COBI Subaru Impreza WRC 2003 Set 24650

COBI's Subaru Impreza WRC 2003 is a 1:35 model built from 88 blocks under official Subaru licence, 12.5 cm long, with movable wheels. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

Bugeye, blobeye, hawkeye

Subaru never gave these cars nicknames. Owners did, and they did it because the second-generation Impreza changed its face twice in six years and nobody could keep the model years straight.

The 2001 car had large round headlights and was immediately christened the bugeye. It was not popular. For 2003 Subaru redesigned the nose with flatter, more rectangular lamps — the blobeye, which is the car in this set. In 2006 came sharper, swept-back units, and that one became the hawkeye.

The names stuck so thoroughly that Subaru dealers and eventually Subaru itself began using them. There is no official designation that anyone remembers.

The 2003 season is the one that mattered. Petter Solberg took the drivers' championship in a car of exactly this shape, and it remains the last time a Subaru driver won the title.

In the COBI range

Part of the 1:35 Subaru collection. Set 24652 is the 2004 car with a finish-line diorama, and 24649 the road-going WRX STI.

Specifications

Pieces: 88 · Scale: 1:35 · Age: 6+ · Officially licensed
Model dimensions: 12.5 × 6.2 × 4.6 cm (4.9 × 2.4 × 1.8 in)