When I was growing up, Japanese Diaclone toys filled the toy shelves in Yaohan and Isetan department stores here in Singapore. And the red Countach LP500s was the coolest of them all! How could such a cool looking car exist? It had to be fictional!
It would be decades later before I learned about Marcello Gandini and how he came up with this amazing design in 1976. There is a whole lore to how the originally svelte design got bulked up with aggressive wheel arches and that signature rear wing spoiler… but that’s a story for another day 
And in its own way, the Mitsubishi Pecker was just as revolutionary when it came out in 1971, becoming the world’s first (fine lead) side-knock mechanical pencil. Here, I found the basic model in red to be pretty sporty with its rakish profile… a great match for the Countach. I especially like how the circular finial on the Pecker resembles the rear lights on the car. Two dreamy icons in one place!
) if it didn’t have that button. Because it truly has a very attractive silhouette and the clip shape fits the body perfectly.