Hot Wheels 2016 E Case

In what has become an almost daily ritual, I headed to my local Toyworld store in order to have a nosey and say hi to the recent new staff additions so they get to know me. As I got closer to the counter I spied what looked like Mattel boxes and as I got closer I spotted a Hot Wheels case that had been emptied ... the case code on the box registered interest as it was a case that hadn't been found locally before, a 2016 E case.

On seeing first images of the E case, I knew that my rule of only getting the new models was going to be broken due to the large number of vehicles with full tampo placement and also vehicles with racing related graphics on the sides.

I was also lucky enough to find a Super Treasure Hunt in the assortment of cars available to purchase, and was one of the first that I came across. Oddly there was no regular version of the cars available to purchase.

Onwards to 2016 F case!!

RAOK from spankymark72

Sitting at work, I received and email that at first glance appeared to be some sort of spam - a "tracking link" to a parcel that had been sent to me. As I wasn't expecting a parcel, I dismissed the email until I received an email from Mark aka spankymark72 from YouTube. A week later I had a parcel at my front door all the way from the UK.

Everything

First of all, a huge shout out and thanks to Mark and Ethan for sending me the parcel - it was not expected and not required but I am extremely grateful to receive the parcel. Inside was a nice mix of items including a complete set of the 2015 Batman set, my first Jada as well as a London Double Decker Bus.

BATMAN!!

2015 UK Mail In Exclusive

2014 UK Mail In Exclusive

My First Jada

Knowing that Mark loves his Retro Entertainment that is not sold at all in the UK, I have some saved up for him and that will be winging its way across to the UK as soon as possible.

Again, thanks for the parcel!

Hot Wheels Collectors Parcels

Today was mail day from my USA shipping address, containing three different parcels from the Hot Wheels Collectors store.

The first parcel was something I was very reluctant to release from the shipping address due to the cost of getting the item to New Zealand and because I simply did not want to receive the item. Back in December I received my in stock Hot Wheels Rewards item and rather than receiving the Series 7 Gremlin Grinder as I had ordered, I received a 40th Anniversary Custom Otto - a very nice car, but just something I did not need another one off seeing as I already had two.

On receiving the incorrect item, I sent HWC an email letting them know that they had made the mistake but due to the cost of postage I would not return the item in order to try and get the correct car and was just giving them a heads up. 4 days later I was confused by a new order in my order history for a 40th Anniversary Custom Otto. I emailed the club and asked them what the order was for and then urgently emailed when the order shipped and a live tracking number was entered into the FexEx system. Emails sadly went un-answered and my attempts to contact the club through their phone number were not successful ...

Thankfully several days later I received a phone call from Mattel apologising for not getting in contact. I received information that sadly my first informational email was mis-read and they did actually ship out another 40th Anniversary Custom Otto by mistake. After discussing the limitations that my USA shipping address has for returning unwanted parcels, I was told that the Custom Otto did not need to be returned and that a correct order for the Series 7 Gremlin Grinder would be placed.

So, arriving eventually in New Zealand was my fourth 40th Anniversary Custom Otto that sadly cost me quite a lot of money to have shipped. Currently hoping that other collectors in New Zealand may be interested in purchasing, but if not ... opening time?

Inside the second parcel was an item that came out of no-where, the 2015 Holiday Car - it was very quickly added to the website a few weeks before Christmas and shipped immediately. Unlike the last Holiday Car in 2013, this one was free of issues and looks fantastic.

The third parcel was a back ordered item, in the form of the Gulf branded 67 Camaro and was a car that I was really looking forward to getting considering it was supposed to be part of the 2014 club year and it was looking like it would be held over until the 2016 membership year. As collectors started receiving their Camaro's in the USA, it became clear that there had been a manufacturing issue as many of the cars had paint chips and paint flaws along with damaged card backs and separating blisters. While I hoped that mine would arrive without damage, that was sadly not the case - the better of the two had major chipping damage to the front of the car as well as damage to the roof, and the blister is starting to separate from the card. The second one which was already pre sold to another collector has the same issues along with a damaged card corner when it was stuffed into the protecto-pak and the protecto-pak has also been damaged.

It makes me wonder, if these cars were ok enough to pass quality control, then how bad must the cars be that don't pass quality control. This issue has also reconfirmed my decision not to renew my RLC membership for 2016.

Anker Electronics

In preparation for my overseas holiday, I decided to "invest" in a portable battery pack to recharge my phone while on the move since my phone drains the battery as soon as GPS is turned on. After looking at local options and reading reviews, I headed to Amazon and saw the Anker brand. After reading more reviews I decided my next battery pack would be an Anker, but had a small issue - batteries were not allowed to be sent through the shipping service I normally use and Amazon did not ship the batteries direct.

After turning to eBay and looking through some listings, I stumbled across a listing for a larger than required battery pack that was sold directly by Anker and actually shipped direct to New Zealand (it was the only battery pack that did). Order placed and parcel shipped, then the waiting began.

Happy, yes!

Not much to say about the charger itself; it has two ports for charging devices and one for charging the battery and has very good specifications.

Also arriving in the order were a few other things that Anker shipped direct to New Zealand - a USB 3 card reader to replace the USB 3 hub and card reader purchased around January 2015 that never worked as well as advertised, and some additional Anker USB cables of various sizes.

Opening Transformers

On a recent video about Combiner Wars Devastator and G1 Platinum Edition Trypticon, I was asked if I open my Transformers.

Simple answer is - yes I do.

However back when I started re-collecting Transformers in late 2000, the answer was no and then changed to yes and no. In 2000, money was tight since I didn't have a regular form of income and so when I brought a new Transformer from the stores it was kept sealed in its packet. If I really liked something enough and could save up enough funds I would purchase a second toy in order to open. For the better part of five years, a constant dilemma for my collection was - do I purchase one or two? (along with can I afford to purchase one or two?)

As I got older and I moved from better paying job to slightly better paying job (or maybe the same job with better hours), I was generally able to always by two of the same figure - again, one for the sealed collection and one for the open collection (if I wanted to open one). The major exception came to "vintage figures" - anything that was more than a year old and was no longer to be purchased in stores, or online or in multiples was instantly added only to a sealed collection. If I decided that I wanted to have a open sample of this figure, then I looked for a already opened sample in the best possible condition.

In 2009 I had my first collection purge - re-organising the collection focus (and how they were stored in storage boxes) and selling off the spares in order to fund more purchases. With the surge of popularity around the franchise in most part due to the live action Transformers movies, toys from the 80's and 90's became hard to find or stupidly expensive which in turn restricted my collecting to the modern items.

By 2014, even with the change of collecting focus, I had started to run out of storage space in the storage shed I was renting each month for the collection and without wanting to spend more to upgrade to a larger space I decided to implement a plan that had been brewing for a few years - a complete sell off of the majority of my sealed collection, with a few exceptions (Generation 1, Generation 2, Car Robots (2000) and Masterpiece figures). The expected sale proceeds would be then used to fund one of a few large purchases - and in June 2015 a new car was purchased using those funds.

As 2016 starts, my thoughts are turning towards selling the Generation 2, Car Robots and Masterpiece collections as well ...

In regards to what happens to the open figures - sadly, 90% of the figures are removed from their box and then stored in storage tubs either in the garage or storage shed and never receive a "test" transformation. Display limitations at home do not allow the majority of figures to be displayed and grand plans to regularly rotate what figures are on display go out the window as each week/month/year passes. However, due to the size of both Devastator and Trypticon, specific space was made in order to display them at least for the short term.

Lego Building

When it comes to filming or blogging about Lego purchases, I am very slack.
Normally because I am only purchasing one item at a time and filming a video or creating a blog post for just the one item is time consuming and ... probably not that interesting to the audience.

After receiving two more Lego sets from Japan, I decided it was time to tackle the growing number of sets I had unboxed but put in storage tubs "to deal with another day". So after dragging out the storage tubs from the garage and looking at what I had to build, I decided to focus on building car and truck sets since display options once built were very limited and the storage tubs were on the small side and some of the planes and helicopter sets would take up an entire storage tub by themselves.

Starting on New Years Eve while still at work (don't tell the boss!!), I built the two smallest sets I had recently got in from Japan and then on New Year's Day continued building the Speed Champions sets I had purchased as soon as released in 2015.

After finishing the Speed Champions sets early on Saturday (and after having a break to do housework and other chores), I tackled one of the largest truck sets I had - the Ultra Agents Mobile Headquarters. Due to its larger build, it was finished on Sunday, where I moved onto the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine and then quickly followed up with the Police Mobile Headquarters, the Airport Fire Truck, Race Truck, Tow Truck and finally the Motorcycle Transporter ...

Monday arrived and saw the completion of two Creator sets that were purchased via Japan (as they were not sold in New Zealand for some reason), the Space Jet Transporter and then in my cupboard I found two sets from 2011 - a boat trailer and Cars 2 Mack Truck (with Lightning McQueen). With the weekend running out, it was time to call it quits on building anything else - leaving a couple of helicopter sets and Lego Movie sets in the pile for next time.

As mentioned, display room is always an ongoing issue so sadly most of these headed back into their storage tubs and only the Speed Champions Truck and Cars remain on display. One day I'll manage to display everything ...