Stock# 21056
Collector# 909
CB's Die Cast Review: January 15, 1999
1999 First Editions #2
`99 Mustang
Ford has taken its venerable Mustang and beefed it up to celebrate the Pony Car's 35th
anniversary. The car sports more robust body relief, along with more motor muscle
-- a hefty 260 horsepower punch in the 4.6 liter engine of the GT. New innovations
throughout have kept the popularity of the Mustang as strong as ever
The `99 Mustang is nicely done. Another winning effort.
The calendar has turned,
and instead of the usual post-holiday lull, we have seen the releases of new 1999 stock
from a variety of manufacturers throughout the last two months. Mattel decided to
start early with the First Editions this year, and one of the cars that arrived as
an early New Year's present is the `99 Mustang.
Mattel has done an excellent job in replicating the 1999 Mustang GT Coupe. Casting
relief of the hood and side details appear to be faithful to the muscular performance car.
The honeycomb grill and tiny fog lights under the front nose are evident, as well as the door
handles and gas cap on the sides. Headlight, parking and tail light detail are also
cast into the body. The black plastic chassis is also well detailed. The plastic
interior lacks dashboard detail, but nonetheless is a good representation, with full floors
and inner door sides.
The body is painted in purple metalflake metallic, and the car looks good in this color.
The paint is a heavy coat, which nearly obscures all the fine tooling work. The tampos
consist of an intricate Mustang crest behind either fender printed in silver, red, blue and
black; the Mustang name in silver on the rear bumper; and the ubiquitous HW logo on the
rear passenger-side fender. The car has been found with interior color red or tan,
with the red interior proving to be the harder of the two to find. For those who
prefer aesthetics over the urge to collect everything, this is a blessing, as the tan
interior looks markedly better. The interior glass is clear plastic. The car
rides on chrome five-spoke wheels that thankfully are in proportion with the rest of the
model. The car is currently manufactured in Malaysia.
I like this casting a lot, and prefer it over the `96 Mustang GT for a number of
reasons. I'm probably in the minority, but I think the car (and the real thing)
looks better as a hardtop coupe rather than a convertible. The interior design is
a major improvement. And, this car just has the look of power. It would have
been nice to see all the lights painted, as on the 1996 model, but maybe we'll see that in
the future.
