Category: Family Album Treasures (Page 2 of 17)

Double Dragon: two Toyota Celica XX brothers – Family Album Treasures

December 12, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

The Lee brothers in the Double Dragon game may have inspired these two to stand on top of their Toyota Celica XX-es in today’s Family Album Treasures. So why are they standing on top of their cars? And what is the Double Dragon game? And what has that got to do with the Celica XX?

Double Dragon

Let’s start with the Double Dragon game. If you are unfamiliar with this game, you really missed some vitally important gaming history. Double Dragon was the first game in the beat-’em-up genre. This genre is a side-scrolling game where “bad guys” have to be fought and reach a goal at the end. In this case, a young student, Marian, is being kidnapped by the Black Warriors. You have to fight your way to rescue her from this evil gang of thugs.

This RHD Levin AE86 suits me well in LHD! – Family Album Treasures

December 5, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

There are so many questions I have about this Levin AE86:

It has a GT-S door sticker. Where did it come from?
It has correction stickers for the headlights going from LHD to RHD while the dashboard is on the RHD side. If it were a RHD car I would expect it to be the other way around!
There seem to be traditional Chinese writings on the wall of this garage / gas station
It has a kouki grill and zenki bumper and the car appears to be a kouki model.

So what’s going on here? The traditional Chinese writing on the wall would place this car either in Taiwan, Macau or Hong Kong. Cars drive on the right side (so LHD) in China and Taiwan and on the left side (RHD) in Hong Kong and Macau. I could explain the LHD headlights if this person lived in mainland China or Taiwan. So my best guess would be that this Levin used to be owned by someone living in China mainland or Taiwan and he was visiting Hong Kong or Macau.

That still doesn’t explain the GT-S door sticker and the zenki bumper though.

This Levin AE86 got one up to 87 in 88! – Family Album Treasures

November 28, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

What is the most comfortable place of your Levin AE86? What’s the best intake on your Levin AE86? Flat out in your engine bay of course!

Sorry for these bad puns, but I just had to make them!

License plate

This nearly brand new kouki (facelift) AE86 from Osaka is one up with its 87 license plate in February 1988! Now the big mystery is whether it’s a 1987 car or that the 87 license plate is a coincidence. Next to the license plate, it has got a double set of fog lights: über rare OEM GT Apex fog lights in the grill and two Cibié 35 / Airport.

Madness on the Honda City: Hondahondahondahonda!

Baggy Trousers with my Honda Civic – Family Album Treasures

November 21, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

The owner of this second-generation Honda Civic strikes such a strange pose that I immediately had to think of the wacky Madness Japanese TV ads for the Honda City! It’s like he’s doing that strange Madness-walking dance!

Honda Civic owner doing the Madness walking-dance

If you are unfamiliar with what that dance looks like, this is the album art of the Madness Honda City LP that was released in Japan:

My stonks are soaring baby! – Family Album Treasures

November 14, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

At the height of the Japanese bubble economy, everything was booming: stocks, assets and land value. You name it, it was almost doubling year-over-year (well, that’s a bit exaggerated), so once you had become Mr. Big, you had to show it. Buying a Soarer Z20 would definitely show you were big in Japan!

I can’t really tell whether this photo above is actually shot during the bubble era or it’s an homage to this era. The suit is the late 1980s/early 1990s, the mobile phone as well and so is the Toyota Soarer Z20. However, these rims actually feel more like the late 1990s and the camber as well. The photo is clearly shot with film, so if it were a homage, kudos to the photographer!

Via eg_power.jp

Hearty swapped Carina GT-TR with lots of love – Carina Sightings

November 6, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

Hearts and love surround this Toyota Carina GT-TR TA63. Let me explain to you why! I was split between posting this in Carina Sightings and Family Album Treasures, so I’ll post it in both.

First heart: the girlfriend

In this first photo, you can see a girl posing next to the Carina GT-TR. Her name is Kobayashi Koto (小林古都) and according to the ex-owner of this Carina in the 1990s she used to be a model in the 1980s. She was most famous for being the model featured on the 1987 Bridgestone calendar. We can only assume she used to be his girlfriend as she has her arm wrapped around him. Or at least, as much as we can see of him in that photo. She is clinging to him so much that she must have loved him very much. Unless he was in her friendzone…