Recently I discovered a new three inch diecast model being sold in my local petrol station. Some research indicated that it was manufactured by a company called Kaiyu, for a Mexican brand called Gashaball. Read that post here.
Kaiyu appear to be a brand of diecast cars in several scales, manufactured by the Shantou City Kaiyu Industrial Co in Guangdong, China. They also manufacture plastic bricks similar to Lego and remote control toy helicopters. My main interest is only their diecast cars.
Kaiyu may have a relationship with Golden Wheel, either as a producer of cars sold as Golden Wheel, or linked in a corporate way (I do not know). The castings with KY on the base started to appear in US 'Dollar' stores two years ago being sold as Golden Wheels.
The sub branding for the Kaiyu diecast cars appears to be Rongda. The scales that they manufacture in range from 1:12 to 1:87, and include construction equipment and trucks.
Rongda logo - a Kaiyu sub-brand
Supercar brand very similar castings to MotorMax
4D brand, very similar to Tomica packaging
Construction Machines - I cant determine if this carries a sub-brand
Classic Cars - a range of three vintage trucks
At this stage the only cars I have actually seen are three of the Supercars range being sold in Australia under the Gashaball Supercarz range. The quality of these cars is very good. The casting is crisp, the interior is well moulded, it carries clear glass and a multi-strike tampo printing at the front and rear. The tiny badge is distinct. Only the wheels detract from this being more than a kids toy. This is a casting good enough to be in the Matchbox line.
If anyone has more info on the Kaiyu range of diecast, please leave a comment.
