Tuk Tuk

I wonder if Matchbox and Hot Wheels are managed separately or are run from the same department. Because I really like the random Matchbox cars I find in the Dollar Tree far more than I do the Hot Wheels I find everywhere else. They're just so diverse in form.

Some research tells me that Tuk Tuks are popular in Thailand, where Matchbox cars are produced and this was a special collaboration between Matchbox and the Thai factory that makes the cars. They even had to create a new type of wheel. 

Warthog

I wonder if other James has this yet.

Snoopy and Louis LaRue

Okay, with Snoopy I'm just bragging that I found one. Because it's Snoopy, possibly the biggest part of my cultural childhood. And he has a Hot Wheel where he drives his house.

As for Louis LaRue, I've been waiting for this guy for a while. He's a mime. But he's also an anthropomorphic car. It's a ridiculous combination and I must win that ridiculousness. The only Cars due cast in this series I want more is the irrate and surly French tour bus. Because stereotypes.

Pizza Planet Truck

Remember the Pizza Planet Truck from Toy Story 2? Well now he's a Cars character! Combining your favorite Pixar series with your most hated Pixar series! 

Look, I only like Cars for the resulting toys, and when the toys are as ridiculous and inside jokey as this, it's almost enough to justify giving Larry the Cable Guy a paycheck. And I hate that guy.

Cars 2 cars

I've found myself getting into the concept of the Cars 2 diecast cars. I shouldn't be surprised, considering how much I really liked the Cars 2 Lego sets. Of course those ended up proving too expensive for me to get all the ones I wanted. And the same can be said of the diecast cars, morseo considering how freaking many of these things they make. And really, I can't say I care for all the figures, hell, there's a reason I never watched either of the movies.

So I've decided to limit myself to really weird sets. So only really ridiculous cars that tickly my funny bone or irony ligament or whatever. Unfortunately I've come to this party way too late, so all the good cars are now hard to find. But I still stumble upon some that I want.

Which is why I got this Mater/Zen Master Pitty. Because look at Zen Master Pitty in all his Japanese glory.

They put him in a rice picker hat... how much more Asian stereotype can you get? You know what, this dude is getting this post labelled with the Toys depicting Asians tag. And actually, looking at the wikipedia he's supposed to have a fu-manchu-esque mustache

The other recent set I got was of a car that is a priest and two forklifts that are cardinals because WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING THIS MAKES NO SENSE! This either means that the Cars have accepted human Jesus as their savior or at some time there was a Car Jesus... THERE WAS A CAR JESUS!!!

So anyway, here's Father Burke and Cardinals Antonio and Angelo.

Tomika Mini Garage Set

Hey guess what was on clearance at Toys R Us? Japanese diecast cars! TOMIKA!

I love it when diecast cars have opening doors, or in this case a trunk. And it comes with a little businessman driver! It would be great if he fit in the car, but he doesn't. There might be some advanced cars that he fits inside, but not the one he came with. So while he isn't in scale with the car, he is in scale with the environment. Oh yeah, did I mention that the car also comes with an environment?

A plastic garage and cardboard streets. You'll notice the puzzle piece aspect of the streets, that's because the various environments can be interlocked. I only got the one, but I'm seriously tempted by the larger city playsets that have trains (which the figures can fit in) and other streets & buildings that can all be combined to create a sprawling city. But then I remember that would be expensive and I forget it. Although I have to admit that I love that all the buildings have an action feature that doubles as a launcher for the cars.

See, press that button by the garage door and the floor tilts up, sending the car out the garage and onto the street. Of course since the street has no guide, the car just sort of launches aimlessly into traffic. Not a great way to teach people about driving safety.

Armored Truck

You know, I thought this Hot Wheels car felt a little light. You'd think a diecast armored truck would have a little more heft to it. But then I realized why it was so light.

It's hollow inside! And how cool is it that they had molding on the inside of the door? Even if it doesn't make any sense why the outside would have a handle but the inside would have wheel based lock... I don't think... I'm not a locksmith. But still, kinda weird.

But this is awesome, because you can actually have the Hot Wheels Armored Truck carrying things. Although you might want to skip putting valuables in it. It may be called an Armored Truck but it's still just a toy car. An easily lost or stolen toy car.

Security your name is not "Hot Wheels."

Back to the Future Time Machine

Remember when everyone went wild and bought themselves a Hot Wheels Delorean because it reminded them of the time machine from Back to the Future? Well, guess what suckers! Hot Wheels decided to make those obsolete by making a Back to the Future Hot Wheel. Wait, I bought that Hot Wheel. I'm a sucker! The title of this blog has never been more appropriate. The Back To The Future officially licensed Hot Wheels car has some pretty neat detail. It's got the OUTATIME license plate... sort of badly painted on. Although one thing I found rather neat is that it has a different looking dashboard than the Delorean car, so it's not just modifications to the body that have been done. The interior reflects Doc Brown's modifactions to the car.

Also, check out the car profile on the back.

'08 Garbage Truck

Okay, so when it comes to the little die cast cars, I really enjoy the ones that aren't of racing cars but are instead of the dull mundane trucks that ensure the daily stability of our society. Your moving vans, your ice cream trucks... YOUR GARBAGE TRUCKS! I've always been weirded out... well not always, but lately, that Matchbox cars and Hot Wheels are made by the same company. You get the sense that they're supposed to be competing against one another, but instead they're just complementary. Hot Wheels is the slick and insane. Matchbox is the mundane and reliable. Which is why I like Matchbox. Because you get cars that I could conceivably see on the street. This Garbage Truck says its from the City Action series. Good enough for me! The Anapolis Maryland sign on the truck is painted on, no stickers for Matchbox. The plastic crusher on the back of the truck doesn't move, which disappointed me a little. Some of the Matchbox trucks have moving doors or panels, but this one sadly does not. Also, and even more sadly, so I guess sadlier, the width of the axels and the weight of the truck prevented it from being compatible with the Hot Wheels launcher. Instead it threw the truck into the air, causing it to tumble until it finally crashed to a halt.

Hot Wheels: VW Bug, Dairy Delivery, Classic Caddy

Hey, Wondercon vendors were selling Hot Wheels, and then I bought some! Let's do a run down. VW Bug

Seriously, who doesn't want a Hot Wheel of a VW Bug? Especially one that looks like it was vandalized by a retro-80's discotech.

Dairy Delivery Won't lie to you, I only got this because it has "Got Milk" printed on the side. Who knew Hot Wheels was into a corporate sponsorship with the Milk Council? At least they put it on a milk truck, which makes sense. Although I would totally buy a Hot Wheel of a muscle car with "Got Milk" pinted on it. Classic Caddy Classy! I got this so I could send it down a Hot Wheels ramp and then do loops. Because damn, it looks like the car of a rich dude who comes from old money. And he's got a chauffer named "Bentley." So pretty much I'm saying an old rich guy from any movie made in the 80's.

Buzzerk

Hey, Hot Wheels. It's been a while. Okay, so let's talk about this Hot Wheel I picked up. It's most prominent feature is the giant buzz saw. I had hoped when I picked it up that it would spin when the car moved across the ground. It did not. Oh sure, if it suddenly hit a new surface, like say a small piece of cardboard, it would spin, but it takes more than just pushing the car across the floor to make it happen.

And that makes me sad.

However if you drive your Hot Wheel car by pushing down on it with you finger and guiding it around, then the buzzsaw will spin. Yup, you've got to apply the ole pressure on the car continuously. I'm sorry, I don't do that. I'm an adult collector of Hot Wheels, so to me this isn't going to happen. At least not that often... I think. Maybe if I get really bored. But I'd have to be really bored.

Scary Cars

Hey, Target had a sale on Halloween items so I got 5 Hot Wheels cars for $2.50. Each one is designed to be Halloween themed. But are they any good? Let's find out.

This sucker is called Rodzilla. A silly name, but probably accurate given that it's a car with a giant dinosaur neck and head attached to it. It's Halloweenish because monsters are Halloween, right? I guess. I'd hate to drive this car in real life, the neck is a joint to allow it to turn it's head around, but it's also very loose, swinging around as it moves foward. It took a couple trips down the ramp before it even completed because the neck kept hitting the ramp as it was spinning around.

Next up is the '59 Caddilac Funny Car. This is Halloween because of the mummy, the pumpkins, and the flames in orange.

Since it's a funny car the body lifts up. I used to love that feature on toy cars when I was a kid. It's still a little cool now, but it also prevents the damn thing from successfully making the loop on the ramp. So it gets a DNF on the ramp.

I like the Halloween decorations on the body. The orange contrasts well with the black. Even if it didn't have the pumpkins on, the flames give it a "car from hell" vibe. It looks very inimidating... scary might be a better word.

Okay, coming up next is The Gov'Ner. No idea why it's called that. It's Halloween decorations is that it's bright orange. Also a skull on the hood.

This is a surprisingly light Hot Wheel. The entire body is made out of plastic. I like the design of the body, although the Orange on Orange flames make it look silly. The skulls help a bit, but overall I can't help but look at this and think, "That is a very orange car." Orange isn't a scary color for a car. Not really. Not since the Dukes of Hazzard.

Next up: Phantasm. As you can see it's a translucent green and it has ghost decals all over. Because it's translucent it's made entirely of plastic, making it feel even lighter than the Guv'Ner. I think the only metl of it is the axels. The translucent green looks cool, you can even see the seats through the top and sides. It's not scary, but it does convey the ghost theme well. And those decals help remind you in case you ever forget. Like huge educational aids for stupid people.

This is an insanely light car, it has no heft to it whatsoever. I feel like I could shatter it if I dropped it. When you roll it it moves as though it has no weight to it whatsoever... like a ghost. Oh man, that totally makes sense now.

And finally we have "Torpedo Jones." It's another ghost car, although this one is actually diecast metal, with a plastic driver figure in it. What makes it ghostly, aside from the ghost decals (the same seen on the Phantasm), is that the driver figure glows-in-the-dark, toy shorthand for a ghost.

I like it. The Glow-in-the-dark feature isn't overstated and actually works. The car looks old-fashioned and so promotes the "car from the past" element. Not my favorite Hot Wheels car ever, and not one I would ever buy if it were sold individually, but not a bad car.

And if you're wondering how they all did on the ramp, well take a look.

As noted before: the '59 Caddilac Funny Car did not finish. Rockzilla performed poorly, barely making it past the Batmobile. Ironically both the Phantasm and Torpedo Jones were able to surpass the Ecto-1, and as you can see, the Gov'Ner became the car to beat as it sailed past every other Hot Wheels car I own.

Batmobile

The Batmobile was disturbingly easy to find compared to the other geek based Hot Wheels I've picked up. Mario tells me it's based on the Brave and the Bold cartoon and it looks nice. A lot better than the one from The Batman cartoon which I've passed on when I've seen them on shelves.

I still say that if I didn't know it was the Batmobile based on the packaging telling me so that I would be able to figure out on my own though. These days I need a bat symbol on it to tell the difference.

Anyway, how did it do on the track. Well originally I thought it had a Did Not Finish, being to light to get through the loop, but then I made a small adjustment to the track set-up and bam, it worked. It didn't go very far, but it worked. Actually this made me realize that this new track set up might result in previous DNF Hot Wheels being able to complete hte launch. So I sent them all down the track again and wouldn't you know, except for the Go Kart they all were able to be launched from the track. So here's the new results for the Hot Wheels track launch.

Ecto-1

My desire for an Ecto-1 Hot Wheel had reached the point of near futility, where I began to tell myself that I didn't really want one after all. I took a look at Mario's and began some sour grapes rationalization, telling myself it looked stupid.

Then of course a week later I found one and quickly bought it. And... well I think it wasn't worth the effort I put into searching for it, but it's a nice little Hot Wheel. Really it could look like shit and as long as it had the Ghostbusters Logo I think it'd still have the near hysteria of collectors as it does now. But it looks like the Ecto-1 would if everything that wasn't part of the original car was made of dull black plastic.

Meanwhile on the ramp and loop, the Ecto-1 failed to clear the loop, usually a sign that the car is too light. And holding it in your hand you certainly miss the feeling of a heavy metal toy car.

Ramp Distance: DNF

DeLorean DMC-12

If I may sum up the internet's synopsis of this toy:

Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future Back to the Future

Yeah, pretty much why I bought this. Also because it's a representation of modern failure and hubris. But mostly because of Back to the Future

'69 Pontiac Firebird T/A

I wonder how much of my decision to purchase this car is because I like the term "firebird." Actually I know the answer to that, not a lot. I like the car's body design and I the paint application as well. But I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the whole "firebird" angle didn't have its part to play.

Sometime's I'm a word nerd.

It does pretty well on the loop, so it's not bad overall.

Gallardo LP 560-4

Thanks to the back of the box I know this is a Lamborghini. I just got it because it's not shiny and glossy like all the other Hot Wheels, it has a chalky matte black surface, and I think that's pretty damned cool.

Actually it looks like what I remember the car from that Charlie Sheen movie back in the day, where he played the ghost looking for revenge against the local street racer gang of diverse 80's thugs. Charlie sheen wore a lot of leather and rode in a car that made him invincible.

That movie wasn't very good, but I remember watching it on the Friday Night horror movie on my local UHF station.

Unfortunately because of the matte paint application the body is more plastic than metal, as a result the weight is pretty low and it doesn't do that well on the loop. It can still accomplish it, but it's a damned struggle.

Mach 5

You know, I'm not a huge fan of the Speed Racer cartoon, and I liked the movie primarily for the impressive visual effects, but this thing was a dollar and comes with attachable chainsaw blades, so why not?

Unfortunately its plastic body makes it lighter than normal Hot Wheels cars so it doesn't perform as well on the track loop. A shame, you'd hope the Mach 5 would do better on a race track.

Go Kart

So I'm looking at the Clearance area in Target and my eyes spot a Hot Wheels car. I pick it up and BAM, I know I need to buy this. Even if it's not on Clearance, I must buy this. Why? I'll tell you why, Hot Wheels Go Kart.

It's listed as one of the 2008 All-Stars, which makes me seriously question how Hot Wheels picks its All-Stars, but whatever. I love this thing. Mostly because of how ridiculous it is. And the description of it on the back even claims that it was designed for sheer "amusement." Those quotation marks aren't mine, they're actually on the box. Hot Wheels can't even take this thing seriously. How great is that?

I even like that it's not as sturdy or as good at rolling as regular Hot Wheels. It's like they incorporated the relative performance of a Go Kart into the design. It's unintentional, I'm sure, but I love that.

This thing is tiny. Let me put it up to another Hot Wheels car so you can get a proper sense of scale.

How small is this thing? So small and light that it doesn't have enough weight to complete the loop. That's a shame, but I like the ridiculous look of this thing enough that I'm not 100% disappointed. (I'm sort of buying these things to drop them down the loop.)

Hot Wheels purchased: 3

Olds 442

So full disclosure: I don't really know anything about cars so almost every Hot Wheels purchase I make will be based on aesthetic choices. Which leads us to today's Hot Wheel profile, the Olds 442.

I picked this up because 1) I like the shape of the body, which is true of many of the muscle cars from this era. (Okay, I know a tiny bit about cars, mostly what I've learned from movies and Home Improvement episodes.) 2) I like the design of the paint. I'm a fan of the colors purple and green when they're used together. You know, like the Riddler or the Joker. Seriously, I'm going to pretend this is the Joker's car. The fun Super Friends era Joker, not the scary psychotic modern Joker.

From what I can tell, this is #6 in a series of 10 cars that came out in 2010. I'm not really sure how Hot Wheels categorizes its car releases each year, so that's something I'll need to work on. All I do know is that this car works a hell of a lot better than the Red Baron going through the loop and ramp. As far as I'm concerned that means this is a winner!

Hot Wheels Purchased: 2