August'06 News Archive

8/29/06 - DVD + Bonus
Apparently, in the wake of the die-cast dragster offered with the Heart Like a Wheel DVD, including a die-cast vehicle with a DVD is becoming a trend.  Metro Privratsky alerted me to several more offerings, including the above 1/64 scale San Francisco Seagrave Tiller-Drawn Aerial  included with the purchase of The Towering Inferno on DVD.  Other DVD/die-cast combos include Speed Racer Vol. 4 (below, left), and Initial D which was found at www.circlered.com

8/29/06 - Christmas in August
Normally, I report on Hallmark's TV and movie car offerings when they hit stores in July, but this year it kinda slipped my mind.  So I popped into a local Hallmark store yesterday to see what was being offered this year.  I immediately grabbed Lightning McQueen and Mater (above) from Cars.  Although they're made of plastic, they'll be hanging on my tree this year.  Not many famous vehicles are being offered this year.  Others I spotted included an impressive AT-AT Imperial Walker from The Empire Strikes Back, Thomas the Tank Engine, and the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 from the original Star Trek TV series. 

8/29/06 - "Straight'nin' the curves.  Flat'nin' the hills."
As I was making my rounds from store to store, I stumbled across these slot cars at a local hobby shop.  Although the focus of this website is die-cast cars, I occasionally report on TV or movie-related slot cars.  There are both clean and dirty versions of the General Lee and Rosco's Police Cruiser. 

8/25/06 - Road Trip
With my 40th birthday coming up on Saturday, I decided to take a solo road trip, as a birthday present to myself.  At the last moment, I decided my destination was going to be Deadwood, South Dakota, since I think the HBO series is the best thing on television right now.  On Monday afternoon, I began the 1200 mile trip to South Dakota and arrived Tuesday afternoon.  I checked into Hickok's hotel and wandered around the town.  Deadwood is a beautiful little town with an amazing history.  Imagine my surprise, though, when I peered inside the Celebrity Hotel & Casino and spotted Herbie the Love Bug.  I went inside and found quite a nice display of famous cars from television and film.  Starting from top left, we have the backwards-driving stunt Herbie, Burt Reynolds' Trans-Am (sporting Burt's autograph on the interior), the Ferrari from Magnum P.I., a jeep from M*A*S*H, the Yenko Camaro from 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Evel Knievel's stunt bike.  Also on display was James Bond's Aston Martin V8 from The Living Daylights, but I couldn't get a good photo of it.  I was told by some staff members that the collection rotates to include the Batmobile from Batman Returns, and the owners are in the process of restoring a Firebird Esprit from The Rockford Files.  For more pics and stories from my trip to Deadwood and Mount Rushmore click HERE.

8/24/06 - Heart Like a Wheel
This just in ... longtime contributor Metro Privratsky sent me an e-mail telling me of his find at his local Wal*Mart.  Apparently Hot Wheels has produced a 1:64 replica of Shirley Muldowney's dragster to be packaged with the DVD Heart Like a Wheel, the 1983 film in which Bonnie Bedlia portrays the legendary drag racer.  I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for this one.

8/26 UPDATE:  I found the DVD with limited Hot Wheels dragster at a local Wal*Mart today.  I've added Heart Like a Wheel to the Movie Gallery.

8/20/06 - Going...going...gone.
With hopes of helping out a fellow collector, I wanted to share this e-mail with you:

Hey Joe,
Don't know if you remember me or not.  But corresponded with you some time ago.  I'm the guy with the huge tv/movie vehicle collection from Jackson, MI.  Back then, you and I discussed you and your friend possibly coming by to take pics of the collection for your website. 

Anyways, due to circumstances beyond my control and with a lot of tears.....lol.  I am selling the entire collection. (Unless I win the lottery really soon.)  Thought you might like to know and that you might like to pass on the information to your visitors.  The items are all being listed as the Lee Estate auction.  You can find all the items at the following link.  I am putting up about 20 items per week until it is all gone.  I must admit I'd be very happy if any of the items ended up in your personal collection.  I'd know they would have a good home.

Well, here is the link:

http://toys.search.ebay.com/_Toys-Hobbies_W0QQcatrefZC12QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsacatZ220QQsassZauctionittoday69

Copy it and paste it into the address bar and you will locate the items.  As already noted, they will be coming up weekly, so keep looking.  I wish you and all the other Hollywood vehicle collectors the best.

Sincerely,
Lee S. Kienutske

8/13/06 - Flo's V8 Cafe
I know this has been out for awhile now, but I finally got around to picking up Flo's V8 Cafe' playset from the Pixar movie Cars.  What a terrific playset and a great way to display the die-cast characters from the movie.  And, as an added bonus, the roof of the cafe' opens up to expose two additional levels to display more cars (above right.)  And with a flip of a switch, red lights blink on and off above the gas pumps.  I'm tempted to pick up the other three playsets, but I just don't have the room to display them all.

Oh, and thanks to my buddies Chris and Tim, I finally have the hard-to-find Leakless, Nitroade and green Ramone.  And today I couldn't resist getting the Mack Truck playset (below) as well.  I've added it to the Cars gallery.

8/6/06 - "If you ain't first, you're last."
I just got back from seeing Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and on the ride home I found myself laughing out loud as I remembered lines from the movie, like, "The Wonder Bread car is TOAST!"  This was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a while.  I almost spit out my Coke at one point.  I literally had tears in my eyes from laughing.  A lot of the movie's funniest scenes were revealed in the trailer, but the audience still laughed out loud at lines like, "Help me, Tom Cruise!" despite being bombarded with that line during the movie's advertising campaign.  The racing scenes were spectacular and the ending was totally unexpected.  Will Ferrell was hysterical as usual.  I loved the moments when the actors were clearly improvising, as you can see in the blooper reel during the credits.

When I heard Will Ferrell would be involved with a NASCAR comedy I immediately thought, "Box office gold!"  And I was right.  I think this film will top all of his other box office successes.  With the success of Pixar's Cars and now Talladega Nights, I'm fairly certain we haven't seen the last of racing movies, which is fine by me.  Bring on Days of Thunder 2: Even More Thunderer!!

8/5/06 - "Bond, James Bond"
I've gotten several e-mails about this, so I figured I'd post the info.  Kyosho has produced an amazing set of 15 die-cast vehicles from James Bond films in 1:72 scale.  Unfortunately, the set is a little too pricey for me as it regularly sells for over $150 on eBay.  Notice how some of the cars are represented with and without weapons deployed.  It's a very impressive set.  Maybe some day I'll add it to my collection.

8/1/06 - "Mama, I'm goin' fast!"
Thanks to a tip from long-time contributor Metro Privratsky, I've discovered that Action Racing Collectibles will be producing 1:24 scale die-cast cars from the movie Talladega Nights starring Will Ferrell.  They are a little pricey in the $60 range.  Talladega Nights roars into theaters this weekend.

UPDATE:  Cars from the movie WILL be released in 1:64 scale by a company called Action Performance.  The haulers are 1:64 scale as well.  Click HERE for more info.