Kawasaki Ninja ZX10R (2005) – Maisto

The Ninja ZX-10R is a Kawasaki sport bike and the follow-up to the ZX-9R. It was originally released in 2004(which I have in here) with minor revisions in 2005. It combines an ultra-narrow chassis, low weight, and radial brakes. In 2004 and 2005 the ZX-10R won Best Superbike from Cycle World magazine and the prestigious international Masterbike competition. Kawasaki engineers utilized a “stack” design for a liquid-cooled, 998 cc inline four-cylinder engine produces over 160hp which propels it to 180mph. Its compact dimension, shorter wheelbase and high power-to-weight ratio helped the handling further. The exhaust system was fully titanium with single muffler which is unique to itself.

Kawasakis looks great in green but as I already have a green ZX6R I picked up this orange, which is equally dashing!! The paint finish is awesome, being a metallic shade it sports a little gloss under spot lights as well as in broad day light.

The most disappoint piece in this mode is its tail lamp (clumsy paint job) and the front grill, which is not even deep to mimic a air duct! In comparison to the ZX6R, which is also made by Maisto has great fit and finish, nice detailing and very good build. Cost cutting is evident in this model, not in terms of material etc. but on the craftsmanship front!

If paint finish comes first, the chrome exhaust pipe definitely takes the place next to it. The tail pipe overall look fabulous, the canister look brilliant, the connecting pipe is cool and the gold shade(kind of matt) gives this model some character.

The other missed out detail is the front turn indicator, the rear side of the indicator is supposed to be in black color but the crafters have missed that as well. It almost gels with body I could even run a contest to find the indicators!!

Though the paint finish is good, the finishing touches are not that great! For an example the bottom engine cover, which shows some orange if viewed in some angles!!

Jumping away from the review quickly to add a few lines of note about the experience that I have photographing this model. As the problem with every bike (specially the superbikes like the ZX10R) which don’t come with centre stand, taking pics of the stance and the straight up front and rear becames tough. The solution is a DIY racing/kick stand!!

I do like fewer bits on this bike! Like the instrument console and the brake discs(front and rear) with the chrome finish and colour plated centre piece on the front disc.

Negatives, negatives and more negatives but this cannot be call a bad model. Ever manufactures are struggling hard to deliver product a reasonably good price, our diecast makers are not left behind. Point I am coming back to is that every passing year quality of the models are coming down, so be very very picky before making any purchase in this segment. Rating: 3/5 for that great effort Maisto had put in.