Greenlight, Hot Wheels and Maisto

The last month has been relatively slow in the diecast world around my local area; while other parts of New Zealand have seen A/B and C case 2017 Hot Wheels, new Hot Wheels Car Culture assortments as well as Matchbox restocks. That is however not to say I haven't been able to get a few things either locally or via the post, but one or two cars do not make an interesting blog post and so I have been holding off on showcasing anything until there was enough to show.

A few days before my work trip to Auckland in late October, I was alerted to new Greenlight being listed on the importers website and so placed an order with my local Toyworld store. After seeing the same cars in person in Auckland, I was able to collect my order locally.
Hollywood Series XX brought two new cars to Greenlight casting collection, two variations of the 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood Series 16 and a 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle (which looks similar to already released versions, but is deemed new by Greenlight). Also added to the collection was a green NYC Taxi to compliment my existing yellow versions.

The Hot Wheels Red Line Club finally released a new car for the 2016 lineup - the Rocket Oil in Gulf livery. Thankfully this did not sell out during RLC membership sale window, and I was able to purchase during the regular release window.

First found in Auckland, when I got back home I asked my local Toyworld if they could bring in a case assortment of the Maisto Tow & Go's. After a bit of waiting, I was able to add the two to the collection that were in the case assortment I was after  - I may have to get more from the USA.

Birthday Transformer - LG-31 Fortress Maximus

Released in September, I held back shipping LG-31 Fortress Maximus until mid November and due to it arriving several days before my birthday I decided to call it a birthday present to myself.

Fortress Maximus is a very very heavy retool of Metroplex released in 2013 and stands just short of 60cm, making it the third largest Transformer ever released (behind the original 1987 Fortress Maximus and Metroplex). The main gimmick (aside from size) was the dual headmaster - the head of Fortress Maximus turns into a robot, and the head of that robot is also a headmaster.

Now to figure out where exactly this figure will sit in the collection!

Dell Monitor

Another month, another electronics purchase!
Back in August I purchased a Nintendo 3DS, while September saw the purchase of a Xbox One S and October gave me a new mobile phone. Now November rolls around and we have a new monitor for the computer setup.

Way back in 2007, I purchased a 22 inch 1680x1050 monitor for my current computer, Wii and Xbox 360. Over the years I have been tempted to upgrade this to a 24 inch (or larger) monitor, but had always been limited by a) the current monitor having a huge range of inputs and b) desk limitation on width.

One of the monitors that had made its way to my wish list was a Dell Ultrasharp U2415 as it ticked the input boxes and more importantly the size box, but as it was not officially sold by Dell New Zealand, I either had to import it (which could have cost a lot) or purchase via a private importer (which not only cost a lot, but required waiting for stock). During one of my co-workers daily checks of the Dell Outlet store, he advised me that there was a Dell U2415 monitor available and after a quick internal conflict, I made the call to see if it was still available.
A few hours later I had made the purchase and a few days later the monitor arrived via courier.

Now, what will my December electronics purchase be (if any)?

Hot Wheels RAOK

While up in the big city of Auckland, I was able to meet up with another fellow Hot Wheels collector, who took me out to dinner in a suburb close to where he lives. At the end of the night, I was presented with a couple of items that he had recently acquired.

To add to the Super Treasure Hunt collection, the 2016 P Case Nitro Doorslammer.
This Super seemed to be rather common in New Zealand, but was not one I could find locally. Due to it not being a realistic casting, it also was not a priority to try and track down.

Completely unexpected part of the RAOK, was the 2016 Toys R Us Mail In Exclusive Blown Delivery. It seem that over in Australia, they were giving away this car with purchases of basic Hot Wheels and this collector happened to be in Australia and in a TRU store at the right time to secure a decent number of these mail in cars.

Many thanks to this collector the items and I hope one day I can surprise him with some items as well.