山火事で自宅全焼の記録ーーーーー第14回：『雑記ブログ、3個のカテゴリーの秘密』設計奮闘編 The Secret of the 3 Categories of My Blog

最近の中国産1/64スケールミニカー市場の拡大ですが、

なんといっても注目は、

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中国メーカーからのミニカーはそれぞれ個性的で、競争が激しいこともあり、
今後も目が離せません。

Episode 14: ‘The Secret of Three Categories in a Miscellaneous Blog’ – The Design Struggle

(I verify the accuracy of the diecast model by comparing it to photos of the actual car before starting the photo shoot. Sometimes I even bend the diecast body with pliers…)

This 14th installment is titled ‘The 3 Categories of My Miscellaneous Blog & The Struggle to Raise Reconstruction Funds Part 2’. I’d like to focus on the ‘tears and laughter’ experienced during June and July 2025.

I’ll proceed as follows.
This time covers the middle three items.

* New Home Design: The Mystery of the ‘Katsura Imperial Villa Veranda Concept’?
* Should I Create Blog Categories?
* ‘Home Rebuilding’: A Record of the Hardships and Joys Surrounding My Home’s Destruction and Reconstruction
* ‘Sculptural Design’: Introducing Automotive Design and Favorite Sculptures
* ‘Food Reports’: Restaurant Reviews & My Own Recipes…
* The Electric Vehicle Charging Drama at Home, Recurring!!
*Funding the Home Rebuild… Might Be Impossible?

＊Create Blog Categories?

When setting up the blog and deciding on various configurations and visual designs,
it came time to define the categories.

As I’d been contemplating before,
I checked my notes and came up with the following three:

＊Records of rebuilding my completely burned-down home & trauma recovery diary
* Buying back my lost 3D model collection & announcing new personal creations
* Reporting meals eaten during the disaster (restaurants, home cooking) & sharing recipes

Learning these three categories could be organized hierarchically
(e.g., setting subcategories like mini cars, design, origami, calligraphy under ‘3D Modeling’)

I deliberately chose broad, inclusive category names like these:

1. Home Reconstruction
2. Three-Dimensional Art
3. Meal Reports

Now, let’s look at each category in detail.

＊Home Rebuilding: A record of the struggles and joys surrounding the loss and rebuilding of my home

＊Finding temporary housing (apartment, backpacker hostel, rental house?)
＊Procuring furniture and household goods → Initially solved through leasing

Phase 1

＊Ensuring safety around the completely burned-down home
＊Debris removal by a U.S. Army special team (hazardous materials disposal unit?) dispatched by the federal government
＊The process of committing to rebuilding the home (negotiations with the insurance company, Federal Interagency Mitigation Assistance [FIMA], etc.)
* Selecting an architect
* Creating floor plans of the former home (collaborative effort with architect)
* New construction planning (exchanges with architect)
* Formal contract with architect

Phase 2

* Submitting new construction outline to Los Angeles County for approval
* Finalizing details, including new additions (as of 11/6/2025, this is the stage)
＊Professional site suitability survey
＊Final blueprint creation by architect and engineer
＊Selecting a contractor through a 3-company bidding process

Phase 3

＊Commencing construction from the topping-out ceremony
＊Completion thereafter within 9 months to 1 year

The experience of building a custom home from scratch—
something even many Americans locally rarely experience—

* The difficulty of securing financing,
* Funding from the U.S. federal government, local governments, public interest groups, contributions from friends and relatives, etc.,
* Soaring construction costs and labor fees, plus the uncertain economic policies of the Trump administration,
* Tips for selecting a contractor and insights into the construction industry’s inner workings,

I began with a sense that this would be a richly varied experience.

＊Sculpture: Introducing automotive designs and favorite forms

During January after the disaster,
while staying at a friend’s house, the hardest part was
having nothing to touch with my hands.
(For someone like me who always wants an interesting object in my palm to feel)

It was sheer boredom…

By mid-January, I couldn’t take it anymore.
The first mini car I ordered on eBay was this:

*AUTOWORLD Diecast, 1/64 Cadillac Eldorado, 1967 (Ice Blue & Black Two-Tone)

After that, I also got from AliExpress:
＊GFCC Diecast, 1/64 BMW 507 (Red Hardtop Version)

On Mercari,
*IP4-made, KOROKORO, Plastic Gachapon, Honda S660 (Full 5-Car Set)

Just as I placed these orders,
I had to move apartments.

*Introducing the ‘Top 10 Automotive Designs’!!

Then came May.
As I prepared to launch my blog, I wondered: What kind of articles should I write about scale models?
At that moment,

while casually gazing at the 1/64 scale mini cars displayed on the bamboo decorative shelf right before me,

the phrase
‘Top 10 Automotive Designs’

popped into my head.

I’d seen various “Top 10” lists before—like “The 10 Most Beautiful Cars” or “The 10 Coolest Cars”—in online articles and magazine features. But I’d never seen a “Top 10” focused purely on design. So I decided to create my own “Design Top 10,” entirely based on my own subjective opinions and biases.

After that, things progressed smoothly:

* I created the top 10 list,
* gave each car a nickname in my own style,
* jotted down article content in my notebook,
* tracked down the missing mini cars and managed to order them,

and finally published the first article about the ‘BMW 507’
on my blog on June 9th.

P.S.: Around this time, in an email to a friend, I explained the ‘Top 10 Auto Designs’ like this:

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I’ve been arranging the 1/64 scale mini cars I’ve bought over the last two or three months on my display shelf,
gazing at them absentmindedly.
(Compared to the 1/43 scale models I collected before, they take up less space,
and I can admire each car from a considerable distance in side view,
which opens up all sorts of ‘imaginary possibilities’ I never considered before. lol)

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Since the types of mini cars cover quite a broad range of categories,
I realized I might finally be able to compile my long-cherished ‘Personal Top 10 Automotive Designs’ list,
and I’m smiling to myself about it. Happy

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Over the past century and more,
the automobile and its design—creations packed full of every ambition, passion, madness, transcendent aesthetic, and rising momentum from around the world—
overflow with tales and minor episodes worthy of telling.

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Starting from this list, I feel I could eventually write about
my personal views, critiques, and relationships with each car design
in an entertaining and amusing way.

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By settling my own accounts with the past 100 years of automotive history,
I feel I can envision my personal means of transportation for decades to come
and conceptualize what they might look like.

*How to write the ‘Top 10 Automobile Designs’ article…

First, when writing the article:
1: Create a Top 10 list like this, giving each a concise, catchy nickname:

10th Place: BMW 507, 1956 ———— Like a movie star, the actual car is tiny!!
9th Place: AM General Hummer H1, 1992 ————High-mobility Rambo
8th Place: MB 560 SEL, W126 model, 1979 ————Loyal and intelligent German Shepherd
7th Place: Cadillac Eldorado, 1967 ————Intelligent sex appeal
6th Place: Toyota Prius, 2003 (2nd Generation) ———— Future triangular rice ball
5th Place: Honda S660, 2015 —————— The barking Shiba Inu
4th Place: Porsche 928, 1978 ———— An enchanting alien from another world
3rd Place: Citroën DS23 Pallas, 1973 ——The Seven-Shaped French Cat: Châtelet
2nd Place: Lamborghini Countach LP400, 1974 ——A Super-Fast Diamond
1st Place: Austin-Healey 100/4 (BN/1), 1953 –A Single-Horse Chariot of the God of Speed

2: Find a 1/64 scale mini car that captures the ‘form’ fairly accurately and to my taste. Then, obsessing over lighting and such, I take tons of photos suited to that model and edit them.

3: Finally, referencing the article drafts I’d jotted down in my notebook, I write the final version spontaneously, injecting my own personality to avoid flatness. (I prepared drafts like this for each car.)

The article format, which has solidified over time, looks like this:

* First, give the car a nickname based on its character.
* Structure the real car’s description from an objective perspective.
* Structure the design features from a subjective perspective.
* How I first encountered this design and how I interact with it…
* Summary + Overall design significance → Verifying the nickname’s legitimacy?
* Summarize other cars with similar design elements.

Another crucial point when writing the article:
It’s essential to

＊ Obtain a high-quality mini car,
＊ Prepare as realistic photos as possible yourself. To achieve this,
＊ Shoot the mini car (1/64 scale) from a distance,
＊ To eliminate its toy-like appearance.

Is there even a mini car that meets all these conditions?

＊The Struggle of Writing Articles: The Savior = China’s Precision Miniature Car Lineup

No need to worry—incredibly well-made miniature cars are being released constantly.

From Japanese manufacturers,

＊Kyosho, the grand master of 1/64 miniature cars, and
＊Tomytec’s Vintage Neo Series, appealing for its unique, crisp format

These are in a league of their own,
but following their lead, Chinese manufacturers are rapidly raising their quality standards and making remarkable strides.

Regarding the recent expansion of the Chinese-made 1/64 scale mini car market,

Over 100 companies have already entered the fray. Just counting the officially licensed companies featured in Japanese magazines exceeds 70, and including unlicensed companies, the number easily surpasses 150.
Originally, the ambiguity surrounding three-dimensional design registrations meant licensing wasn’t required for car models.
(Though there were precedents like Tamiya receiving friendly (free) data provision from British Lotus…)
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In the 2000s, Italian brands like Ferrari began asserting design patents on 3D modeling, creating a bad habit of long-term exclusive contracts with massive companies like Mattel in the US, involving huge licensing fees.
(As a result, Ferrari miniatures were only available as (poorly made) Mattel products until quite recently…)
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What’s fascinating in the current 1/64 mini car boom is that
‘Products from unlicensed companies tend to be more distinctive and better made.’
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GFCC, the company releasing the BMW 507w that brought me to tears with its emotion, also specializes in vintage cars like Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz, primarily from before the 70s. They seem to meticulously carve out models that look even more authentic than the real thing. Rather than simply modeling the 3D CAD-CAM data provided by the automakers, they take a hands-on approach.
They carefully observe the actual vehicles themselves,
then have the artists create the models.
They seem to meticulously observe the actual vehicles themselves,
and then have their artists craft the models.

In spirit, it feels like they redirect the money that would go to the automakers into production costs, driven by a desire to ‘make the best product possible.’ It truly feels like passionate car owners are putting their hearts into creating exceptional pieces for the world.
(My absolute favorite scenario. lol)
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As a result, depending on the model maker, masterpieces emerge that surpass the real thing—like my beloved GFCC BMW 507 series—and even transcend legendary masterpieces like those by AMR (André Marie Rouff).
(Could ‘ignoring CAD-CAM data’ be a prerequisite for masterpiece models?)

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I’ve digressed quite a bit, but
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looking at the list of mini cars I used in my Top 10 Designs,
it looks like this:
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10th Place: BMW 507, 1956 ————GFCC (China)
9th Place: AM General Hummer H1, 1992 ———Kyosho (Japan)
8th Place: MB 560 SEL, W126, 1979 ———Kyosho (Japan)
7th Place: Cadillac Eldorado, 1967 ————AUTO WORLD (USA)
6th Place: Toyota Prius, 2003 (2nd Generation) ——Toyota dealership novelty (Japan)
5th Place: Honda S660, 2015 ——————Kyosho (Japan)
4th Place: Porsche 928, 1978 ———NEO (USA)
3rd Place: Citroën DS23 Pallas, 1973 ——NOREV (France)
2nd Place: Lamborghini Countach LP400, 1974 ——Tomytec (Japan)
1st Place: Austin-Healey 100/4 (BN/1), 1953 – Kyosho (Japan)

Remarkably, the top four are from Japan’s long-established Kyosho,
while the others are quite diverse.

The real standout, however, is GFCC,

which perfectly modeled the 10th-place BMW with opening hood and trunk.

GFCC’s perfect model of the 10th-ranked BMW,
complete with opening hood and trunk.
(The Ferrari 250TR Testa Rossa is scheduled for release in November.)

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Miniature cars from Chinese manufacturers each have their own distinct character, and with competition being fierce,
they’ll definitely be worth keeping an eye on going forward.

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I plan to write more about mini cars in the future,
including product reviews and articles,
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so stay tuned for those too―
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Next time,
I want to share some behind-the-scenes stories from my food reviews.

Translated with DeepL.com