Mario Kart Wii Peach/Wild Wing

       
 
 
Air Hogs Mario Kart Peach Wild Wing
Mario Kart Peach Wild Wing Packaging Mario Kart Peach Wild Wing front detail Mario Kart Peach Wild Wing working lights Mario Kart Peach Wild Wing side detail Mario Kart Peach Wild Wing rear detail Mario Kart Peach Wild Wing rear

 
Buy this car at eBay

 

Background

Mario Kart Wii was released in 2008, designed to take full advantage of the Wii's motion-sensing controller and included a steering wheel accessory to hold the remote. The game had a starting grid of 12 playable characters, with the previous "weight" class abandoned in favor of a "size" class. Peach was one of the four "medium" drivers and had the option of driving the all-new "Wild Wing," a tuner-inspired vehicle.

 

Packaging

The Wild Wing is packed in a clear plastic blister identical to the one used for the Royale. The interior tray has been updated to capture the new car, and the cardback and sticker have been updated to the MarioKart Wii logo and "'Wild Wing' Peach - 19306," respectively.

 

Casting/Paint

This is a full-body racer, more akin to Luigi's sports coupe than the Princess' previous ride. This casting is a little more complex that what we saw from Jaxx, though, with a multi-piece body that has separate bumpers and a separate rear wing. The main body is cast in pink while the other parts are cast in white, and all things considered the paint applications do a reasonable job of matching the neighboring plastic. A little brighter on the white plastic and more saturated on the pink paint, maybe, but still very close.

There is also a set of white racing stripes across the top of the car and spoiler, a black grille with silver bars, silver headlights with dark pink wings and black outlines, a dark blue windshield, light blue rear deck vents, black wing struts, and a Supra-inspired tail panel with black outlining eight taillights (six pink, two blue) and a black diffuser with gold quad exhausts. The Princess' crown symbol is printed on each door, with a much smaller one centered on the rear. Paint and printing are excellent across the board. Aside from the previously-mentioned color matching, everything is placed properly and has good sharp printing.

The Princess herslf is well done, with only faint parting seams along her arms and generally sharp paint work. Her eyes are printed, making them stand out against the rest of the painted features with their relatively soft edges. She's in her traditional garb - pink and red dress, white gloves, blue earrings and hair tie, and gold crown with red and blue jewels. She's gripping a silver steering wheel and there's even a hint of dark pink roll cage and black seat around her. It's basic, but works surprisingly well.

Chassis detail is limited but present, and the wheels are silver five-spokes with treaded vinyl tires.

 

Features/Accessories

The usual pull-back motor is here, and once again is strong enough to get some distance without getting in the way of the sculpt.

 

Accuracy

The only difference I see between this and the original model - and this is a stretch - is that the white stripe only goes up to the break between the main body and front splitter when it should finish of with a taper more or less level with the headlights. It's the same thing we saw with Fast Five police car - the missing white triangle would be a whole extra paint app and is so small that no one would miss it. As wit hthe other cars in the series, "1/43" refers to the tracks this is designed to go with rather than the actual model. In realityl, it works out to somewhere in the 1/24 range.

 

Overall

Another fun entry in this series, with good sculpting and a solid paint job at a very reasonable price.

 

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