The same EVA Racing partnership (the Evangelion Super GT program) that produced the brand's first-ever product in 2019, still running on more recent liveries in the catalog.
Born on the grid, not on a toy shelf
Pop Race was registered in Hong Kong in 2019, under company number CR 2854819, initially as PopArt Limited, renamed Pop Race Limited a few weeks later. But the brand's first product didn't come off a toy-company shelf: it came straight from the paddock. The brand is authorized by X Works Racing Team, driver Marchy Lee's own race team, and launched on the back of X Works' existing licenses with EVA Racing (the Evangelion Super GT program) and AAPE, part of the I.T. fashion group.
In its first months, Pop Race didn't even produce its own miniatures: it supplied the livery and license, and let established factories do the work. The first models, released between October and December 2019, were produced in partnership with Mini GT, INNO64, and BM Creations: the EVA Racing-livery GT-R, the AAPE-camo Jimny, a batch of Macau Grand Prix tribute cars. Only later did the brand develop its own tooling, packaging, and Chase-variant program.
So how old is Pop Race, really?
It depends which clock you read. In a 2022 interview with the Lamley Group, Marchy Lee himself placed the project's start about six years earlier, pointing to 2016, which lines up with X Works Racing's founding around 2015. The formal registration with Hong Kong's Companies Registry, though, only exists from 2019 onward.
Both versions are true at once: one is the origin of the idea and the racing relationship, as told by the founder himself; the other is the officially documented company. That's common for brands born inside a race team, before they become a formal business.
Marchy Lee Ying Kin, Hong Kong racing driver and founder of Pop Race, next to one of X Works Racing Team's cars.
Marchy Lee: the driver behind the brand
Marchy Lee Ying Kin was born in Hong Kong in 1976 and is one of Asia's best-known racing drivers. He started karting as a child, trained at the La Filière school in Le Mans, France, and is widely regarded as Hong Kong's first Formula 3 driver. He was Formula BMW Asia champion in 2004 and, alongside co-driver Shaun Thong, GT Series Asia Silver Cup champion in 2017: a title won with Phoenix Racing Asia, the team that later evolved into X Works Racing.
He has raced the Macau Grand Prix, the World Touring Car Championship, Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, and various GT categories. By his own account, the brand grew out of years of being asked to turn his team's cars into scale models, paired with his own love of collecting. That's why Pop Race started "racing-first": reproducing liveries X Works actually campaigned, not generic race-car designs.
The JDM/tuner aesthetic running through the Pop Race catalog: real builds from shops like RE Amemiya, shrunk to 1:64.
Three names, one badge
Look closely at the packaging and three organizations show up: X Works Racing (Marchy Lee's race team, founded around 2015, which supplies the real cars and liveries that become miniatures), Pop Race Limited (the Hong Kong-registered brand, CR 2854819), and XCarToys (also known as 拓意), a manufacturer and production base in mainland China, with a factory in Dongguan.
Public sources document a clear collaboration between the three, including products and SKUs shared with XCarToys' own S-Series line for the Chinese market, but they don't publicly establish which company owns what equity stake. The link between racing and miniature is literal, though: for 2026, the Japanese Super Taikyu entry list shows #44 Team Pop Race: Daigo Saito, Marchy Lee himself, Andy Yan, and Ho-Pin Tung, in a Mercedes-AMG GT3. The team races the livery; the model arm shrinks it to 1:64.
PR64, Dark Chrome, and the other lines
Within 1:64 (the heart of the catalog, which also includes 1:43, 1:18, and 1:12 scale replicas), the model number prefix tells you which line you're holding. PR64 marks the Regular Collection, the open core line of JDM icons, supercars, and race cars in production livery. PRDC marks the Dark Chrome Series, a sub-line dressing tuner builds in dark-chrome finishes.
Beyond those two, the brand also runs Enigma Exclusive Edition (prefix PRE, premium pieces with widebody kits from tuners like Pandem, RWB, and Darwin Pro over JDM classics, sold in individual blister packs inside a sealed case of 24 with 2 random Chase variants per case, a line running since early 2025), TS Exclusives (a collaboration with tuning shop Top Secret), and an S-Series aimed at the Chinese market, co-branded with XCarToys. The catalog itself mixes Japanese icons (Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Mazda), European supercars, and builds signed by well-known tuners like Pandem, RWB, and Top Secret.
Every stop on the Pop Race event circuit (from Hong Kong to Curitiba) tends to bring its own exclusive release.
An event circuit: including Brazil
More than most diecast brands, Pop Race runs on events: pop-up stores, expo booths, race tie-ins, and collector dinners, each with its own exclusive model. The circuit has run through Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Tokyo, Manila, Vancouver, and Las Vegas. In 2025 it reached Brazil, with an exclusive release at ACE Curitiba.
For 2026, the brand adds a real racing debut to that circuit: the #44 Team Pop Race entry in Japan's Super Taikyu closes the loop that started with Marchy Lee asking for models of his own cars. Now the model carries the name back onto the track.
The BAPE partnership
The bridge between motorsport and streetwear that shows up in the brand's earliest products (the AAPE-camo Jimny, back in 2019) grew into a recurring partnership with A Bathing Ape itself. The first and biggest collaboration landed in November 2022: an Aston Martin GT3 in three colorways (pink, blue, and green), wrapped end to end in BAPE's signature ABC CAMO, sold in both 1:18 and 1:64 scale (prefix PR64-AMBA). The piece took over 300 pad-printing passes to produce.
The partnership continued in 2023 with a Nissan Skyline C210 "Kaido Racer" in bosozoku style for BAPE's 30th anniversary (ABC Camo plus commemorative calligraphy), and returned in May 2025 with a Honda NSX GT3 EVO22, replicating the actual car KCMG raced in Japan's 2023 Super Taikyu series. BAPE even keeps a dedicated page for Pop Race releases on its official site, a sign the collaboration moved from a one-off drop to an ongoing line.
Follow straight from the source
Sources consulted (facts, not text): poprace.org/brand-history (independent research archive, not affiliated), Hong Kong Companies Registry public records, Lamley Group interview (2022), racing press coverage (BusinessWire), retailer listings and diecastsociety.com on the Enigma Exclusive Edition line.