Today I’m not just shining the customiser spotlight on one talented… customiser, I’m shining it on an entire bloody country 🙂

More specifically I am covering the recent Thai Custom Model Festival and on the following pages you will be treated to over 100 drool inducing images of the festival as well as an exclusive interview with one of the event organisers, one Pattanapong Ruenpak aka @design_by_kumanza (yep, that guy 😉 )

this is the sort of quality work coming out of TJ’s Garage

Before we jump in I’d also like to give a quick shout out to Gabby aka @TJ__Garage who was the Event Director and without whom it appears none of this would have happened. I obviously wasn’t there but the images are enough for me to be able to officially say “well done mate, nice bloody job indeed!”

If you are not familiar with his work (pictured right) then you really should be! That’s OK because we have the remedy for your TJ__Garage fix here at MCH as we have already shone the spotlight on his work – read the article and see the customs here

Interview with Organiser @design_by_kumanza

I spent some time over chatting with Mr Ruenpak over messenger and asked him a few questions about the event – thank you again for taking time out of your day to give us a little insight into the Thai Custom Model Festival Pattanapong.
Note that the answers have been edited by myself as English is not Pattanapong’s first language. I have obviously not changed any of the answers in any way, merely shaped them for grammatical cohesion 😀 Where I have been unable to do so I have used quotation marks.

1. The photos show a very popular festival – on a scale of 1 – 10 how successful do you think it was overall?

It was very successful – 1:64 scale is very popular in Thailand

2. This festival celebrated scale model cars in all scales not just Hot Wheels/Tomica, but the photos are dominated by 1:64 scale goodness. Was this the dominating scale? Which was the second most popular?

There are many different models in the festival, but the festival activities focus mainly around the 1:64 scale custom contest so naturally it is the most popular scale by far.
EDITOR NOTE: Looking at the pics it would be fair to say that 1:24 scale is the second most popular scale. There are a few images of some amazing 1:24 scale dioramas included below – see if you can pick them 🙂

3. Were you surprised with the level of craftmanship and overall customising skill involved in so many of the 1:64 scale builds? (Or have you known how good your fellow Thai customisers are for some time now? 😉 )

“Of course, my car skills in the country I want to be realistic from a 1: 1 car.” The contest is set up to encourage realism within the builds and so I guess this pushes the levels of expectation up within each customiser

4. I noticed the work of some familiar names like @mangagarage @tj__garage and of course the notorious @masanong – any other insta-famous customisers I missed that deserve a mention?

“Everybody is my friend, everyone is decorating the car. Same pattern” – One thing I (Alex here) have noticed about the Thai based customisers are that they are as humble and modest as they are talented. I guess the answer given by Pattanapong merely reflects this humility. #Respect

5. And on the point of mentions – are there any people who you wanted to give a special mention to – a shout out for work they did behind the scenes or a sponsor who made it all happen? – this is your chance to say thanks 🙂

“I thank my ideology friends @Tj We like the same thing. And do it together. TJ is the contest director.”

Aaaah, so this explains why I see so much of Gabby’s (@TJ__Garage) amazing creations amongst the custom badassery on display – nice one brother!

6. Pisut Masanong was there showing of his talents and his custom creations. – How was he involved?

Pisut Masanong hard at work at the Thai Custom Diecast Model Festival

Pisut Masanong is an artist that many people accept. He was a guest at my job. I featured Pisut Masanong

Thai Custom Model Festival Photos

Enjoy the following 100+ images showing the incredible talents of the Thai diecast customising community. We already know Pisut @Masanong and Gabby @TJ__Garage exhibited some of their amazing creations – see whom else’s work you recognise. Oh and I see your car Shingo @Decepcionez 😀 (nice work Pisut)

These images are in no particular order and range from delicious to mouth watering. Enjoy

this is the sort of quality work coming out of TJ Garage

*Please note that MCH takes no responsibility for damaged tablets or keyboards as a result of excessive drool.

Comments

comments

5 Comments

Policedriver Studios on 22/06/2018 at 3:07 am

Anyone know of any 1:64 collector/customizer meeting in the UK/London? Any ideas will be nice! nice page Alex!
- Alex on 02/07/2018 at 10:16 pm
  
  I want to know the same thing for Australia…actually maybe I should compile a list for everyone – your local meeting points etc 🙂 – oh and you get an entry in Fatlace VW comp too my man
  - Dulitha Sameera on 08/08/2018 at 9:36 am
    
    Mate, Organise one in Melbourne. I’m happy to participate and We might find more customizers on our way. I know another guy in Melbourne
Josue Casco on 02/07/2018 at 2:23 am

Awesome article,festival, and pictures! Keep up the great job with your site.
TDGarrage on 02/12/2021 at 7:25 pm

look at those cool dudes. They are all great but i think you should improve your skills in customizing hot wheels Alex