpit had a woody wagon. I’ve seen two with a plastiwood tailgate applique, I imagine a full body kit was available.
I had a white Superdeluxe wagon as a surfie machine. An import from the UK so it was rotten with rust underneath sadly. They sold well in New Zealand as locally-assembled sedans but the coupe and wagons were rare and coveted imports. Yes the top grille/light bar was unusual but it wasn’t a trim strip – it was very much a functioning air grille. The Gen 4 facelift was toned down with conventional chrome bumpers so definitely a leap too far.
I never knew the upper grille was really a grille. You can tell I’ve never seen one in person 🙂
This Crown 4-door sedan roofline reminds me of bit also of the Holden Premier/Kingswood HK, HT and HG gens (1968-71) minus the front-vent windows.
http://oldholden.com/node/78754
Nice car, I would like to see and learn more about Aussie and South African cars
Toyota Crowns had full-perimeter body-on-frame construction from the beginning in 1955 until 1994. Very unusual for a Japanese car in the latter years.
This model Crown turned up in wagon form and was quite popular however they rusted rapidly and disappeared sedans and the odd coup’e remain but wagons are a myth.
6 S60 Crown wagons left here apparently. One was on trademe this year, and the vendor owned, or had previously owned 3 of the other remaining ones. It looked good but was seriously rusty.
I had one of these, a 4 door in black of course, during my first USAF tour in Japan in 1981 – was a ’74. In Japan, these versions are called “kujira” or blue whale for their rounded body style. Mine had the M series 2.0 6 cylinder.
Great car – roomy for a long legged gaijin…………
The Crown coupe does have a certain (presumably coincidental) Chrysler vibe. I saw a six-cylinder hardtop a while back and described it as looking “rather like the illegitimate offspring of a 1971 Plymouth Satellite and a coastal gun emplacement.”
mmmmmmm… delicious toy. The wagons would probably be a write-off if the rear lenses were smashed. I imagine that plastic would be unobtanium.