These Isuzu VehiCROSS die-cast came out of China in at least 5 colors (black, silver, dark red, dark blue and yellow) and are slightly larger than Hot-Wheels cars. The detailing is good, though the windows appear to be slightly out of scale and the wheel wells are too open. Also for some reason the rocker panels have skid plates or are just painted a contrasting silver - go figure. The bottoms are made of plastic and have an embossed Realtoy logo and the words "Isuzu VEhiCROSS" along with "Made in China." These were sold boxed separately at Toys R Us in Japan (all but yellow), released as part of a 25 vehicle set or Car Wash set in the US under the Action City Marquee, or as part of single and two-car carded Fastlane sets in Canada. There are many loose sold on eBay (most come from Canada, I believe), including a version that's mounted to a key-chain. I'm not sure if the loose ones were scabbed from larger sets or if they could be bought loose in boxes. I suspect that the keychain-versions are modified once they came across the ocean, rather than being produced in the toy factory. There are no Isuzu copyrights so I assume that most are unlicensed (see exception below).
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The Action City window-boxed with header card VehiCROSS appeared in quantity at Toys R Us in Japan several years ago. I believe they sold for about a buck a piece (in equivalent yen). This particular example is painted in silver (one of four colors available).
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I actually quite like the paint color of this variation. It appears that all of these boxed Action City cars have the same UPC for the particular vehicle, regardless of paint color. This particular example is painted in dark red (one of four colors available).
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The black-painted Fast Lane VX looks particularly sweet because of its grey-painted cladding and hood insert. I guess they wanted some contrasting color. This particular example is painted in black (one of four colors available).
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Another interesting color change - this dark blue version has silver painted cladding and insert. This particular example is painted in dark blue (one of four colors available).
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I'm not sure how many color variations of this carded example exists. This is the only one I've found so far. It came from Canada and appears (from the copyrights on the back) to be a Canadian and Australian exclusive to Toys R Us.
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Another odd packaging variation - a two pack feature the VX and a Hummer (guess this was supposed to appeal to the off-road enthusiast). I'm not sure how many color variations of this carded example exists. This is the only one I've found so far. It came from Canada and appears (from the copyrights on the back) to be a Canadian, Spanish and United Kingdom exclusive to Toys R Us.
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This Action City Gift Pack appears to have actually been available in the US. I got this one from a US seller on eBay. It has gobs of international copyrights on the back and Isuzu appears to actually have been licensed for the use of the VX (a departure from the versions above). The package is interesting in that the internal blister wraps the cars in front and back, so both sides may be displayed. Inside is a dark red VX. Click here for the back.
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So far this Action City Car Service Station is the only set I've actually bought locally. Unfortunately, it was bought from a closing KB*Toys so may be difficult to find until KB begins liquidating on eBay. The set features a playset and 5 vehicles, including a dark red VX. Retail was $9.99 (I paid half that during liquidation).
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