Hot Wheels Retro Entertainment K Case

When Mattel released the small list of Retro Entertainment releases for 2015 onto their website, the last case for the year was marked as a hobby exclusive. Through various channels, it was learnt the one wholesaler/distributor in the USA had exclusive rights to the K case and only one re-seller had purchased enough stock to make it cost effective to then on sell to customers.
After discussions with other New Zealanders who order Retro Entertainment via me, I decided to order a few cases and then began the long wait till "mid November".

It was with great shock, that over the long Labour Weekend that a collector posted pictures of the Retro Entertainment K case being found locally at our largest retailer The Warehouse. Being a holiday weekend, I figured that the local stores wouldn't have bothered restocking the shelves and that a visit was a waste of time but I ventured in anyway and found nothing new as expected.

Chatting with Cobra from DCTV, I asked him if he was able to secure a set of 5 from his local stores and within hours had some good news, followed by even more good news a few hours later - four of the five cars along with a couple of doubles I had requested had been secured.

Heading out before work, I decided to check the local stores again just in case the night fill workers had put out new stock and was very surprised to see that they had - one fresh case of Retro Entertainment had been pegged and so I took advantage of being the first and took all 16 cars - one set for my collection, along with sets for two other collectors who had yet to find at their local stores. Adding to the bonus of finding a fresh case was a chain wide promotion - buy one Hot Wheels vehicle and get 50% off another.

Still need to find another set, for another collector and while I have DCTV as a backup, there are some doubles I would love to find while the sale is on. Hopefully the other Warehouse stores we have in my city stock soon.

Roll on Entertainment 2016!

Hot Wheels Retro Entertainment J Case

As some of you may know, Hot Wheels Retro Entertainment (or just Entertainment) is my favourite Hot Wheels line and with distribution in New Zealand being very patchy, I keep a close eye on eBay and online stores looking for the first hint of a new case being released.

One of these searches lead me to the J case and after ordering from eBay, sending to my USA shipping address and then impatiently waiting for the shipment to arrive in New Zealand, the day finally arrived when the cases arrived and I could begin to organise my own set, sets for other New Zealanders who order through me as well as selling the spares to other collectors.

The set added three new castings to the Hot Wheels line up - the 56 Chevy (Brady Bunch), 74 Checker Taxi (Taxi) and the Kawasaki Ninja GPZ 900R(Top Gun), along with a return of the Corvette and the Camouflage Tumbler. Detailing on the cars were a mixed bag - full detailing on the Chevy and the Taxi, but next to nothing on the other three vehicles. As a result, only the Chevy and Taxi were promoted to the "to be open pile".

Now, the impatient wait for the K case begins!

Matchbox Madness

Arriving alongside the Hot Wheels 2016 A case at The Warehouse branches over the last week, were cases of Matchbox - something that has been just has hard to find in local stores through the year as Hot Wheels have been.

Coinciding well with a planed out of town road trip, I was able to search many Warehouse stores and found many varied cases of 2015 Matchbox - F, G, H, J, K and even L cases. As a result, a good number of cars were purchased. Hopefully the Internet catches up soon and lists are posted as to what should be in each case assortment so I know if there are gaps in the collection and if M, N, P cases are expected to be released.

Enjoy the images!

2016 Hot Wheels

While out of town on a day trip, I walked into their local Warehouse and was very surprised to see 2016 A case in the dump bin and on the pegs. So as any collector does, I started hunting for any cars I needed and of course that included super treasure hunts.

Due to ever increasing space concerns for the die cast collection, I had roughly decided that for the 2016 Hot Wheels year, my focus would just be on "New for 2016" castings, and I would skip the majority of cars that were just repeats (with new colours or decorations), and so my take home purchase from the A case was pretty small - four cars including two new models and a Q case carry over as an opener.

By purchasing the Porsche, I did break my "rule" very quickly, but I happen to have a very soft spot for racing liveries so it was "allowed".

No Super Treasure Hunt, but there is always another chance in the lead up to Christmas.

Random Matchbox

While checking Trademe (again), I found one of the sellers I had just completed a purchase with had listed some more items I was interested in. So I went ahead and purchased them, and let the seller know that I was also watching a few other items that didn't have buy prices listed. I eventually won those items as well and sent a note to the seller to let me know the cost of postage.

I was very surprised the next day to receive the first four items in the post and the next lot in the post a few days later, all without the seller making any contact and with the payment still waiting to be paid. Eventually it was sorted - payments made and feedback left.

Included in the purchase were several older mainline models, a couple of new releases as well as an older Superfast casting.

While at the local Warehouse, I managed to spot a new to me case on the overstock shelf and managed to get it down for a closer look. It was already opened and a few items were missing, but I managed to snag a few vehicles from the wish list.

Hopefully more of the new Matchbox makes it to local stores...

RLC Maxi Taxi

Arriving at the same time as a bunch of other parcels, was the next release in the often delayed Series 13 Red Line Club/Hot Wheels Collector Club cars - the Maxi Taxi. While the casting looks fantastic and lots of positives can be said about the car, this release was harmed by so many negatives.

Rant Incoming!
The Hot Wheels Collectors Club decided to use the summer to refresh the website, many things were promised and eventually the website came back online and .. many uses found themselves in a pretty poor environment. It was hard to navigate the website, the forums were a complete mess and the RLC side was even worse than it was before - in short a disaster. Granted, over a few weeks, small changes were made as things were fixed (and broken, and fixed) but overall the website was a complete mess and it looked like the users of the forums were there to beta test everything.

Eventually they announced the first sale day since the relaunch of the website - and introduced the waiting room. Due to issues with the old website and its inability to process hundreds of customers at the same time, the waiting room was software they keep you out of the website (and the rest of the site) until such a time that it was determined that you could pass through checkout without taking the servers down as you went.

In short .. this was a complete disaster. On sale day I had to not only sign in early, but I was forced to wait in the sale room for 17 minutes before I was allowed to purchase my items, and then issues with the checkout saw me logging in time and time again. Eventually though we got there, but Mattel had made what used to be a very short process, a very long and complex process. To top it off, the staff interaction on the forums pointed to the issues as the users fault (something to do with our computer setup). Working in IT, I know when something is my fault, and this .. this is clearly not!

At this stage, I will not be rejoining the RLC club in 2016. Hopefully by 2020 I can get the toys on eBay for the same price as if I had joined the club.

Speed Machines

While checking out a few online auction sites, I found a seller who at first glance seemed to have a bunch of Speed Machines for sale that I needed to add to the collection. Double checking my have lists, I started making two wish lists based on what the seller had available. I also send the seller a question on what postage would cost on the items from Canada to my USA shipping address. With the current poor exchange rate from the USA, I eventually selected 9 items from the seller and within a few days had organised payment and postage.

On arrival in New Zealand, all I can say is WOW!
Speed Machines has to be one of my most favourite lines to collect and with no definite list to guide me on my search, the last few items may take a while (and cost a pretty penny) to secure.

Enjoy the images, and if anyone reads this and happens to have Speed Machines they wish to sell - please get in touch. I am always looking for more for the sealed collection as well as cars for the loose collection.

Matchbox Premiere (and other die cast)

After looking around online for a few weeks, I decided to make the plunge one night and purchased a few Matchbox Premiere items from the same seller. The particular seller who happened to have a Hot Wheels Retro Entertainment item I was interested in, and because they were very cheap I also added in a few Matchbox Superfast items from 2004.

As mentioned in other blog posts, my focus for going after older Matchbox items was to get older castings that are no longer in production, along with focusing on non American castings. I've already broken that rule in purchases that arrived earlier, but rules are meant to be broken. One of these American castings (the 57 Chevy) reminds me of a standard Matchbox car I had when I was a child of the late 80's or early 90's which is why I was excited to be able to get a premiere version of the casting.

Arriving in the same parcel from my USA shipping address were two items from an eBay seller - I spent about a week trying to decide if I purchase one car (as it was the only decently priced one around) or add more items from the seller I was half interested in. It turns out my decision was made for me when the eBay shopping cart advised me that the seller did not combine postage and there was no way I was paying over $20US in postage on a couple of items - so I made do with two.

The Mercedes has the distinction of not only being non American, and a race car but also one of only times this casting as been released. The Muscle Machine made it to the collection as I have started a very small collection of these very nicely detailed tuners and I continue to add more as funds and availability allow.