Older Matchbox

At the end of October, I once again saw some older Matchbox cars for sale on Trademe from a seller I had purchased some cars from before. I paid and waited for the parcel to arrive .. and waited and waited.. After two weeks I became worried and asked the seller if he had sent and had a tracking number .. and after some back and forth it was determined that he had not sent and still had the parcel at his place. A few days later, I had the parcel in hand.

Nothing too special with the lot of cars selected, they were mainly chosen due because they were real cars that generally are not part of the current line up, and mostly feature full front and rear tampos.

While the above parcel was in transit, I also managed to win a few more Superfast items from 2005, which as I get more in, start ticking all the right boxes for very nice looking die cast car castings. Hopefully I can find more releases local, before I have to head to eBay...

M2 Machines

Arriving with the Greenlight were some additional M2 items, that I had been eying up since their announcement on the M2 Facebook page, as well as one older item that I had skipped on release.

The new Auto Mods series, has become one of my favourites since its initial release as it generally features "racing car themes" on some nice vehicles. Being a huge fan of racing car liveries, I will continue to purchase all the releases that M2 put out there. Part of series three, were a pair of 1955 Bel Air Hard Tops, one in a flat/matte black colour and the other in a gold/black colour scheme. The black version is definitely the pick of the pair, but coming very soon is a white/black version which personally tops every other colour.

Released as part of the Auto Wheels series, but also part of the Auto Mods series (the first two Auto Mods featured a pair of Camaro SS, and now sell for silly amounts of money on the secondary market), the pink Camaro SS looks awesome. As part of the Auto Wheels line, M2 packs in some additional wheels, axels and a screwdriver in an effort to make the purchaser customise the car. Sadly due to the complete failure earlier in the year when it came to building one of M2's model kits release, this Camaro will stay as is when it is eventually freed from the packaging.

When first announced via the Facebook page, I was flabbergasted that M2 - an American company - would actually take the time and effort to create an Australian version of a casting, that is, to create a right hand drive interior so they can call a truck an Australian version. As I live in New Zealand, a country that has followed our British Commonwealth history by having right drive cars just like Britain, it is a real treat to have right hand drive cars in toy form since the majority of the planet has left hand drive vehicles. Now I have no idea if Australia had the 1969 Ford F-100 as part of available cars back in the day, but who really cares since we got a right hand drive vehicle from an American company! Also included as part of the set was a left hand drive Mercury 100 truck .. which looks nice in the red and white colour scheme. I'll have to Google to see what relation Mercury is to Ford in order for them to release a vehicle that looks exactly thee same as the Ford ...

Already looking forward to the next parcel with some M2 goodness!

November Greenlight

Since finding a website that is dedicated to reporting the news of upcoming Greenlight, I have been able to plan and structure recent purchases based on what is coming out at roughly the same time. With knowledge of the pending release of Hitch and Tow Series 4, I started the process of setting up a possible purchase from my favourite online store to purchase Greenlight from and then proceeded to actually order items once the Hitch and Tow arrived.

First out of the box, was of course the set of four Hitch and Tow vehicles from Series 4, featuring all new trailers and more "repaints" of the same cars that Greenlight put out in every release, but of course in different colours and with slight modifications to make them slightly different. Big shout out to the awesomeness that is the Krispy Kreme Donut trailer that opens up to take orders, as well as the NYPD Horse Trailer - my only complaint would be that they should have included some horses as it would have complemented the people that Greenlight produce for dioramas.

Next in the order were four of the new series All-Terrain, featuring off road vehicles. I skipped the two Jeep Wranglers that were included in the first wave, thinking that I had enough Jeeps but I may end up going back to get at least one ... Really looking forward to series 2, due to the debut of a new Greenlight casting.

Surprising myself, I decided to add another wave of GL Muscle to the order and because I was interested in most of the cars I went with the "slightly cheaper" option of purchasing an entire set. The Camaro ZL1 was unwanted but since it is now in hand, will be added to the collection. Thankfully the next Muscle series doesn't have many desirable choices ...

Finally, two more Duarstar "box trucks" from the HD Trucks lineup, this time a Paramedic Ambulance and a NYPD van.

Already looking forward to the next order ...

Hot Wheels B Case and Matchbox M Case

A collector friend who works at the local small Warehouse store advised me that they had just received a Q case in stock and he had already taken the Batmobile and the Flying Delorean. After checking a few other blogs, I came to the conclusion that what had been found was actually a 2016 B case and so I headed into the store to check things out.

As expected, there were a few 2016 B case cars on the pegs along with a decent handful of cars placed in storage tubs that this store uses for stock that can't be put on the shelf. Tracking down my friend, I asked him to get the storage tubs down (rather than risking the wrath of another staff member who was near by) and proceeded to try and figure out what I wanted (if anything).

With my new rules in place, I decided against purchasing a bunch of repaint cars and instead opted for just one repaint and one new model. While the Treasure Hunt was tempting (and actually based on a real car), it was also left on the peg while there of course was no Super to be found.

Moving down the aisle, I looked at the Matchbox cars and noticed one vehicle that was a lot newer than the rest of the cars on the pegs, and so called my friend back over to have a hunt around for more new Matchbox. Eventually he came across a half empty 2015 M case, and I was able to grab the only two vehicles that interested me.

Fingers crossed, that as Christmas 2015 approaches and stores receive stock, that more new cases arrive.

Trade/RAOK from DCTV

Coming home from a long day at the office to a parcel is always a welcome end to the day, and the most recent parcel comes from my good buddies Cobra, Eagle and Falcon - otherwise known as DCTV or the team of three.

Generally we exchange emails a few times a week, and when Retro Entertainment Mix K was found, I asked the team if they could find me a set and they not only managed to get a set but also a few extras for my open collection. A few days later I was able to find my own set and Cobra was able to make plans for the set and I took the extras as openers since I was unable to find any more Retro locally.

Also included in the parcel was a car that the team picked up for me while at a local die cast toy fair; after procrastinating for a few years on sending a wish list, I finally got around to sending the list to Cobra to see if he could find anything I was after. A few images were sent from the toy fair showing potential items of interest and I selected a Matchbox Superfast item - pricing was a bit steep at $15NZ, but as it was all I was purchasing, it was worth it. Sadly after a few hours, I eventually realised that I already had the same model in my collection - I had opened the Matchbox Premiere Corvette set that I had received earlier in the year and one of the cars in that set was the same 78 Corvette T-Top and in the same colour scheme. In hand, the older Premiere release has better detailing as well, although the wheels on the Superfast version work a bit better.

In the email I received from Cobra advising that the parcel had been sent, he let me know he had included a couple of extra cars including two he cut the cards on to force me to open them! The Matchbox Quick Sander that was left un-cut was added to the collection, while the two cut cars were opened even though they don't have the front and rear detailing I need for my open vehicles!

Many thank to Cobra, Eagle and Falcon for the parcel!!

Shelby Toyota 2000GT

Ah, another Hot Wheels Collectors release and once again what used to be such a simple exercise to get a car turned into a long drawn out and very frustrating ordeal! Rather than fixing the problems that plagued the Maxi Taxi sale a few weeks earlier, the Mattel team decided to just limit the car to one per person and left everything as it was.

Like a good little consumer, I got up at the required time and sat in the waiting room .. and sat ... and sat, for 20 minutes before I became so frustrated that I turned to some "IT magic" and managed to finally bypass the waiting room and place my order for one car.

And .. all glitches and issues with the website aside ... in hand, this is a very nice car.
I just wish I could have ordered two so that at least one other New Zealand collector I help get cars in for could also experience these really nice Hot Wheels vehicles.

Fingers can only be crossed that the next sale will be free of issues, though I think pigs may actually fly first!