Greenlight, Hot Wheels and Maisto

The last month has been relatively slow in the diecast world around my local area; while other parts of New Zealand have seen A/B and C case 2017 Hot Wheels, new Hot Wheels Car Culture assortments as well as Matchbox restocks. That is however not to say I haven't been able to get a few things either locally or via the post, but one or two cars do not make an interesting blog post and so I have been holding off on showcasing anything until there was enough to show.

A few days before my work trip to Auckland in late October, I was alerted to new Greenlight being listed on the importers website and so placed an order with my local Toyworld store. After seeing the same cars in person in Auckland, I was able to collect my order locally.
Hollywood Series XX brought two new cars to Greenlight casting collection, two variations of the 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood Series 16 and a 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle (which looks similar to already released versions, but is deemed new by Greenlight). Also added to the collection was a green NYC Taxi to compliment my existing yellow versions.

The Hot Wheels Red Line Club finally released a new car for the 2016 lineup - the Rocket Oil in Gulf livery. Thankfully this did not sell out during RLC membership sale window, and I was able to purchase during the regular release window.

First found in Auckland, when I got back home I asked my local Toyworld if they could bring in a case assortment of the Maisto Tow & Go's. After a bit of waiting, I was able to add the two to the collection that were in the case assortment I was after  - I may have to get more from the USA.

Birthday Transformer - LG-31 Fortress Maximus

Released in September, I held back shipping LG-31 Fortress Maximus until mid November and due to it arriving several days before my birthday I decided to call it a birthday present to myself.

Fortress Maximus is a very very heavy retool of Metroplex released in 2013 and stands just short of 60cm, making it the third largest Transformer ever released (behind the original 1987 Fortress Maximus and Metroplex). The main gimmick (aside from size) was the dual headmaster - the head of Fortress Maximus turns into a robot, and the head of that robot is also a headmaster.

Now to figure out where exactly this figure will sit in the collection!

Dell Monitor

Another month, another electronics purchase!
Back in August I purchased a Nintendo 3DS, while September saw the purchase of a Xbox One S and October gave me a new mobile phone. Now November rolls around and we have a new monitor for the computer setup.

Way back in 2007, I purchased a 22 inch 1680x1050 monitor for my current computer, Wii and Xbox 360. Over the years I have been tempted to upgrade this to a 24 inch (or larger) monitor, but had always been limited by a) the current monitor having a huge range of inputs and b) desk limitation on width.

One of the monitors that had made its way to my wish list was a Dell Ultrasharp U2415 as it ticked the input boxes and more importantly the size box, but as it was not officially sold by Dell New Zealand, I either had to import it (which could have cost a lot) or purchase via a private importer (which not only cost a lot, but required waiting for stock). During one of my co-workers daily checks of the Dell Outlet store, he advised me that there was a Dell U2415 monitor available and after a quick internal conflict, I made the call to see if it was still available.
A few hours later I had made the purchase and a few days later the monitor arrived via courier.

Now, what will my December electronics purchase be (if any)?

Hot Wheels RAOK

While up in the big city of Auckland, I was able to meet up with another fellow Hot Wheels collector, who took me out to dinner in a suburb close to where he lives. At the end of the night, I was presented with a couple of items that he had recently acquired.

To add to the Super Treasure Hunt collection, the 2016 P Case Nitro Doorslammer.
This Super seemed to be rather common in New Zealand, but was not one I could find locally. Due to it not being a realistic casting, it also was not a priority to try and track down.

Completely unexpected part of the RAOK, was the 2016 Toys R Us Mail In Exclusive Blown Delivery. It seem that over in Australia, they were giving away this car with purchases of basic Hot Wheels and this collector happened to be in Australia and in a TRU store at the right time to secure a decent number of these mail in cars.

Many thanks to this collector the items and I hope one day I can surprise him with some items as well.

Meet up with DCTV

I was fortunate to be selected to go on a work trip to New Zealand's largest city (Auckland) and during a few hours that I wasn't needed in the office, I managed to organise a half day out with fellow New Zealand collectors diecasttvchannel (DCTV - Cobra, Eagle and Falcon) who showed me around some of the collecting spots they have in Auckland.

Having emailed the team for a few years since finding their videos in YouTube, it was awesome to finally meet them in person and then for them to use their Saturday morning to drive me around to check out the sights and sounds of the big city.

Toy wise ... it was a bit of a dead zone. My local city was more up to date with Hot Wheels and only one store were up to date with Matchbox. A specialist hobby store did have some new Greenlight, however I had ordered those from the supplier for local pickup (video coming soon) and the only new item I wish I had room for in my bag were Maisto Tow and Go cars.

I was able to pick up a few Matchbox cars - three for opening while I was out hunting with DCTV, and another for the sealed collection as I checked out some stores near the airport at the end of my work trip.

Big thanks to Cobra, Eagle and Falcon for taking the time out of their day to meet, and one day I hope to be able to show you around my local stores.

2016 Matchbox M Case (and others)

Just a few days after receiving the 2016 K and L cases in the post from the USA, I set out on a road trip and while on the journey visited stores in order to see what other parts of the country had in store. In one of the stores I was surprised to find the remains of the 2016 M case, and then at my destination found more sealed cases, allowing me to fill up on models for my own collection as well as some singles to assist other collectors.

A few nice repaints in the M case, one brand new casting, with a lot of models that will be opened as well ..

I also picked up a Toyota Prius Taxi from the D case

Roll on 2017 Matchbox, from the sneaks it looks like an awesome year ahead!

Hot Wheels 2017 A Case

While checking out the local stores, I was surprised to find 2016 Q case, along with 2017 A case items on the pegs, in the dump bins and on overstock. Due to the unexpected arrival of the items, I was not prepared to know what to look for and have not yet decided on my collecting plans for the 2017 mainlines (rough ideas have me once again focusing on "new models", though I know some other models will manage to find their way into the collection).

Purchases from the Q case were limited to a brand new casting, along with a repaint of a new model from 2016

Purchases from the A case included a new model Halo Warthog, which is also being released in the 2017 Entertainment series, the awesome off-road Camaro from one of the Fast and Furious movies and a new Mustang that came with both front and rear detailing

No new Super Treasure Hunts for the collection however ...