Matchbox Premiere Gift Set

After purchasing the Matchbox Premiere cars from the USA, I turned my attention to New Zealand and checked out Trademe to see if anyone had any listings. One seller had a Corvette giftset listed, so I placed it on the watchlist and when the time came to bid, I did so. Sadly the seller had a reserve which I did not meet and a few days later I received an email advising of relisting which included a reasonable instant purchase price and so purchased.

When purchasing cars for the Matchbox Premiere collection, I decided mostly to ignore American cars as I had plenty of them from Greenlight and M2 in the collection - being a Corvette gift set, I was breaking the rule very fast .. but these things happen and rules are supposed to be broken right :-)

Sadly the packaging was damaged on arrival (and not from postage), but it will make the opening of this set a lot easier. What I love about the set is that they included some really nice real car bio's of the cars included  - check out and pause the YouTube video to read those if interested.

Matchbox Premiere

Looking around eBay and other online stores for something to purchase, I came across a listing for a car in a series called Matchbox Premiere from the late 90's which made me search for more information. I eventually found a website that showed most of the cars from this time and was hooked. Older cars and castings (most long out of production) with simple colour schemes, detailed front/rear and interior tampographs and Goodyear branded rubber tires.

Diving into what had been produced over the few years that the line ran for, I decided I would focus on getting castings that different to castings I already had (which ruled out most American cars) and began a search. Eventually I found a few sellers that had items I was after and spent some money.

One of those sellers was based in Oregon so the parcel to my shipping address in Oregon took no time to arrive and so was shipped to New Zealand ahead of the few other parcels.

With these arrivals, I very quickly broke my "rule" about not getting to many cars I already had as the racing themed Corvette and the CHIPS themed Camaro called out to me. The RX-7 and the Audi were must haves and am now glad to have them.

Also arriving from the same seller was a single Johnny Lightning car. I have mostly avoided Johnny Lightning since starting collecting as they focus on American cars and that quote is happily filled by Greenlight in my collection. However, I had actually seen this car at a local second hand shop and was interested but did not want to pay the asking price from the store.

All of these cars will be cracked open so look for a YouTube cracking video shortly!

Hot Wheels N, P and Q case

As mentioned before, New Zealand distribution of Hot Wheels has been shit for 2015 - smaller stores like Kmart and Toyworld have been my go to source for new cases but at only one case per shipment there is not much chance to get a super and the largest retailer is stick in a time wrap with parallel and regular G case cars on the pegs. So when an offer came from Australia to trade for a Greenlight Green Machine I asked what they had at retail over there ...

With long card Q case being the answer, I sent back a wish list and within a few days I had the majority of the wish list secured and once a trade was worked out, parcels were sent. A few days later, one very well wrapped parcel arrived and behold ...

With the exception of a few doubles (and of course Super Treasure Hunts), my wish list for 2015 was secured and I can now focus on how to proceed with collecting 2016 Hot Wheels - when they arrive in New Zealand in 2017 or 2018.

Oh, there was also one extra car in the parcel ...

Yep, one Q case Super Treasure Hunt was also sent across in the parcel and from what I understand was one of a few that the trader managed to find while going through boxes of new cars looking for items from the wish list. 9 down and 6 more to go for the year.

Matchbox Purchases

Having a look around Trademe one night after work, I found a seller who happened to have quite a few desirable castings from 2007-2011, at very reasonable prices (either cheaper than current retail or current retail). Double checking my lists, I decided to purchase a few items and they arrived today.

Not to much to say about these, all simple plain real cars that have full front and rear tampo decorations (aside from two who only have front). As the Lamley blog pointed out, this was the golden age of Matchbox and I am annoyed that when I started collecting I didn't pick up as many from the pegs when I could have.

Greenlight and Motor City "Coke Zero" Truck

As mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts, I was informed by the distributor of Greenlight (and other brands) in New Zealand that they were expecting a large shipment of Greenlight around the 1st of September. I checked at least once a day after receiving the email, and start to see some new 1/64 listings but not as many as I expected considering the many releases of vehicles in the last big shipment in March 2015.

Eventually the 1st rolled around and the massive Greenlight shipment was advertised as being in stock (rather than pre order) but sadly only contained a few 1/64 items - a couple I needed, a couple I had imported in myself and a few older re-releases. I gave my small wish list to Toyworld who advised they would order in. Eventually I got the phone call that the order had arrived and I naturally rushed in to secure the new cars - just so happened that the arrival of the cars coincided with a chain wide 15% off everything sale.

I decided to add a couple of Hobby Exclusives to the collection, even though the number of these castings I already had was getting close to my maximum number to have in the collection. As always, Greenlight castings are fantastic - not much to say.
While I was in the store, I also checked what had arrived for any Green Machines that may have been added to the order but was unsuccessful.

While checking out the wholesalers website, I noticed a few 1/64 scale trucks listed and enquired with Toyworld if they were able to price them for me so I could decide if the retail price was worth it to add a truck to the collection. Rather than advising me of the price, I was advised that the Coke Zero version of the truck was ready for pickup when I went to get the above Greenlight.

I was very grateful for the 15% off sale, as the retail price of $55 was a tad higher than the desired price tag of around $40 but I continued with the purchase and overall am very impressed with the truck/trailer.

The cab section is full diecast and very heavy, features good detailing on the front (but nothing on the rear). The tires do have rubber, but do move freely on the axles and look rather skinny compared to what I expect real world truck tires to look like. The mirrors on the driver and passenger side look very fragile and are probably the first thing to break should it suffer a fall.

The trailer section is a mix of plastic and metal, and features an opening door at the rear of the trailer (with nothing inside the trailer) and there are plenty of nice light details around this door. The wheels are exactly the same as the cab and move freely. Finishing up is a fold-able trailer stand for when the trailer is not being hauled by the cab.

Super Parcel

Chatting with "my good mate from the capital city", he mentioned that he had a small parcel to send my way. Naturally this got me curious and I managed to get him to tell me what was coming and then pleaded with him not to send the item to me - rather use it as trade bait for something he really wanted. He refused and a few days later a parcel was waiting for me at work.

As the picture shows, once again "my good mate" had sent me another Super Treasure Hunt - this time a USA carded J case 8 Crate. Again words can't really describe how thankful I am to receive another Super for the collection (bringing my 2015 collection to 8).

Now to find something to send in appreciation back!

Hot Wheels Collectors Club

Coming home from work knowing you have a parcel waiting at the front door is an excellent experience, and arriving via the USA shipping warehouse were two parcels from the Hot Wheels Collectors club.

In parcel number one we had a few of the sELECTIONs 77 Firebird Funny Car, a car that I had long forgotten what it looked like due to the late selection process in 2014 and the natural delays that result in making a car of this nature.

In the second parcel were a few items picked up during one of the Thursday Deal of the Days - a Real Riders two pack of Dodge Challengers. This particular item had been in the shop as long as I have had a USA postage address, and on sale but I was always worried about the postage costs of getting the item to New Zealand due to the large nature of the packaging. With another 50% off (taking the set down to $4.99) I decided it was time to jump on the set.

With postage being the same price for up to $20 spend, I also added another 100% two car set that the store had in stock (and also on sale). Like the rest of the two car sets, this will be a hard set to open as I do not require the display case that the set comes in but one day I will eventually get there!!

With recent changes to the Hot Wheels Collectors website, this will also be one of the last purchases from the club .. more information in a future blog post.

Greenlight - Honda Performance Development

Searching the internet for information on Greenlight die cast can be a challenging experience, but thankfully I was able to find a website that not only cataloged every single Greenlight car but also featured news about upcoming releases and is now my go to source for all Greenlight information.

While using the website to catalog the cars that I had, as well as look at other cars released in the past that might be of interest I spotted a promotional piece in the listing for an Honda Civic Si. Featuring racing tampographs, this was an instant "wanted item" but eBay, The Toy Peddler and Scoomer were always empty of the particular vehicle.

Eventually I found that the online Honda Racing store still had this exclusive set available online, so trying out my luck I placed an order and waited to see what would happen - sometime when shipping to a shipping forwarder stores will cancel the order. However roughly a week later, a parcel arrived at my shipping forwarder and I on shipped it back to New Zealand

Opening up the parcel, I was happy to finally receive this set containing the Honda Civic Si, and also an Indy Car (a series that I have no real interest in).

Joining the journey was another exclusive Greenlight car that the Honda Racing store had in stock - another Indy Car as driven by the 2012 Indy Car winner. I was surprised to see that both indy cars were also different castings.

Now to add this to my growing list of Greenlight that I need to open, I need to see if this Honda Civic is a full metal/metal casting or metal/plastic like the other Greenlight Motor World castings I own.

Lego

Generally I don't tend to show off Lego when purchased as there are many many decent websites devoted to the art of brick building. So I tend to just take a photo for my own reasons and either put the sealed box away or open the box to grab the bags inside and put those away.

Eventually I do open and build the Lego I have - it is just a very slow process since Lego does tend to take up a lot of room once build, and space is not something I have much off as my Transformers, Hot Wheels (and other diecast), Lego, Star Wars and Marvel Universe figures all compete for the space.

Back in June, the local Toyworld had 40% off the Lego Agents Truck - being a huge Lego Truck fan, I had wanted this set for a while but when it comes to Lego I have a limit and the full retail price of $200 was too expensive for this set, as were the occasional sales at 15%, 20% and 25%. So, when the set was offered at 40% off and I had the ability to layby (layaway) the set in order to pay it off over a few weeks or months, I decided now was the time. I was glad I did as it sold out from my local store very quickly - even though it was advertised a few more times at 50% off!!
It will also look very nice next to the Lego Agents truck from 2008 that I still have sitting sealed in my storage shed.

A few months later, Toyworld had another 50% off sale of Lego Agents and in this sale had the second wave helicopter that had tormented me since its release. Again just like trucks, I have a "thing" for helicopters and knew I would eventually want it but also tried to avoid it due to the large amount of space it would take up. After a few days I eventually gave into temptation and purchased the set ...

Around the New Zealand release date of the Lego Creator set, there happened to be a pretty decent 25% off sale and I happened to have some "spare cash" lying around. So with all three modes of the build looking pretty awesome, I took the plunge and purchase the set.

Fast forward another month and I received some coupons from Toyworld with discounts ranging from 20% to 50% off items (with some conditions). Off interest was the 30% off coupon that allowed Lego purchases (as long as the spend was less than $100) and so I decided to head in to see what happened to be available. It just so happened that on the day I was there, the Lego Wall-E set as well as a heap of other "limited distribution" items arrived and so I tried my luck to get one of those sets with the sale - but the store wasn't having any of that. So in the end I settled on a Lego City set I had been looking at - a set featuring another truck!

After paying for the Lego City purchase, I looked at the 20% and 25% off coupons I had left over and after another unsuccessful attempt to get the Lego Wall-E set on sale, I took a look at what else I might be tempted at purchasing. Hiding in the corner, was a Technic set I had seen before but hadn't seen for a while - yet another truck set (with the added benefit of being a racing truck) that also had a secondary build of a racing car. The internal debate was over very quickly and I became the proud owner of my first Lego Technic set.

Now .. to build some of these sets!

August Transformers

Another month, and another order of Transformers from Japan (and Hong Kong) has arrived on my doorstep. These items I had to secure from other suppliers around the world as I either missed out on the pre orders or they simply were not available from my regular Japanese supplier.

Up first is the Japanese Exclusive, Masterpiece Blue Bluestreak!
For years Transformers fans have debated about the existence of a Transformers version of Blue Bluestreak after the Japanese Diaclone version (which was blue) was used for American Transformers packaging, catalogs and promotions. Finally Transformers fans have their Blue Bluestreak.

Under the Transformers Adventure Line, Takara again used Combiner Wars Legends as filler but .. what awesome filler. We have Blackjack turned into Runabout and I really hope that they release Runamuck later on. It took a few Wiki searches to finally see who Override was a reference to - the G1 Triggerbot.

Q-Transformers have grown on me since the first purchase and with the release of more Decepticons, I had to pick up this months offerings. The older Jazz figure came along for the ride as there was no difference in postage costs.

For those among you who read the blog and also know release dates for Transformers, you may have noticed one big item missing ... but don't worry, as it is coming.

Final purchase for the month was a local purchase - something that hasn't happened for a while. With a TAV release of Legends Fixit looking less and less unlikely, I decided to get the Hasbro version when it appeared in the local stores.

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

Some months, items are received that do not warrant a YouTube video for whatever reason and then get forgotten for a few weeks, which may turn into a few months. Which is what has happened with these two items.

During a road trip early in July to test out the new car, I called into a few stores along the way and purchased a couple of items that were on sale and could not be found locally. Having already done a seven item Star Wars haul video for YouTube (which as expected received almost no views), I wasn't keen to do another video for just the one item - and so didn't. As a result, the poor figure sat in a "pile" for roughly 6 weeks before being looked at.

One of the first figures released in the 2013 3 and 3/4 Star Wars Black Series, the figure has been on the "I'll get it one day" list for a while. However as time went on, the desire to add more action figures to the collection faded and it wasn't until the 2015 Star Wars Black Series arrived locally and on a great discount did I decide to look at online guides to figure out what I had missed and how to get it. Seeing this figure on the pegs at 40% off, I decided to snag him up and eventually add him to the rest of the Star Wars figures.

When the first wave of 2015 Marvel figures arived in New Zealand, Daredevil was at the top of the wish list (being a repurposed Marvel Universe figure). However the only figure at the local store had very poor paint applications on his face which annoyed me and so I left it hoping to be able to find it at another store. And I did ... so I grabbed it.
And then remembered that the next wave have an even better Daredevil figure in the form of Armoured Daredevil. Oh well.