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.