5/31/10 - Holy Optional
Accessories, Batman!
I found Mattel's Custom Motors Starter Set
featuring the Batmobile from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight while
shopping at a Meijer store today. It's slightly larger than Mattel's
1:50 scale line of Bat-Vehicles and seems to be made of plastic, but kids
should have a great time adding more firepower to this awesome vehicle.
The back of the package (above, right) shows the many combinations kids can
create.
5/30/10 - What? No
B.A.?
While waiting for the start of NASCAR's
Coca-Cola 600 on Fox (after enjoying an exciting Indy 500) The A-Team
Van made an appearance at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Riding inside the
van were Bradley Cooper (Face), Sharlto Copley (Murdock) and Jessica Biel
who plays Captain Charisa Sosa in the new The A-Team movie slated to
hit theaters on June 11th. I sure hope we get die-cast versions of this
iconic van!
5/30/10 - "You are a toy
CAR!"
I've gotten several e-mails about these but
wasn't sure what to make of them. Mattel has created die-cast cars
based on the characters from the beloved Toy Story franchise.
While at WalMart yesterday I found 5 Hot Wheels cars based on Woody, Buzz,
Rex, Alien and a new character, Lots-O-Huggin' Bear. The back of each
card shows additional cars based on Hamm, Stretch the Octopus and Chunk. I
normally don't collect these types of cars, but I sure do love the Toy
Story movies and I'll be there on opening night (June 18) when Toy
Story 3 hits theaters. Hasbro did similar cars a few years ago
(right) based on Buzz & Zurg. Check out the Toy Story die-cast car gallery.
6/7 UPDATE:
I found two more cars. Still missing Turbo Chunk.
5/28/10 - Cars 2010
Collector Guide
I found the Cars 2010 Collector Guide at
Toys R Us today. It includes an exclusive Dragon McQueen with metallic
finish. The guide includes over 150 images of current and upcoming
Cars characters from Mattel. Here are a few interesting ones:
* Fillmore with Organic Gas Can
(Chase)
* Lightning McQueen with Cone (I believe it's currently hitting stores.)
* Mater with Oil Can (Chase)
* Paint Mask Lightning McQueen (Chase - front tires are covered with paper
and tape.)
* Mater with Hood (Chase)
* Yeti with Snow Cones (Chase)
* Rust-eze Lightning McQueen (Chase - with can of Rust-eze)
* Wrecked Fabulous Hudson Hornet (Chase - no image)
* Marlon "Clutches" McKay (security)
* Tim Rimmer (photographer)
* "Dash" Boardman (photographer)
* Duff Wrecks (pickup truck)
* Dinoco Lightning McQueen with Celebrity Signature (Chase)
* Deluxe - Brian: Park Motors (souvenir vendor)
* Deluxe - Marco Axelbender (security)
* Deluxe - Mater with Cone Teeth (fangs)
* Deluxe - Leroy Traffik with Snow Tires (mattress on top)
* Deluxe - Miles (truck similar to Dustin Mellows)
* Deluxe - Chuck "Choke" Cables (no image)
* Hauler - Paul Valdez (no image)
* Hauler - Chet Boxkaar (no image)
* Hauler - Oliver Lightload (no image)
* Hauler - Ben Crankleshaft (no image)
There are many characters shown
from the Toon line, too, including El Materdor & Chuy (the bulldozer.)
Time to start saving your pennies folks!
5/26/10 - 1:18 Scale Cars
Coming Your Way!
I got some great news in the form of an e-mail
from Jason Burnett. Apparently, Johnny Lightning will be releasing two
1970 Chevelles from the last installment of the Fast & Furious
franchise. In June, Dom's red and gray Chevelles will be arriving in
1:18 scale for about $40.
Other 1:18 scale cars to look
forward to: 1:18 scale Bullitt Mustang from both Auto Art and
and GreenLight. Auto Art will also be releasing a dirty version of Mad
Max's V8 Interceptor at the end of 2010. And finally, Mattel will be
releasing the long-awaited
1986 250 GT California Spyder from
Ferris Bueller's Day Off in June.
5/24/10 - Customize Your
Batmobile!
Art from San Antonio sent me an e-mail with the
above photo attached. He said he found it while shopping at WalMart.
I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for this one. Thanks for the heads-up
Art!
5/24/10 - No. 2 with a
Bullitt!
Thanks to sponsor Movie Car Mania, I'm finally
able to add this Bullitt diorama to my collection. This diorama
is actually labeled Series 2 and includes a dirty Mustang and a Charger
missing its hubcaps. It depicts the scene just before the Charger
crashes into a gas station and explodes. I sure hope GreenLight
continues to give us new movie dioramas.
5/23/10 - "The guy's a
friggin' genius - MacGruber! "
From the opening MacGruber theme song
sung by a choir to the final shot of MacGruber (Will Forte) sitting in a
tree playing a saxophone (after the credits) I laughed consistently hard
during a Saturday matinee with my nephew. In my opinion, MacGruber
ranks right up there with The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World
as one of the best movies to come from a Saturday Night Live skit and
the funniest movie I've seen since The Hangover. Yeah, many of
the jokes were raunchy and in extremely poor taste, but MAN they were funny.
The movie was just the right mix of wacky spoof and loving homage to 80's
action movies and TV series. I even loved MacGruber's 1990 Mazda MX-5
Miata and the ongoing joke that had MacGruber removing his car stereo every
time he got out of the convertible. Fellow SNL castmate Kristen Wiig
had very funny moments of her own, including a scene where she elaborates on
the phrase "Stick it where the sun don't shine." If you're looking for
laughs go see this movie, but leave the kids at home.
I also saw Iron Man 2 a
week ago but didn't feel compelled to do a write-up on my site. The
movie was pretty much a meandering, boring mess and didn't possess any of
the fun of the first movie until the last quarter of the movie. Robert
Downey, Jr. was charismatic as usual, but the I found myself losing interest
in the story during much of the middle third of the film. The fight
scene between a drunken Iron Man and Don Cheadle's War Machine seemed oddly
contrived and unnecessary. Only when the two team up later in the
movie to dispatch some drones does the fun quotient get kicked up a notch,
but then the movie ends abruptly and unsatisfyingly. Oh yeah, Scarlett
Johansson was absolutely amazing as Black Widow and I hope we get to see her
don the black leather in a spinoff movie of her own. As for Tony
Stark's 2010 Audi R8 Spyder (above) it didn't really contribute much to the
story and just came across as blatant product placement.
5/16/10 - 2010 Motor City
Comic Con
I had a great time Saturday spending the day at
the Motor City Comic Con. Beside all the comic books and collectibles there
were a few amazing cars on display. First, pictured above in the top
row, is an amazing replica (or "clone") of The Green Hornet's Black Beauty.
The detail is quite incredible, right down to the brooms behind the rear
tires. The other car that got quite a bit of attention was a creation
that turned out to be an amalgam of Ecto-1 and Ecto-1a. Because its
creator (I'll call him Michael Knight) used a later model Cadillac Ambulance
(In the movie Ecto-1 was a '59 Caddy) he took some liberties with the
design. But Ghostbusters fans flocked to it for photo
opportunities. Other vehicles on display were General Lee, a replica
of a vehicle from The Road Warrior, and Bumblebee from
Transformers.
The highlight of my day,
however, was working with Ms. Dawn Wells of Gilligan's Island fame.
I shot video for her at the Comic Con for a reality show concept she wants
to pitch. Ms. Wells was as sweet and kind as her character was on TV.
It was an absolute pleasure to meet her. When I grabbed a bite to eat,
I found myself sitting across from the Bionic Woman Lyndsay Wagner and had a
nice chat with her, too. And if you take a look below, just before I
left for the day, I stopped by to say hi to Claudia Wells from Back to
the Future. Check out what I got:
Look Doc, she said she loves me!
5/13/10 - Chasing Cars
Making the toy rounds today I hit several
stores, including Toys R Us where I found a few new Cars characters.
Pictured above, from left, is Lightning McQueen with Shovel, Dexter Hoover
with Green Flag and a new chase car: Fred with Fallen Bumper.
This was a complete surprise considering I still haven't found the previous
chase vehicle: Van with Stickers. All have lenticular eyes.
I haven't had much luck finding
the last Final Lap wave at my local Target stores. I found Wet McQueen
a few weeks ago, followed by Vern. Having no luck finding Mood Springs
or Jay Limo, I ended up buying Race Damaged Mood Springs on eBay (above,
right.) Still looking for Jay Limo.
In other Cars news, the
lineup for the next K-Mart Cars Collectors Event scheduled for June 12 has
been officially announced and I have to say I'm incredibly disappointed.
Every single car is a re-release. Nothing new unless you count Dale
Jr. since the casting is based on the casting that was included in the
Speedway of the South set. The K-Mart case will include:
Dale Jr., Spare O Mint, Transberry Juice, Sputter Stop, Fiber Fuel, Gasprin,
RPM, Vitoline, Lightning McQueen, Ron Hover, Race Official Tom and Sarge
(Yawn.) I'll probably still attend just to get some of the racers with
rubber tires, but I'm so disappointed we aren't getting at least ONE of the
racers that hasn't been released as a single yet.
5/11/10 - Motor City Comic
Con
The Motor City Comic Con is just days away and
the guest list is pretty impressive. My goal is to get Adam West to
sign a Hot Wheels Batmobile, but I'm looking forward to meeting some of the
other guests mentioned in the video clip above. Unfortunately, I'm
told Ernie Hudson was forced to back out due to his work schedule, but the
locally-created Ecto-1 replica will still be on display for the public, as
well as a couple of other TV and movie cars. I hope to see you there!
5/7/10 - "Listen... Do you
smell something?"
Fellow Hollywood car enthusiast and Facebook
friend Josh Turchetta posted this awesome video on Facebook. His
stunning Ecto-1 replica rolls out for the first time and comes face to face
with actual Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd. What a fantastic experience that
must've been. Listen carefully as Dan drops some hints about the next
installment of the Ghostbusters franchise. Next week, I'm
hoping to post images of a locally-produced Ecto-1 replica as it appears
alongside another original Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson here in the Metro
Detroit area!
