Shite in Miniature II

[Datsuncog]

4 minutes ago, junkyarddog said:

I always pick up those matchbox ramps whenever I see them,depending on the price of course.

Although I don't need another set right now.

?

I'm wavering about that right this moment...

[Datsuncog]

16 minutes ago, MarvinsMom said:

ohi dunno, the matchbox Trojan? van and the GMC refrigerated truck both look ok,

what is the score with the Corgi Ford Consul Classic, is it a repaint? i'm guessing the blue Jag in front of it has been painted too?

Yeah, the Lesneys aren't too bad - £3 each on each of them.

The Corgi Consul's been really badly touched up, while the Jag's a full repaint - £10 on them, which maybe isn't bad but I don't think I'd spring for them speculatively!

[flat4alfa]

The Trojan is a Commer isn't it?

[Datsuncog]

Ok, think it might be time to scoot... it's been a minor emotional rollercoaster this morning, but eventually my nihilistic 'fuck it' streak won through - and so I have a heavy bag of diecast shite, some of which is definitely ex-Tat Stall stuff which had mysteriously migrated over to the Charity Stall, and some of which is basically cheapo wheel donors which I will be posting up here for 10p each...

...stay turned to this frequency.

[Datsuncog]

Also - just saw this on one of the antique stalls.

Unhelpfully there's no price on it and no-one at the stall, plus I dunno if it's just an empty box... since this stall is the home of the £10 chipped Matchbox Superfast, I doubt it'll be cheap either way...

[MarvinsMom]

31 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Yeah, the Lesneys aren't too bad - £3 each on each of them.

The Corgi Consul's been really badly touched up, while the Jag's a full repaint - £10 on them, which maybe isn't bad but I don't think I'd spring for them speculatively!

yes leave them be, they sound horrible! shame as the pictures were really flattering them....

[flat4alfa]

Sadly I have both the Lotus and Cooper cars already

The track is only any use to Airfix slot car aficionados.  And there are probably just the two of them left; who have got the set anyhow...

[MarvinsMom]

didn't Airfix do quiet a nice Mini Cooper for their slot car system, back in the day?

 

[flat4alfa]

Yes, in RWD with ackermann steering

 

Scalex on the other hand, produced both FWD and RWD variations

 

I have the lot.  For my sins.

[MarvinsMom]

i wonder if anyone has an Airfix Vauxhall Viva?

looks a nice car too, not that the hand drawn illustration in a catalogue can REALLY be relied upon for an accurate picture of it!

still all part of the charm of retail catalogues from the 1960's, be it slot cars, toy trains and diecasts.

Ladybird books from that period too are the same. I have got several editions of the cars book upstairs somewhere, along with Railway Trains of the World and one about Aeroplanes.

All have really beautiful illustrations with a nice potted history.

[flat4alfa]

Yes I have Vivas.  And the Lotus Cortina and XKE

And bodyshells of all the others in various states of undress

[Noel Tidybeard]

any chance of the orange & 75th anni metrobuses?

[Datsuncog]

1 minute ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

any chance of the orange & 75th anni metrobuses?

I'll swing back that way and see if they're still there...

[MarvinsMom]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

Few more arrivals:

Red Corgi Metro half-hidden at the back is decent enough; Renault 5 Alpine just slightly too scruffy to make the cut for the DC Permanently Collection. But beside it....

That's a new one on me.

darn it! wished i'd seen that Corvair earlier!!

[Noel Tidybeard]

Just now, Datsuncog said:

I'll swing back that way and see if they're still there...

thankyouveryglad

[flat4alfa]

15 minutes ago, MarvinsMom said:

i wonder if anyone has an Airfix Vauxhall Viva?

As an aside, this was one of @eddyramrod's childhood models, customised with wide arches, front spoiler, sunroof, and painted the way he wanted it; complete with driver

Last year I was lucky enough to buy it, repair it, motorise it; and it lives on as a drifting Viva instead

[Datsuncog]

2 minutes ago, MarvinsMom said:

darn it! wished i'd seen that Corvair earlier!!

Not sure it was on the stall earlier!

Would you be interested at a fiver  if it's still there?

[MarvinsMom]

2 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Not sure it was on the stall earlier!

Would you be interested at a fiver  if it's still there?

Usually i would say "yes please" but today i think i had better leave it for another day, cos i've been and ordered a new telly!

bloody house things getting in the way of hoarding adding to the diecast tat collection.

thank you for offering all the same x

[flat4alfa]

On 7/15/2020 at 3:50 PM, flat4alfa said:

All bets are on for a OMG! WTF! HFM??  double whammy

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-Airfix-1-32-Ford-Capri-MK1-custom-car-built-model-Krackle-Kat/164291388322

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Airfix-1-32-Ford-Cortina-MK1-built-model-DRAGON-WAGON/164290183494

Forgot to follow-up on these.

DO NOT CLICK !

[bunglebus]

I'll have the Corvair if it's £5

[MarvinsMom]

10 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

Forgot to follow-up on these.

DO NOT CLICK !

damn right DO NOT CLICK.......

i've thrown better things away!! bloody Old School Ford Scene Tax even applies  to slot cars!!

[Tenmil Socket]

18 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

Forgot to follow-up on these.

DO NOT CLICK !

WTAF?

[bunglebus]

Today's postal fix is the Matchbox SD1 I needed to do a WDIB, and a Siku MK3 Escort 

[Datsuncog]

Corgi Metrobuses procured; Lone Star Corvair procured - all at target prices.

Now heading home through an immense thunderstorm....

[bunglebus]

This is why I love Matchbox, you just don't get this level of detail in 1:64 anymore. Even if the mould was clearly getting worn by the time this Superfast was made

[andrew e]

Shamefully (having just read the last few pages excitedly) I have missed the whole “Treasure Hunt” Hotwheels thing. So having got excited over @bunglebus Irish sportscar collection: 

A ) How do you tell

B ) What makes them special?

C ) What’s the history behind them

 

[bunglebus]

Back to newer Matchbox, this thing glows but my phone struggles to capture it

 

[andrew e]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

I'll have the Corvair if it's £5

I’m too damm slow ?  It’s a cracker though ?

[bunglebus]

4 hours ago, andrew e said:

Shamefully (having just read the last few pages excitedly) I have missed the whole “Treasure Hunt” Hotwheels thing. So having got excited over @bunglebus Irish sportscar collection: 

A ) How do you tell

B ) What makes them special?

C ) What’s the history behind them

 

Last things first, not entirely sure but many years ago in 1995 Mattel brought out a Treasure Hunt series (like you get the Flames series, or Muscle Mania or whatever, just a set within the main line of cars). Later they changed it to be a car in the mainline but that has different paint etc and a TH or flame logo on the car somewhere, one in each individual box of cars sent to the shops and a different one per "case" (15 different cases every year). So there's a normal version that will appear in several cases, and probably 2 or 3 the same in each box, but the Treasure Hunt will only be in one case, and only one example of it in each box.

God this sounds confusing!

The Super Treasure Hunts (from 2007) are even rarer, again it'll be a normal model in the range but usually with "Spectraflame" paint, "Real Riders" wheels with rubber tyres and again the TH or flame logo somewhere. One per case so 15 a year, but they only put them in a few boxes, and won't say how many are made each year. 

The normal Treasure Hunts aren't really worth much more than the normal cars especially if they're some stupid thing that looks like a dog or whatever, but the Supers are worth £25 upwards it seems. They are really hard to find and I suspect we get even less of them on our so-called "short" cards (the back of the blister pack), America get a long card for some reason.

Oh and Treasure Hunts have a silver flame on the card behind the car, Supers have a gold one. 

I'll come back later and edit this with pics to try and make it easier to understand 

 

*EDIT*

 

Mattel in their wisdom seem to have made yet another change to Treasure Hunts. It used to be that you'd get a TH version of one of the cars that was in the range anyway - so here for example is the 69 Camaro from 2017

 

and the TH version

 

 

See the little flame logo on the rear quarter?

 

The green one would have been found in probably 2 or 3 different cases, the yellow one would only be in one case, and only one car in each box that was packed.

 

Now it seems, the TH is a casting that is only released once during a year, in one case. So you won't find this...

 

20200728_180126 by RS, on Flickr

 

...in any other colour this year. Released once, that's it.

 

This is another TH I found recently, flame logo on the rear quarter...

 

20200723_160316 by RS, on Flickr

 

...and a silver flame on the card behind the car

 

20200723_160325 by RS, on Flickr

 

Super Treasure Hunts. These are a car that will be found in the normal releases, but given nicer paint and wheels etc. Sometimes they're quite different from the normal version...

 

20190918_115424 by RS, on Flickr

 

...sometimes you really have to know what you're looking for - the top one is the STH

 

20180926_163324 by RS, on Flickr

 

Gold flame;

 

20180926_163339 by RS, on Flickr

 

There are 15 STH's released per year, one for each case - but not in every box!

 

Just to try and clarify things about "cases", Mattel release 15 cases of Hot Wheels per year, so you get an "A" case, a "B" case and so on. In theory each case has exactly the same cars in it (but there are differences depending where it's intended to be sold). So, when the nice people at The Entertainer pull this lot out for you to rifle through, you know you have a C case (97AC EJ) and three B cases (97AB CT, 97BB EV and another 97BB EV), plus an L case under the table. Apparently if there's a STH it's always in the top layer of cars. I've never found one still in the case so I can't confirm this. I also don't know why some have the blue seal seen on the B case in the middle of the pic - was it opened and a STH put in? 

 

20191112_113655 by RS, on Flickr

 

You'll probably get 30%-50% of the same cars in one case to the next, so you might find, say, the red Porsche 944 in three different cases. Each car is made in two or three different colours per year, so that 944 has been released in red, and gold. The '64 Chevy Impala gets three different colours this year.

 

Lastly, cards. We tend to get short cards in the UK;

 

20200716_172803 by RS, on Flickr

 

USA gets long cards, although they do turn up over here quite often, actually seen them in a box pre-loaded onto clip strips once

 

20200728_180316 by RS, on Flickr

 

Not really any difference between them other than physical size and some of the gumph on the back, the UK cards have a code printed on them next to the hotwheels.com bit, which you can use at that site to keep tabs on what you've collected, put stuff in a wishlist and I think use the cars you've bought in online games. I don't play the games and the site can be bloody annoying as they don't update the new cars very often, and currently it won't let me log in either!

The long cards also have a code stamped on the back of them which denotes which case it came from.

Oh and if you look on the base of a car made in the last decade or so, there's a printed or stamped code like G17 that is the year/week it was actually made. G is 2014, H is 2015 etc

I think that's about it god I'm a sad fucker

[andrew e]

Much appreciated @bunglebus ?