10/28/10 - Say Cheese!
Holy Moly! I walked into Target today
not really expecting to find anything new, when I spotted THIS! Check
out this amazing 9-car boxed set. Of course, the racecars we've seen
time and time again, but what makes this set special are the four characters
lined up along the top. Exclusive to this set are photographers Dash
Boardman (without blinky eyes), Houser Boon, and Tim Rimmer and on the far
right we have Lightning McQueen fan Timothy Twostroke. You have to see
it in person to appreciate just how impressive this Target-Exclusive set is.
10/24/10 - Gotta Get Back
in Time
Well, Mattel has released it in
stainless steel, gold and black. Now it looks like the Hot Wheels
DeLorean will be released as a Time Machine in 2011! The picture at
left was posted in the Hot Wheels Collector Forum and shows concept art of
the DeLorean Time Machine from Back to the Future. I was hoping
this would happen, but wasn't sure it would, until now. This is
awesome news. This follows the hot-selling Batmobiles and
Ghostbustes Ecto-1. Can Mad Max's Pursuit Special be far
behind?
10/23/10
- Happy K-Day!
I found myself at Kmart at 11am on
Saturday for the Kmart Cars Collector Event! This is the fifth time
Kmart has hosted the event and this year's offerings rank among the best
ever. Only 6-8 people were there with me and there were 12 inner cases
so there was no need to draw raffle tickets. We each were given a case
and allowed to pull out whatever we wanted, no limit. I pulled out
Tach-O-Mint, Gask-Its and Faux Wheel Drive, which were offered for the first
time here in the US. I also grabbed Tank Coat and Sidewall Shine as
well as the Chase McQueen with masked wheels. There was one Chase
McQueen in every case. I was caught by surprise when I saw a grandma
holding Dash Boardman. I didn't have that one in my case! I
quickly realized Dash wasn't in every case. The store employee opened
another case and I grabbed Dash (left) for my collection. Shiny Wax,
View Zeen and Nitroade were also in the cases (for the first time with
rubber tires) but I passed on them for now. I'm sure I'll go back
later and pick up those last three. With the release of Tach-O-Mint,
Gask-Its and Faux Wheel Drive, collectors are now ONE CAR away from a
complete set of Speedway of the South cars. Only the #84 Apple
iCar has NOT been released at retail. Let's hope it'll be at the NEXT
Kmart event.
10/23/10 - Danica's
Danicar
While at Kmart, I finally found the
Danicar from Mattel's Hot Wheels line. As you may know, the Danicar is
the first celebrity-designed Hot Wheels car, and it just so happened to be
designed by my favorite racecar driver Danica Patrick. Even though
I've been reading a lot of anti-Danica rants online, I'm still a huge fan
and admire her for what she's accomplished and how she continues to inspire
girls to believe anything is possible. I think it's a fun and cheerful
design, too. In other Danica-related news, I also recently found two
versions of Danica's NASCAR car from Mattel, one in Go Daddy colors and one
in Hot Wheels colors.
10/22/10 - It's Beginning
to Look a Lot Like Christmas
When you're a toy collector, one sight
that will make your heart skip a beat is the sight of cases upon cases out
on the floor of Toys R Us. That's exactly what happened to me during
my lunch break on Friday. An employee was kind enough to come over and
cut open any box I pointed out. One box was labeled Cars Christmas
(or something to that effect.) When she opened the box I found the
Toys R Us exclusive pictured above. Mater Saves Christmas
includes Mater, Lightning and the jaw-dropping Santa Car. It's
Christmas in October!
10/20/10 - Follow me to
Kmart! Reminder:
Saturday, October 23rd is Kmart's Cars Collector Event. When I
attended previous events, each person who arrives is handed a numbered
ticket. At 11am tickets are drawn and those who are called up get to
go through a case of Cars and pull out what you want. They're
not free! You just get first crack at a new case. This year's
event is exciting because there will be several racecars in these cases that
have never been released here in the US before, plus there will be other
racecars released for the first time with rubber tires. All that and a
new McQueen Chase car! Here's the complete list of what will be
available tomorrow:
Race Tow Truck (Tow) — 1 First time with lenticular eyes!
#54 Faux Wheel Drive — 3 First time with synthetic rubber
tires!
#74 Sidewall Shine — 2 First time with synthetic rubber
tires!
#82 Shiny Wax — 2 First time with synthetic rubber tires!
#28 Nitroade — 2 First time with synthetic rubber tires!
#80 Gask-its — 3 First time with synthetic rubber tires!
#39 View Zeen — 2 First time with synthetic rubber tires!
#101 Tach-o-mint — 2 First time with synthetic rubber
tires!
#36 Tank Coat — 2 First time with synthetic rubber tires!
Kathy Copter — 1
Pit Crew Sarge — 1
Radiator Springs Lightning McQueen (with Fin) — 1
Dash Boardman — 1
10/20/10 - New JLs in Hand
I now have two new Johnny Lightning
Hollywood cars in my hand. I found Rosco's Patrol Car a few days ago
(above, left) at Toys R Us. Why did JL revisit Rosco's Patrol Car?
Because they have a new casting to show off and collectors are raving about
the new accurate wheels, which feature rubber tires. The other
Hollywood car arrived in the mail today. It's so awesome to know
The Munsters Koach is hitting stores in time for Halloween. This
is one of my all-time favorite castings. I assume to keep licensing
fees down, the car is referred to as the Barris Koach and features
George Barris' name and Coat of Arms. Good luck finding these in
stores. I'm sure they're going to be extremely popular.
10/18/10 - Holy Track
Stars, Batman!
Having difficulty finding this one in my
area, I resorted to eBay to add this to my collection. Released as
part of the Hot Wheels Track Stars line, the latest incarnation of Batmobile
from the animated series The Batman comes with a flat black finish
and red accents. This particular casting was originally released with
blue accents in 2006 in Mystery packaging. Later in 2006, the casting
showed up in Joker's Last Laugh 2-pack sporting light blue, almost
white, stripes. In 2007, it was re-released in Mr. Freeze Escapes
2-pack, featuring a flat-black finish and green stripes. This latest
version has been added to my Hot Wheels Batman (and Superman) collection
(above, right.)
10/18/10 - Chasing Cars
Looking for new things at WalMart I
spotted a new Chase hanging among the Blinky Eyes Cars . This
time it's Mater with Oil Can. At first glance, I was unimpressed.
But then I looked closer and noticed Mater's lips are puckered like he's
drinking. Okay, that's a nice touch.
10/16/10 - New from Johnny
Lightning
Two new official Hollywood cars from
Johnny Lightning are currently hitting stores. Pictured above, left,
the Barris Koach (also known as The Munsters Koach) arrives just in
time for Halloween. Originally released as part of the Fright'ning
Lightning series in 1999, in my opinion this casting still ranks as one
of the all-time greatest. Also showing up on pegs is
Rosco's Patrol Car from The Dukes of Hazzard (above, right.) As
you can see on the card, Johnny Lightning boasts a "New Casting!"
Both cars sport a die-cast metal body & chassis and rubber tires. I
found the Patrol Car at Toys R Us today, but someone beat me to the Koach.
I ordered one online and should be getting it in a few days. I'll post
pics when it arrives.
10/15/10 - Back to the
Future Reunion!
Can you imagine owning a DeLorean Time
Machine replica and being asked to bring it to a photo shoot that reunites
Michael J. Fox with Lea Thompson? That's exactly what happened to Ken
Kapalowski of Toronto who brought his car to NYC for the photo shoot.
What a great experience it must've been for Ken. Entertainment Weekly also reports that
Back to the Future will FINALLY arrive on Blu-Ray on October 26
including never-before-seen footage of Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly!
Check out the video below to see Fox and Thompson reminisce about the good
ol' days.
10/15/10 - Fantastic Cars
News!
The next K-Mart Cars Collectors
Event is a week away (October 23 at 11am). I happened to be driving by
a K-Mart store when I decided to pop in. I couldn't believe my eyes
when I spotted the 3-Car Gift Pack pictured above. The set includes
Lightning McQueen with rubber tires, as well as Gask-Its and Faux Wheel
Drive! As you may or may not know, Gask-Its and Faux Wheel Drive have
never been released in the U.S. yet and are slated to be included in next
week's K-Mart event. It's interesting that they would be released as a
set prior to the event in non-blinky-eyes form. We can also expect
Tach-O-Mint and a new Chase McQueen at the K-Mart event.
In other Cars news, I
found this pretty awesome boxed set from the new Toon short Heavy Metal
Mater at Target. It includes Mater, McQueen and two Pitties rockin'
out! The short can be seen
HERE.
It's pretty good, but I don't expect the song "Dad Gum" to be
climbing the charts any time soon.
10/15/10 -
Ironhide Revealed!
I found another Transformers
vehicle to add to Hasbro's ever-growing die-cast line. Ironhide is
pictured at left sporting "Robot Weapons" as part of the Revealers Series.
Ironhide is numbered 01 of 03. This line is now appearing at most
major retailers.
10/15/10 - Tron
Legacy Update
The Tron Legacy vehicles shown
below in Toys R Us exclusive packaging are now hitting other stores as
singles. Oddly, the Light Runner vehicle, which is described as a Toys
R Us exclusive on the packaging, is also hitting stores as a single, so I'm
a little confused. The one vehicle not included in the Toys R Us sets
is Clu's Sentry's Light Cycle (left) which I found at WalMart.
10/7/10 - Tron Legacy -
Comin' at Ya!
Despite being more than two months away,
toys are showing up in stores in anticipation of Disney's Tron Legacy,
slated to arrive in theaters on December 17. The two die-cast 3-packs
pictured above are Toys R Us exclusives. One is labeled Villain
Pack (above, left) and the other is labeled Hero Pack and
includes an exclusive Light Runner vehicle. The Light Cycles appear to
be close to 1:43 scale (or maybe even 1:32 scale.) The movie will be
released in 3D and the trailer looks stunning. Click
HERE to visit the
official website.
10/7/10 - Just Add Water!
Popped into my local Toys R Us and
noticed they had put out a new Hot Wheels "Cube" since the last time I
visited. Nothing TOO exciting, but then I spotted a lot of new Color
Shifters in the Cube. So I dug deep and pulled out the Color Shifters
Batmobile from The Dark Knight. I first posted info about this
car waaaay back on July 14th, but hadn't had any luck finding one...UNTIL
TODAY! The above pics have been added to
The Dark Knight Gallery.
