Meet up with DCTV

I was fortunate to be selected to go on a work trip to New Zealand's largest city (Auckland) and during a few hours that I wasn't needed in the office, I managed to organise a half day out with fellow New Zealand collectors diecasttvchannel (DCTV - Cobra, Eagle and Falcon) who showed me around some of the collecting spots they have in Auckland.

Having emailed the team for a few years since finding their videos in YouTube, it was awesome to finally meet them in person and then for them to use their Saturday morning to drive me around to check out the sights and sounds of the big city.

Toy wise ... it was a bit of a dead zone. My local city was more up to date with Hot Wheels and only one store were up to date with Matchbox. A specialist hobby store did have some new Greenlight, however I had ordered those from the supplier for local pickup (video coming soon) and the only new item I wish I had room for in my bag were Maisto Tow and Go cars.

I was able to pick up a few Matchbox cars - three for opening while I was out hunting with DCTV, and another for the sealed collection as I checked out some stores near the airport at the end of my work trip.

Big thanks to Cobra, Eagle and Falcon for taking the time out of their day to meet, and one day I hope to be able to show you around my local stores.

2016 Matchbox M Case (and others)

Just a few days after receiving the 2016 K and L cases in the post from the USA, I set out on a road trip and while on the journey visited stores in order to see what other parts of the country had in store. In one of the stores I was surprised to find the remains of the 2016 M case, and then at my destination found more sealed cases, allowing me to fill up on models for my own collection as well as some singles to assist other collectors.

A few nice repaints in the M case, one brand new casting, with a lot of models that will be opened as well ..

I also picked up a Toyota Prius Taxi from the D case

Roll on 2017 Matchbox, from the sneaks it looks like an awesome year ahead!

Hot Wheels 2017 A Case

While checking out the local stores, I was surprised to find 2016 Q case, along with 2017 A case items on the pegs, in the dump bins and on overstock. Due to the unexpected arrival of the items, I was not prepared to know what to look for and have not yet decided on my collecting plans for the 2017 mainlines (rough ideas have me once again focusing on "new models", though I know some other models will manage to find their way into the collection).

Purchases from the Q case were limited to a brand new casting, along with a repaint of a new model from 2016

Purchases from the A case included a new model Halo Warthog, which is also being released in the 2017 Entertainment series, the awesome off-road Camaro from one of the Fast and Furious movies and a new Mustang that came with both front and rear detailing

No new Super Treasure Hunts for the collection however ...

Matchbox Basic K and L Case

After what seems like an eternity, a large order of die cast arrived from the USA. The last two boxes were a sealed Matchbox K case and a L case from the 2016 basic assortment.

K Case Contents

L Case Contents

After purchasing a few Hot Wheels sealed cases in 2012, I vowed to never ever purchase any sealed cases of basic product ever again as the number of wanted cars was always significantly lower than the number of unwanted cars, and trying to sell the extra cars was normally a painful exercise.
On top of the rule of not getting cases, as an even bigger rule of not getting back to back cases due to the significant carry over between the cases which normally increased the number of unwanted items.

K Case Keepers

L Case Keepers

In this case I broke my rule about getting the Matchbox K case because of local stock in my area - after getting F and G cases back in May, the next restock contained C cases in large numbers. As a result I was not expecting to see anything new for a while.
The L case was purchased in order to get two cars, which were going for the around the cost of half a case on eBay, so I decided it was worth it to get a case for these two cars.

Hopefully I can find some of these cars locally as well in order to get some openers.

Hot Wheels Ford Performance

After what seems like an eternity, a large order of die cast arrived from the USA. The fourth box contained a set of the Walmart Exclusive Ford Performance set. This was a set that I was mainly interested in because of the racing nature of the tampos after seeing some of the cars while on holiday in Hong Kong.

Bring on the next 8 car set, since they seem to be coming out with more and more of these sets every year,

Hot Wheels Entertainment - Gran Turismo

After what seems like an eternity, a large order of die cast arrived from the USA. The third box contained the C Mix of Entertainment (formerly known as Retro Entertainment) and was a very welcome addition to the collection. Of all the various themes and lines that Mattel produce in the Hot Wheels line, Entertainment is by far my favourite and it will be a very sad day when the line ends.

One case, containing two sets - one for the sealed collection and one for the open collection

The theme for this assortment was Gran Turismo (from the Playstation game) and hits all of my collecting buttons - fully detailed, metal/metal, rubber tire, racing cars. The Nissan Concept is a new addition to the Hot Wheels casting lineup and looks fantastic, while the only slight disappointment being the Corvette C7 casting - they have modified the base to remove the track safe spoiler from the mainline release, but it still doesn't look "right".

Cannot wait for the next Entertainment case based on Forza.