Opening F-Toys Blind Box "Die Cast"

Finally decided it was time to open the F-Toys Blind Box "die cast" cars that I had picked up in Hong Kong.

Overall - very awesome model cars with the my issues limited to getting two white cars in the same lineup and how very light they are since they do not contain any diecast.

Hot Wheels 2016 M Case

At the beginning of (last) week, several reports from the North Island arrived that the 2016 Hot Wheels M case was being found in Toyworld stores. Naturally I went to my local Toyworld to see if they had anything new in (or coming in) and was naturally not surprised when they had nothing new in store and couldn't tell me if anything was coming in.
However at the end of the week, I was surprised to get a phone call advising me they had received new Hot Wheels and when I made it down I saw not only 2016 M case cars, but also 2016 5 packs (finally).

The M case contained a few brand new castings, along with several repaint cars that interested me and in sticking with my self imposed rules, I focused on getting the new castings - Mazda MX-5, Ford Focus RS and the Minecraft Cart. I also added the fan favourite Skyline but elected to skip a few other cars I had my eye on.

No Super Treasure Hunt (of course) but what surprised me was that the case did not have any L case carry overs I was after - the Custom Acura or the Beatles Submarine. Oh well, there is always other stores eventual stock and/or later cases to track those items.

Greenlight Display Cases

Way back in 2013, I purchased a connecting Greenlight Display case from Amazon with the intention of using it to house my very small (at the time) loose cars. In practice however the cars rolled around too much and the idea was abandoned ... until I had an idea after purchase some Kyosho Blind Box cars in Hong Kong.

With the Kyosho cars being secured to a base plate, I tested a theory that they should be able to sit inside the Greenlight display case without any issues - and for the most part they do. The compartments are still a little on the large side and even with the bases the cars can rock a bit, but settle back in place pretty quickly.

Knowing that I had seen at least one of the Greenlight display cases for sale locally, I tracked it down and purchased it with the idea of interlocking the two cases together and displaying my small (but growing collection) of CM's Rally Cars in one, and Kyosho Blind Box cars in the other.
The eventual plan is to connect even more of the cases together as the number of supported cars in the collection continue to grow.

Just a shame that the Kyosho Beads/Kyosho Original and Overstear cars that come with their own display cases are just a touch too large to fit into the Greenlight cases ... thankfully Kyosho has a solution for that ...

Marvel Universe/Marvel Infinite Series

Way back in 2009, a new 3 3/4 inch figure series call Marvel Universe hit the toy shelves here in New Zealand and instantly attracted my attention. Over the next few years, various purchases from the line along with consistent Transformers purchases kept the wallet pretty empty. Eventually the toy line was removed from the New Zealand toy aisle, and while product was still being released in the USA, several factors meant that purchases slowed down and eventually stopped. In 2014 the line had a rebirth as Marvel Infinite and in 2015 one wave showed up at New Zealand retail, but otherwise remained a line that needed to be imported, and thus not purchased.

Way back in December 2015, while looking around Trademe I found a seller who had a few Marvel Infinite at pretty decent prices and the purchase was made. The parcel sat in the car and then in storage unopened for several months before finally being looked at in May 2016 following the return from Hong Kong.

While over in Hong Kong, I had the opportunity to purchase many Marvel Infinite toys as well as the 4 inch Marvel Legends line, but for whatever reason hesitated on each purchase and by the end of the trip had only managed to purchase two figures from the Marvel Universe line.

Back in New Zealand and with some items heading towards the USA shipping forwarder, I took the gamble and ordered some half price Marvel Infinite from Hasbro Toy Shop. Eventually they arrived in New Zealand and thankfully had been shipped in a reasonable sized box so postage was not as expensive as originally feared.

Eventually all the Marvel items will be opened, and added to the already open items (along with opened Star Wars and G.I. Joe figures) with the overall grand plan to have a 3 3/4 inch display ... one day in the not too distant future (he says hopefully)

Greenlight Purchases

In preparation for my pending overseas holiday, I put importing Greenlight diecast on the back burner in order to make sure I had some spending money for the holiday. On return from said holiday, I immediately headed to my favourite online stores in the USA to order some Greenlight I was missing - sadly they were out of stock and so I turned towards eBay to get my "fix". Eventually I found a seller who had pretty decent prices on items (mostly cheaper than I was expecting to pay) and who I had dealt with before.

One of the priorities of the order was to obtain the general release of the new 2016 Fleetwood Bounder casting. While the first release has a slightly nicer colour scheme, it was a promotional item and not easy obtained. Joining the release were two repaint Durastar's - a box van with Krispy Kreme markings and an ambulance for Central Park.

After ignoring the Black Bandit line for a while, I have found myself going after a few of the castings when released due to the fact that many new castings make an appearance in the line. Two relatively new castings showed up in series 14; the Military 1/2 Ton 4x4 and the Topo Fuel Altered Dragster.

One of the staple Greenlight series, GL Muscle had a few castings in the new lineup that were of interest - the 1969 Plymouth Road Runner and the 1971 Pontiac GTO Judge Convertible (a casting I did not have previously).

The seller also had an older Greenlight item I had been interested in for a while, a 1/64 scale Kenworth truck and trailer advertising the Indycar series. The item when received was a lot larger than anticipated and explained the rather expensive postage cost of getting this parcel from the USA to New Zealand. Much like the Bounders and the Durastar's, this item will be left sealed until an appropriate time when a decent display area can be set up.

In the coming months, quite a few new castings are being released, along with several awesome repaints so the current lull will turn into a flood.

Hot Wheels Gran Turismo

Gaining popularity with Mattel are the retailer exclusive sets focused around a theme, and when the Gran Turismo set was announced, I knew that it was going to be one that stayed in the collection unlike some others I have seen, purchased and then got rid off. Having seen the list of Hot Wheels (and Matchbox) assortments coming into New Zealand over 2016, the Gran Turismo set was missing and so when the opportunity arose to preorder a case from a USA supplier at a decent discount over other suppliers, I jumped at the chace.

Eventually the sealed case arrived at the suppliers, was shipped to the shipping forwarder in Portland and then shipped to New Zealand.

Inside the sealed case, a complete set of 8 cars along with some extras which goes against the other case assortments that have even out the number of sets available in the case. Not much to say about the set - nice to have a general mix of European, American and Japanese sports/super cars. The only issue with the set is the general lack of both front and rear details, many cars have front headlights but nothing around the back aside from the Superleggera which receives the full treatment.