Hasegawa 1/24 1987 Suzuki Jimny Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Suzuki introduced the world to its first 4-wheel-drive car, the Jimny, in 1970. The design was purchased from Hope Motor Company and put into production under the Suzuki brand where it remains to this day. While the first Jimnys were powered by a (feed the squirrel) 0.4 liter engine, the design grew in features and capabilities over the years. You may not recognize the name of this car, but I'm sure many of you will recognize its US brand - the Suzuki Samurai. In 1985, the Samurai was introduced in the US market as the 1986 model year and it was an instant success. In that initial introduction, you could purchase one of these four around $6200 brand new off the lot. Demand was so great that some dealers around the US were nearly doubling the price and still selling cars. A friend of mine bought one of these and rolled the car in traffic. Consumers Union also found that the car had a tendency to roll under certain driving conditions (as did the Jeep CJ and Wrangler). The Samurai was discontinued in the US around 1995 in favor of the Suzuki Sidekick. Even so, the Jimny remains in production and is a popular mini-SUV in many parts of the globe.

Hasegawa first developed this tooling in 2016 with the kit of the 1995 Jimny. Last year, Hasegawa changed out the parts to render the 1990 Jimny, and here we have the third iteration with more new parts to render the 1987 Jimny.

The kit is molded in styrene and presented on five trees of silver-gray parts, one small tree of white parts plus the body shell, one tree of chromed parts, one tree of clear parts, and one set of rubber (vinyl) tires. Among the features and options in this kit:

• Curbside design
• Right-hand drive
• Detailed suspension and drive train
• Detailed interior
• Steerable front wheels
• Window masks to paint the black window seals

This tooling represents the Japanese production configuration (right hand drive) equipped with a turbocharger (tell-tale scoop on hood). One could render a Samurai with some careful conversions:

• Alter the dashboard to left-hand drive along with pedals and steering column
• Plug the turbocharger hole in hood
• Open or alter the rear of the hardtop to reflect the version you're modeling

When I first met my wife, she had one of these in a ghastly green, which she named the 'Kavorkian Mobile' because the rear of the top consistently allowed exhaust fumes into the interior.

Whether you have fond memories of the Samurai or Jimny, or you'd like the add Suzuki's 'cheap Jeep' to your collection, Hasegawa has done a really nice job with this kit.

My sincere thanks to Hasegawa USA for this review sample!