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.

Hot Wheels Car Culture - Trucks

After what seems like an eternity, a large order of die cast arrived from the USA. The second box was the C mix of Car Culture called Trucks. While I had actually seen some of the cars locally, the "hot" castings were missing and it was easier and cheaper to order a full case in from the USA rather than try and track down singles locally.

Once again, a full case was ordered containing two full sets.

Like the rest of the car culture line, all cars are metal/metal with rubber tires but unlike the rest of the known 2016 Car Culture lineup, the Truck assortment was not the most spectacular. JDM enthusiasts will appreciate the Datsun and the Brat, while the Ford F-250 looks pretty nice but the other two are very average.

Hot Wheels Car Culture - Euro Style

After what seems like an eternity, a large order of die cast arrived from the USA. The first box was the B mix of Car Culture called Euro Style. I heard that this case had appeared locally, but I never saw it, which is why it was added to the USA order.

Ordered a full case, containing two sets of cars.

As with the previous Japan Historics cases, these are metal/metal cars with rubber tires. Sadly almost all the cars do not have any headlight or tail light tampographs, though the exception is the Fiat 500. The case marks the debut of the VW Golf MK7 casting into the Hot Wheels lineup.

Nexus 5X 

Back in 2013 I purchased the current model Nexus 4 that had been released in 2012 and fell in love with the concept of a flagship phone from Google that showcases what Android was all about without all the "bells and whistles" that the other manufactures add into their phones. Fast forward to 2015, and I read all about the new Nexus 5X and 6P and decided that the 5X would be my next Nexus device. The issue was price and the fact that by Nexus 4 was still going strong and I didn't have a compelling reason to upgrade.

Throughout 2016 as the price of the Nexus 5X started to drop, I almost purchased one a few times, ultimately telling myself that I still did not need to retire the Nexus 4, and that very soon Google would launch the 2016 model of the Nexus.

As the news spread that the 2016 Nexus was now the Pixel and that it came with a price tag similar to that of the iPhone 7, I decided that the Pixel was not for me at this stage and went looking for an alternative phone, which proved harder than it should be and I keep on coming back to the Nexus 5X which was looking rather attractive given its recent price drop.

So, one lunch time I finally headed into a store and purchased the 5X.
And then sat online and purchased some accessories including cases, screen protectors, adaptors and charging cables.

Due to requiring the case and screen protector before using the phone, the phone currently still sits sealed in its box..