More Series 13 RLC

February saw the release of two more RLC items for Series 13, the Thunder Roller and the 58 Plymouth Belvedere. Limited to 4000 and 3000 pieces each, these sold out very quickly on sale day, and I was glad that I could secure three of each (one via the subscription plan and two via sale day, even with a cart malfunction with the Thunder Roller.

The Thunder Roller is an excellent casting, a nice, heavy truck that has managed to have a good number of releases over the years and this version is one of the better releases. There was concern from some on the RLC forum that the weight of the truck would cause issues with the blister but thankfully no issues on the samples I received.

The 58 Plymouth Belvedere looked to be black via the first images shown what feels like all those years ago, but in hand is more of a smoky grey. One I was not originally keen on getting but in hand this is one fantastic looking car and I would be very keen on trying to secure an open version down the road.

Transformers Combiner Wars Wave 2 Deluxes

THEY ARE HERE!!!
THEY ARE FINALLY HERE!!!
After what seems like months since ordering and then months for the parcel to arrive, I finally have the second wave of the Transformers Wave 2 Deluxes, that finally allow me to complete both Superion and Menasor.

Group shot

And now, I must go play with these fantastic looking pieces of plastic.

All Combined

The Team

Combine to form MENASOR

Rivals

Temporary Home

After playing around for a day, these bots are better than I thought they would be. There are some issues however and I really want to see what Takara does with Menasor,

Maisto Custom Shop - VW R32

With the finds of new Maisto Custom Shop and Elite Transport the other day, I treated myself to one Custom Shop car I had wanted since seeing it in the 2014 catalogue, the Volkswagen R32.

Loving the white and black colour scheme, the matt black hood and roof and the eye/teeth decoration is just awesome. The only thing not to tickle my interest are the red windows but they can be easily overlooked.

FREEDOM!!

Lego Speed Champions

As a die cast collector and general fan of real world racing cars (though I don't see nearly enough in real life), the new line of Lego called Speed Champions featuring licensed vehicles appealed to me when I first saw the images back in late 2014.

Walking into Toyworld, I was informed that Speed Champions had arrived over the weekend and checking out the stock and the pricing, I selected two of the smaller kits.

Going back a few days later, I picked up the other two smaller kits.

Looking at the Lego kits verses images of real life cars, Lego have done a fantastic job in trying to match colours, details and the overall look and feel of a real car as close as possible using Lego bricks. Each car does have the tendency to be rather tall and "fat" compared to the real car, and of course trying to use square blocks to imitate curves is always going to be hard. My biggest issue are all those stickers - I really wish they were all printed bricks (though of course that will push the price up).

Rounding out my purchases a few days later - the F14 T & Scuderia Ferrari Truck.
I have a "thing" for trucks, and over the years have collected many Lego trucks that sadly for the most part sit in storage tubs as I don't have the display room for everything I wish to display.
This large truck set, is very very nice looking in person and will be the first set I pull out to build eventually.

Surprise In Store Finds

While out hunting after work looking for new Hot Wheels cars (we are well overdue for a new case assortment or more) I was very surprised to see Matchbox 9 Packs on the store shelves. I have been collecting since 2011 and aside from a few leftover 2010 Hot Wheels 10 packs at Kmart, New Zealand has not received any 9/10 packs until now.

At $20NZ (around $15US), these packs are cheaper than purchasing a single Matchbox at our cheapest retailer ($3NZ) but as the only attraction is the exclusive car with all the other cars being mainline repacks (and unlike Hot Wheels, the selection of cars is the same in every package), I can already for see that the experiment to bring these back to the shelves will fail.

Nice to see while it lasts however, and you never know - a sale may see one of these packs coming home with me.

Further down the "die cast car aisle", some 2015 Cars "Deluxes" were found, the first deluxe sighting since the very limited release around the time of the Cars 2 movie (2011). Unlike the regular cars that migrated from being in USA packaging to European packaging in 2014, these continue to be in USA packaging. Sadly, Cars cars are very expensive here in New Zealand and the deluxes share the same issue at $25NZ (around $19US) so while a couple looked nice, it would take a major sale (50% or more) for one of these to come home.

A couple of steps away, more new product in the form of Maisto Custom Shop and Maisto Elite Transports! Sadly the Custom Shop boxes were mostly full of repackaged 2013 product, but I did find one new car and it was a car I had been wanting for some time. So something actually came home with me. The Elite Transport had a better result, with 5 new models to choose from (along with older product repacked into the new style packaging). Even with a sale, I decided that I didn't really want or need any of the offerings and so left them.

And I didn't find any new Hot Wheels...

Purchase/Trade and RAOK from DCTV

When reports that Retro Entertainment Mix F cars had been found at Countdown Supermarkets, I asked DCTV (Cobra, Eagle and Falcon) if they would be able to have a look in their stores and grab me a set if possible. They let me know very quickly that they had secured a full set of 5 for me and a small parcel was organised to be sent down.

After a few days the parcel arrived, and as expected, the parcel contained the set of 5 Retro Entertainment cars, and also some extras - two items I knew were coming in the next parcel and some that the team have thrown in as surprise extras.

Having already spent two blog posts going on about the Retro Entrainment cars, lets skip those and focus on the rest of the parcel.

First up, a Greenlight Motor World Green Machine. These are Greenlights chase cars, runing about 2% of the total production run. Some feature of the car (normally multiple) will be green, and this Motor World Series 8 Ford Fiesta features green wheels and a green base. The team know that I don't really collect these Green Machines, and use them as trade bait to try and get items I want or else to add as extras into other parcels. Many thanks to the team for finding this and adding it into the parcel.

Next up, three packaged Hot Wheels Cars.
First, the regular E case 69 Ford Mustang Boss 302 - I found the Super but not the regular and have not yet seen any more E case restocks.

Second, the regular Treasure Hunt that I will add into the collection.








And finally, a 1990 Honda Civic EF. This was on the wish list to be opened, but haven't seen any more to purchase. This one is being CRACKED, even though it doesn't fill my requirements of having front and rear decorations.






And then, we have a bunch of loose cars!
The team know I don't open as many cars as I could, and so always seem to add a few already open cars to boost the collection.

First, from a brand I have never heard off before (1baddride) a Dodge Challenger (2008-2012)








Then a couple of Tuner vehicles - the Super Gnat and the Asphalt Assault

















And finally another Honda Civic, this time the Si version from what looks to be a Mystery Model car based on the inclusion of a sticker.







Big thanks to the team of three for this parcel!