Hot Wheels Redlines - Can Am / Sports Car Racing Race Cars

My post last week about the Laguna Seca historic races, and seeing cars that I'd only before seen as a Hot Wheels Redlines, inspired me to pull out the redlines and admire them...  Hence this post! 

Regular readers of my blog (are there any?) know that I'm a Matchbox guy much more than a Hot Wheels guy.  But really, I love all well-modeled 1/64 scale cars, and so I've got plenty of Hot Wheels in my collection.  And while my Redline collection isn't nearly as deep as my Matchbox collection (with a few embarrassing omissions), I've still got plenty of them to admire.  But with the current price tags and valuations of Redlines, my examples tend to only be in the fair-good condition categories - since I have a hard time spending the $100-$1000 to get mint examples!  

Given my inspiration, I started by pulling out examples of sports car / Can Am race cars from the late 60s and early 70s.  I pulled one example each of the 7 that I could think of and took a look at them.

All of these are delightful models - all with opening hoods that reveal the engines.  But I'm not a fan of the Ford J-Car - (in gold in these photos) - it seems too small.   I love the Ferrari (the red #60), the McLaren (purple), the Lola (red - on the right of the red Ford) and the Ford MK IV (on the left of the red Lola).  But my favorite is the Porsche. 

Maybe its the glass engine cover - I'm not sure.  But its my favorite of these cars.  So the bottom 2 photos show the Porsche in all the colors that I've got (which for a hardcore Redline collector is not very many).  You can see a couple (pink, red and green) that are in VERY poor condition, as well as the yellow re-release of it that Hot Wheels did a few years back. 

More redline articles coming soon! 

P.S.  For a fun view, compare these photos of the Ford and Lola with the real 1:1 scale Ford and Lola that I saw at Legana Seca, in my previous post! 

P.P.S.  I neglected to mention that the green car with the wing is the Chapparal!

Laguna Seca Historic Races 2014 - part of Monterey Auto week

Its been a dream of mine since I was a child to visit Monterey California and see the Pebble Beach Concours - the most prestigious classic car show on the planet.  And last year, in 2014, I got the chance to go...

What I didn't realize was that the Pebble Beach Concours was just one part (albeit the grand finale) of an amazing entire week of car shows and car auctions.  In fact, there is so much going on that you don't even need to attend any of the events - just being in Monterey for this week allows you to see an endless plethora of amazing classic cars.  I would go out for walks just to see the cars parked on the street - DeTomaso Mangustas, Mercedes Benz 300SL gullwings, Lamborghini 350GTs, etc., etc., etc.! 

But as great as the Pebble Beach Concurs was, the highlight for me might have been the afternoon I spent at Laguna Seca raceway for the classic car races.  I saw cars I'd only dreamed about, or only seen modeled as Hot Wheels, suddenly in the metal right in front of me.  I saw a Ferrari 250 GTO, the most valuable post-war classic car, being raced with abandon on a racetrack...  It was a dream come true, so I thought I'd share some of my car photos with my readers.


I'll start off with some real-life Hot Wheels Redlines - Lola and Ford racecars that I'd only before ever seen in 1/64 models...

Next up, some really cool car car haulers...

 ...Porsche race cars from the '70s and '80s (with a cameo by my little girl). 

 My vision of a Porsche 935 was shaped by the matchbox version...  So I didn't realize how much of the back of the car really was a 911 with massive fender extensions...  

 I'm not sure I'd ever actually seen a Porsche 959 in the metal... 

At Laguna Seca, a Lamborghini Espada tooling around was "nothing special...".  Wow!

 A 250 GTO!?!  For real? 

 2 300SL Gullwings, casually parked and almost seeming to be a "paddock car"...  I couldn't imagine being in a place where 2 (TWO!) of these parked together wouldn't have had a crowd of admirers....  Check out the interiors!  



 

 

 An Iso Rivolta...  I later saw it raced through the corkscrew!  Nice interior!

 By comparison with the exotics, these '80s race versions of the Camaro, Mustang and Thunderbird at first didn't catch my attention...  Then I decided that they looked pretty cool anyway!

 Classic 2+2 Ferraris like this one were almost a dime a dozen... 
 A racing BMW M1...  Much nicer than my Matchbox versions!

I hope you enjoyed my photos.  Let me know if you want to see photos from the Concours itself, or from various of the car auctions!  

2009 Mercedes Benz GL550 Oil Change X164

OK...  So this blog is supposed to be about 1:64th TINY cars, not 1:1 scale huge, hulking beasts of cars...
But I just did my first (and very overdue) oil change on my '09 Mercedes Benz GL550, and I was appalled to find that there were NO internet resources showing how to do an oil change on this car...  (Apparently high-end MB SUVs don't have the same DIY communities as those that support my Mazda Miata...). 

Ordinarily I wouldn't expect to need help with an oil change.  But after sliding around underneath the car and finding nothing that looked remotely like a drain plug, I decided to check the internet...   ...only to find that there was appallingly little information on the internet. So this blog entry is my attempt to remedy that situation! 

Apparently, the "correct" (and easy) way to change the oil is to pump it back out of the dipstick spout.  But I don't have a large enough fluid transfer pump, and didn't want to get my little one all oily, and I was bound and determined to change the oil the old fashioned way.

So here's the deal:

The drain plug is hidden beneath the plastic under-engine shroud at the very front of the car.  The good news is that you don't actually have to get your body under the car (you can reach in from the front).  (You can see jack stands in the photo - but these were already in place before I realized where the drain plug was). 

The bad news is that there are about roughly 8 hex head (10 mm) screws that you have to remove in order to get the shroud off - so you'll spend 10 minutes just cranking away with your rachet wrench - your arms getting more and more tired in the process.  This part alone makes me consider buying a fluid transfer pump for next time.  When you get the final bolt off, the shroud slides backwards and then drops away.  At that point the drain plug becomes clearly visible on the passenger side of the car, facing the front of the car.  The drain plug comes off with a 13 mm socket.  Now you are done with the hardest part. 

Once the oil is out, the filter change is really easy.  I bought my filter from the dealer for $20-$25 - its a basic paper filter as is common in German cars.  You need to remove the front shroud from the top of the engine - this time thankfully there are no screws - you just pull it up and it comes off. 

The oil filter cover is immediately visible - a black plastic cover - in the photo on the right you can see the shadow of the dipstick falling on the cover. 

Next (small) problem is that the filter is recessed - so it was a little hard to get my oil filter wrench around the filter cover.  But eventually I got it off, and then the filter assembly just lifted out. 

The old filter pulls right off of the assembly and the new filter slides right on.  Push the new filter into the assembly as far as it will go (there were directions on my filter that showed that I needed to push it further than I originally expected.  Then replace the whole assembly and put the filter cover back on. 

I put 9 quarts of oil into my car and filled it up to the top level.  Obvious note - check the oil level when the car is NOT still jacked up - otherwise the oil will be more on one side of the car and the dipstick will not show the level correctly.  Next time I'll plan to just put 8.5 quarts in and then very slowly add the last 1/2 quart.  (Note that I saw some internet references to a 2nd drain plug for another oil reserve - but it seems like I got out 95+% of the old oil so I'm not worrying about it).  

The last step is to reset the maintenance indicator light - as follows:
1.  Make sure doors are closed.
2.  Push engine start button without pressing brake pedal - turning on just the accessories
3.  scroll through the menus using the steering wheel buttons until the odometer is shown
4.  Press the "R" reset button (above the speedometer) 3 times very fast - you'll here a beep
5.  Press the down button on the left side steering wheel keypad
6.  Press the - button on the right side steering wheel keypad 3 times until you see a confirmation question
7.  Press the + button (right side steering wheel) to confirm the service reset. 

Hope this helps anyone else who loves their massive GL550, but doesn't want to pay the dealer $200 for an oil change! 

Auto World - Dramatic Decrease in Quality for "Deluxe" ($2.99) cars. Run - Don't Walk - Away from these cars... Put that blisterpack BACK ON THE PEGS!

Earlier this summer I purchased my first "Auto World" model.  Auto World seems to be another contender in the Johnny Lightning/Green Light camp, making yet even more high quality (heavy die-cast body and base, rubber tires, opening hood, etc.) models of 1960s and 1970s American iron. 

On one hand, I'm always encouraged by new castings and more competition.  On the other hand, don't we all have enough of these muscle car castings already...?  Can't we get a model of a car that hasn't already been modeled 100 times?

But out of the cars on the pegs, one particular model did appeal to me - 1 1976 Cadillac Coupe DeVille.   A model that WASN'T modeled before.  A model of a car that I didn't have in my 6000+ model collection. 

Plus, the primary advertising element of Auto World was that it was "True Scale".  If there is anything that I hate, it is a huge car modeled far too small, or a small car modeled much too large.  So I'm a big fan of the idea of "true scale".  And indeed, true to actual scale, this Caddy is BIG.  (It was actually the only car in Auto World series 1 in a separate "Land Yacht" line - a very appropriate name!).  (Interestingly, on the bottom of the car it is labeled as a '67 rather than a '76...). 

Once I got it home and opened it up, I felt OK with the purchase.  There were some pluses and minuses of it - the unique model, the true scale and the quality feel of it being offset by a hood that didn't open very well (and I would have preferred opening doors vs. the opening hood), a boring color, etc.   Overall, I was OK with the model, but it didn't knock my socks off. 

Fast forward a few months to this morning, when I found the series 2 models of Auto World on the pegs.  What I didn't realize was that I was looking at the "deluxe" vs. "premium" line.  The price was lower - $2.99 vs. $4.99 - but the models looked similar.   They were the usual line of American iron, but at least there were again slightly unique versions.  The one that stuck out most was the mid 80s' Fox body Mustang SVO (Special Vehicle Operations), a 4 cylinder turbo-charged Mustang that was supposed to be a more refined (European?) option to the V8 Mustang that offered similar performance.  I was a kid back in '84 when the SVO came out - I was hooked by the different front headlights (made even better in '86 when they went aero) and 2 level rear wing.  Back then I lusted after the SVO - I wanted it badly! 

I have 1 or 2 SVOs in my collection already - I think I've got one from Hot Wheels - but I'm not crazy about any of them.  So this beautiful candy-apple red Auto World SVO went into my cart, along with a late '60s Chevy El Camino, a Buick GS, and a left-over series 1 Dart (unknowingly - from the "premium" line).   I questioned whether I should by the last 3, given my earlier complaint about how muscle cars are endlessly modeled.  But at least all 3 are from comparatively less modeled models (i.e. not '67 Camaros....), so I bought them, brought them home, and eagerly ripped into the packaging of the SVO...

INSTANT DISAPPOINTMENT!  CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP!

These "deluxe" $2.99 cars have a very cheap plastic base, and even cheaper feeling plastic wheels.  These aren't the higher quality plastic bases and wheels you get in a $.99 Matchbox - these are the cheapy plastic base and wheels you get in a no-name multi-pack of unidentifiable cars at a dollar store. 

What a disappointment! 

They look nice - but don't feel nice AT ALL.

Amazed, I compared the packaging of the $2.99 cars vs. the $4.99 cars.  The packaging looked almost identical - with no mention of the "deluxe" vs. "premium" branding that is on the auto world website.  For the more expensive car, they bragged about the metal base and the rubber wheels.  For the $2.99 car, they go silent on the base (only saying "die-case body") and brag about the "silky smooth" rolling wheels (which is an outright lie...  With no spring suspension - the SVO rolls worse than a regular wheels Matchbox - any one who thinks its "silky smooth" has never touched silk.  There is NOTHING silky about it).

So dear readers, please steer clear of these awful Auto World disappointments.  Even at $2.99, they aren't worth it.   I will be returning my un-opened GS and El Camino to WalMart.  Perhaps I will even return my SVO, claiming that I'm unhappy with the quality.  Maybe at least that way WalMart can let Auto World know that consumers are unhappy...

And for you executives in charge of these "deluxe" cars - well - your cars suck....  They are NOT deluxe.  And I hope that you never claim to be car buffs - because you don't deserve to wear that label...   

Tomicas - China Trip #5

I've written a lot about my China/Beijing trip...  I really hoped that I'd find some cool diecast cars - and that was certainly the case.  I hoped specifically that I'd find a lot of Tomica - and that was less so the case... 

In the end, after visiting endless street markets, walking through many department stores, and even visiting the "toy market" flea market, I only found Tomicas sold in one store. 

The display was not as deep as I'd hoped for - with maybe 25 models - a bunch of which I already had - and none of the special edition models I was hoping for.  So in the end, figuring that it was my only choice to buy some of these, I bought almost every model that I didn't have. 

This meant that I didn't discriminate much in the models bought - and so bought a bunch of models that I wasn't terribly crazy about.  In the photos, I ranked them by how much I liked them, with the least liked models in the back right, and the most liked in the front left. 

The WRX STi and Lexus IS F are relegated to the back based mostly on their scale.  They are in 1:67 scale - and look small.  I have other Tomica WRXs that I like a lot more (particularly the first gen. blue one) - but not this one... 

The Renault Megane just looks blah - it reminds me of the boring Tomica RX8 model.

The 2 Lamborghinis are both very nice models - its interesting but I haven't hit a Tomica Lamborghini that I haven't liked. 

The Toyota Wish is another in a long line of very successful minivan's/station wagons - so hard to find from ANY other toy manufacturer - but a mainstay of Tomica's line.  The Z06 is nice and has opening doors.  The Z4 has a very cool removable roof.

Overall, not the best set of Tomicas I've ever gotten - but any set of Tomicas are worth having!

Check out my previous post (and upcoming next post) for more details on sets of Tomicas! 

TOMICAs!!!

I love Tomicas... 

They make nice models - and they do models of cars that are infrequently modeled by other toy makers.  They also update their models when the automakers bring out a new generation of the car. 

The combination makes for a toy maker that is an invaluable part of any diecast collector's collection. 

They aren't perfect - the quality has decreased in the last 5-10 years - and they no longer do many opening doors (it used to be that practically every Tomica had an opening part).   But I still get more excited about Tomicas than about any other toy line. 

The problem is how hard they are to find in the US.  For a while I had a local Japanese toy store that stocked Tomicas and sold them to me at 2 for $5 - a great price and a fun destination.  But he closed down. 

Then I bought them through some dedicated internet sites - toyeast and others - that allowed me to buy many models and pay 1 shipping rate.  But again, they seem to have stopped stocking these cars. 

This time I found a vendor on Amazon, and yesterday I got my package of 10 cars. 

I love them! 

I've pictured the cars in order of how much I like them - going from least favorite in the top right to favorite in the front row. 

I love that Tomica makes ordinary sedans.  And while this time my least favorite is the pink Toyota Crown Athlete, I have other Toyota Crowns that are among my favorite Tomica models.  But this one is an ugly salmon pink, and it looks much too narrow and a bit small.  Just an uninspiring model - particularly when I love so many of the other Crowns. 

While the Crown is the easy choice for my least favorite of this purchase - the other cars are all much closer in preference.  This set included 3 (three!) Lotus', including 2 different castings of an Exige...  The Scion FR-S (Toyota 86) is a great casting, as are the 2 mini SUVs of the Subaru Forester and the Toyota X-Trail (both with opening hatches). 

The Mercedes SLS AMG deserves mention for its opening gullwing doors.  The Porsche 997 911 is OK - but somehow left me a little bit let-down...

Overall - a great purchase!

China Post #4: Not quite as great Hy-Truck models

This is my 4th post about the models collected on my recent trip to Beijing, and I still have more models after these yet to write about....   All in all, a pretty successful trip from a toy car perspective...!

 

My last 2 posts were about the fabulous KDW models that I found.  But before I found those models, I found these "Hy-Truck" brand models for about the same price. 

 

Unfortunately, while they look nice and have a nice and heavy heft to them, the actual quality is not where I'd like it to be.  For instance, I have to press very hard to get the treads on the one vehicle to just barely turn - a child would not be able to get them to turn.  What good is a vehicle that doesn't move?  They'd have been better off to make it a wheeled vehicle rather than one with treads. 

While that issue isn't a problem with the other (wheeled) vehicle - and while it has an impressive telescoping arm and working stabilizers, I was underwhelmed by the fact that the bucket can't actually be lowered all the way to the ground... 

 

In addition to the above complaints, the level of detailing is subpar.  Overall, I'd recommend avoiding these "Hy-Truck" models and focus on KDW models instead!

China Post #3: High Quality KDW Trucks

If you read my last post, you'll see that I bought a KDW truck crane (scale = 1:50?), and was very impressed at it details and long long LONG working boom... 

 

Well, at the same time as I bought that truck crane, I also bought these 2 KDW tractor trailers - and if anything - I actually like these more than the crane...

 

The blue container truck has 2 removable containers.  Unlike the containers of the Matchbox Super Kings model from the late '70s, these containers are made of heavy weight metal. 

 

The trailer bed has a telescoping feature, which collapses when you don't need to carry both containers.  And they are a number of indentations to hold the container at 10 + different positions. 

 

The green tractor from the flatbed set is interchangeable with the blue container set (in fact - they are the same tractor casting).  The flatbed includes a nicely detailed excavator, which is probably sold as a unique model (and would be well worth buying on its own). 

 

Overall the units have a very high quality feel - at least as good as a SIKU or Corgi casting.  But the value was tremendous...  I paid $15-$20 for each set - when the excavator alone would be worth that cost. 

 

As mentioned in the crane post, I bought them in a little store in Beijing.  You can buy them on EBAY, for roughly 2X what I bought them for.  In fact, I'd advise you to make that purchase.  At $30 per piece - I don't think you'll be disappointed!

China Post #2... KDW Crane with 3+ foot long working boom!

In order to keep my huge diecast toy collection from becoming too expensive or too overwhelming, early on I decided to establish some limits to it...  Back in '96/'97, I decided that I would only collect 1:64 scale Matchbox-type cars, like the ones sold in their 1-75 series. 

The problem, as discussed in earlier blog entries, is that the 1-75 2.75 inch cars and trucks really were not true 1:64 scale, particularly when it comes to heavy trucks.  In order to get 1:64-ish scale trucks, I needed to buy vehicles that Matchbox sold in their King Size/Super King ranges...  So I've gradually allowed my hard and fast rule to be broken, collecting larger toys as long as they fit roughly into 1:64 scale...  Hence toys like this one...

This is the 2nd blog entry from my China trip.  In this case, a wonderful mobile crane, modeled by a company known as KDW... 

And what a high quality toy it is...  Look at the length of that boom extension!!!   The end of the boom (the top yellow part in the first photo - actually pivots 180 degrees to double back on itself during transport - its held in place by a removable pin - and the company provides a spare pin for us. 

My *only* complaint is the out-rigger stabilizers.  While they come out nicely, they aren't actually effective at stabilizing the crane.  With so much weight in the boom arm, the crane tips EASILY, even without any load, any time the boom goes out to either side. 

This piece is available on Ebay, just type in "KDW".  I paid only about $12-$14 for it, in a comics store off of Dashilan Street, in the QianMen area.  But if you don't feel like paying for a $1,800 plane ticket to Beijing, then $30 plus shipping on Ebay will sound like a good deal, particularly for such a high quality and incredibly functional and realistic model... 

Look out for more KDW toys.  They are as good or better as the larger Corgis and Sikus. 

China Trip! (1st Post). Drugstore-ish cars found in Beijing Night Market

Dear Readers,

Sorry for the delay in getting updates to Matchbox Frenzy...  I just got back from a trip to Beijing, which included a lot of car thought (real cars - based on the mushrooming native Chinese car industry - and model cars - with the *hope* that I'd find stuff that I don't find in the USA).  I tried to update my blog while I was there, but the Google/China rift meant that the blog was blocked to me while I was in China...  So here I am, a few weeks late. 

As I said, given how many diecast toys are actually produced in China, I really hoped that I'd find some cool - and hopefully inexpensive - stuff, particularly Tomica. 

Unfortunately, though I searched through all of the bazaars and flea markets and toy stores that I could find (including the toy market located behind the pearl market), I found very little Tomica...  1 store only - and their selection was not as great as I had hoped.  You'll see my Tomica finds on a later post. 


And as for pricing - well - there are many things that are super inexpensive in Beijing...  Street food, subway fares, taxi rides, etc., but that list does not include diecast cars.  The Tomica and Siku that I found were on the order of $5 US per car (incidently - the Matchbox/Hot Wheels that I found were not much cheaper).  So they weren't expensive - just not as cheap as I'd hoped. 

But I did find some cool stuff, starting with the set of cars shown here.  I have no idea what brand they are.  They seem like what you might get in a drugstore - though the heaviness of the cars makes them feel higher quality than say a Maisto.

This packaging of cars - all packaged in groups of 4 - was fairly commonly found in many of the night-market/flea market types of vendors.  Actually, the most interesting things about these night markets was how much repetitive merchandise you found - almost as if there were wholesale suppliers selling merchandise produced expressly to be sold in night markets.  It made the vendors feel less original... 

I probably paid about $9 for this set - not sure if I got ripped off or not (I probably did...).   The cars actually feel pretty nice.  They are slightly large - not quite as big as Sikus, but a tad larger than comparable Matchbox Cayennes.  Given that they are models of large SUVs, that probably means that they are close to correct 1:64 scale. 

The set included 4 luxury SUVs; a Range Rover, a Cayenne, an Audi Q7 and a BMW X6, all reasonably well modeled, all with opening doors.  Unfortunately, they have pull-back friction motors in them - so you can't pull them back without winding up the motors.  The paint scheme is also a little unfortunate - its hard to imagine a construction company giving their engineers Porsche Cayennes to toodle around in.  But a nice set of cars to have found regardless.  Incidentally, this is my first model of a BMW X6... 

Overall a nice set of cars.  If you see them on EBay for not too much money then I'd recommend adding them to your collection.  The only problem - since there is no brand - I don't know how to search for them...  On the other hand, if you go to the Beijing night market off of WangFuJing street - then look for this set.