New Finds 12/08/2012

Ahhhh the local Wal-Mart and Meijers stores have robbed my wallet again! It seems like every time I go I find at least a dozen new cars! Well here is the break down of some my latest finds.

The first two are sweeter than ketchup on a giant meteorite turd. They are Joe Dirt star cars from Greenlight's latest Hollywood line. Joe Dertay's 1969 Dodge Daytona and Kid Rock's character's 1979 Trans Am.

Both cars been used before in Greenlight's other series (the T/A is the same casting used for the S&TB II car) but they have movie specific paint schemes. 

Greenlight really nailed the patina on the Dirt Daytona. It looks awesome!

Johnny Lightning fell off the wagon for a while in the late 90's but they have really turned around! These two are from the Forever 64 collection. The '67 Fury is a demolition derby version with no windows and paint across the wheel and tires. The '55 Chevy is a great casting and is made to look like an old firecar with classic gumball siren. 

I'm a big Grave Digger fan and the truck's 30th anniversary has been good to us collectors. I have nearly all of the 1:64 scale Grave Diggers that have come out this year and most of the 1:24th scales. The two 1:64ths are special edition holiday versions that are sold exclusively at Wal-Mart. The faux snow and white chassis really make the trucks look snowy. 

I did score some "regular line" HW as well. I picked up a few of the new 2013 release cars too. I got a 70' Toyota Celica, BMW 2002, Subaru WRX STI, Ford Focus RS, Ford Thunderbolt,  Tarmac Attack and a Team HW Ford Fiesta rally.

The Celica has some really nice details with the headlight area being one of them. The headlights are the same smoked plastic as the windshield and really help tie up the front end.

This next find really got my excited as I have been looking for an orange car carrier for some time. I'm a huge Dukes of Hazzard fan and often try to remake scenes from the show in 1:64th scale. These are the shots I have been trying to replicate that use an orange car hauler:

This truck is an M2 brand auto hauler purchased at a local Wal-Mart. It costs $17+ dollars, so they're not cheap, but look great and have excellent detail.  

It's not exactly the same style as the Dukes hauler, but it's a good start!

It also came with a Chrysler 300-C that looks like it came straight off the assembly line and drove right onto the truck.

New finds 10/06/2012

Boy has it been a busy week! I did manage to pick a few new cars up while was in Illinois over the weekend and scored a few at local stores and off Ebay too.

Here's the few I got in Illinois. They are a GreenLight County Roads 1975 Dodge Monaco and a Greenlight Hot Pursuit series 1968 Corvette and 1975 Dodge Monaco New York State Patrol car. Greenlight makes some of the most accurate cars and their Monacos are one of my all time favorite castings. What's funny is the single car was $5.99 and the two car set was $6.99!

I also scored two more Greenlight Hollywood series Blues Brothers 1975 Dodge Monaco Chicago Police cars. I have about a dozen or so of these but they hardly ever show up in stores! I grab them every time I see them!

I have been looking for this next find ever since I saw it on Ebay a few weeks back.I finally found it at a local Meijers store. It's a 2012 Hot Wheels Motor Cycle Batcycle. It's 1:64th scale (of course!) and has a really nice Batman figure on it. I'm not a big motorcycle collector but anything Batman is awesome!

Next up is a hard to find Johnny Lightning Dukes of Hazzard Enos Dodge Monaco. I won this little gem on Ebay and got it for a good price too! Most of the time these JL patrol cars go for $15-25 a piece! I like the Greenlight Monaco casting better but this one is decent. 

Besides the packaging, you can tell the difference between the JL Rosco Monaco and the JL Enos Monaco is that the Enos Monaco has the light bar reversed (the red side goes on the drivers side in the show) and has the 83502 license plate for the deputy car.

New finds 8/24/2012

Stopped by a local Wal-Mart tonight and found a few more cars to add to the collection. It seems like out of all the stores that carry Hot Wheels, I have found that Wal-Mart consistently has the best selection of cars. It's probably because they have a bigger selection than other stores, but they always seem to have at least one car I want to pick up.

The first few I found tonight are from the 2012 Hot Wheels new models and HW Performance line. I found a really cool, vintage looking Baja Blaster van. It has retro looking paint with a cool Goodyear symbol on the side. Just a really simple, throwback paint job. I also found three more SRT Vipers, two more BMW Z4 Ms in black and a red Subaru STI. I already have the Z4 in white but it looks good in black. I have the STI in blue but I had to get that red color variation!

The next two are also newer releases. The one on the left is a Hot Wheels Hot Ones 1985 Honda CRX and the one on the right is a Matchbox 1971 Pontiac Firebird Formula. The CRX is a new casting and has an interesting interior as it looks like the motor is in the rear. It also has the late 80's, early 90's wheels on it but Hot Wheels managed to pull the look off well. Not my favorite car but it is a unique new casting. I have the Firebird in gold and blue but this Firebird has an awesome black paint job with a Phoenix bird graphic on the side. Very 1980's-ish!

The next Hot Wheels is a rockin' Monster Jam 30th Anniversary Grave Digger monster truck. This model is 2012 specific as it marks the 30th year of the Grave Digger truck. Hot Wheels has been going nuts with the Grave Digger 30th and have put the "30" logo on almost all Monster Jam packages this year. There are two different, normal line, black Grave Diggers that have been released this year- this 30th truck and the "regular" Grave Digger with no 3 on the side. The 30th version is the harder one to find though! I have a ton of this year's special Grave Digger's 30th series and will be posting them soon!

I also found more Johnny Lightnings! Wooo!!! I found two more of the new 1977 Dodge Monaco Taxi and plain jane green version, and the other two are different versions of the Jeep Cherokee. One is a white version with a small front bumper and lite winch and the other is an Army green version with a large front bumper, big winch and off-roading snorkel. These are very accurate looking trucks!

Hot Wheels Toy Show Finds 2

Okay, now back to the toy show finds! 

These three are from the 2003 Muscle Machines Japan GT series. They are pretty hard to find and are really detailed. From left to right: Daishin Advan Silvia S15, a Amemiya Matsumoto -Kiyoshi Aspara RX-7 (LA-NA2) and a Takata Dome NSX (LA-NA2).

The next 16 cars are technically all the same. They are Johnny Lightning Forever 64 series 1977 Dodge Monacos. I have dozens of these cars in all the variations made so far, including the newest yellow cab and plain green versions. The versions shown here are the black squad car with gumball light, yellow cab, CHP patrol car, light blue Dukes style patrol car (it even has the same light bar and gold sheriff tampos), Blue Bossard patrol car with double gumball lights and the plain-jane green one.

The next trio is straight from Hollywood. The A-team, Green Hornet and Starsky and Hutch are some of my favorite classic TV shows. These are all original run vehicles. The A-Team van is an Ertl brand version from 1983. I have quite a few of these but this one was really cheap so I had to pick it up. The Black Beauty is a Johnny Lightning chrome-green version with gold wheels. I have the standard all black Black Beauty MOC, but am glad I could add the chrome version to my collection. The third is a Corgi Jr. Starsky and Hutch Ford Gran Torino. It has some light scuffing but the stripe is in really nice shape. I also have several of these but the stripes always seem to either be dirty or in bad shape.

The next set of cars involve my favorite car ever made, the GENERAL LEE! I have collected dozens and dozens of the Ertl General Lees, mostly the original 1981 versions, but I also have many of the 1997-2005 re-releases. The ones showcased below are all original from 1981, except for the odd ball Yatming "Dixie Special" Dodge Aspen/Dart with opening doors as I am not sure what year it is from. The Cooter's pick-up is the fleetside version with a tow hook and decals still intact. There is also a step-side version but it is much more rare. The Daisy's Jeep is in close to mint condition and looks great. A lot of the Jeeps have bent window frames but this one is untouched. The Boss Hogg's Cadillac is the Hong Kong made version with the smoked windshield. It has some paint chips but isn't in terrible shape. The General Lee is the Singapore made version and is very rare because of the decals it has on it. The 1981 General Lees were made in four locations: Hong Kong, Tiawian, Singapore and the USA. Each countries Charger body mold was different and each country had different style stickers. This Singapore version is rare because it has the USA version stickers on it with an orange background. Every Singapore version I have seen or own, including my very first General Lee, has clear background stickers on them. It's always cool to find a rare decal variation!

The next find  is a 1981 Ertl Dukes of Hazzard car carrying case. It is in remarkably nice shape with very little splitting on the case. The trays were still there and are the correct heavy blue ones. This makes my 9th Dukes case! Going for that even dozen!

The final set of cars from this past weekend is a lot of Ertl and Johnny Lightning Dukes of Hazzard cars. The first few is a Ertl three car "Pursuit set" from the 2005 movie release with an odd package. This package of cars is interesting because it says "Rosco's Patrol Vehicle" but includes a Boss Hogg Caddy instead. The red and white Chevy Malibu from JL is an "undercover" tv car. It was used as the Hogg's Hellcat racer in the episode "Happy Birthday General Lee" . Johnny Lightning has been making movie and TV cars and including them as just "normal" line cars.  

The other 8 cars are Johnny Lightning Dukes series cars. They are the Molly's Plymouth Racer, two Carnival of Thrills Vegas, Cooter's Plymouth Roadrunner, the General Lee from DOH the Beginning, Lucifer Mustang, Enos' race Monaco and a Springville County patrol car. I sold a lot of these JL Dukes cars to my buddy Larry over at the Dukes Collectors site, but as my motto goes, "you can never have too many" haha!

Vintage Trans Am Series Race Cars

Vintage Trans An racers are some of the best looking muscle cars made. The pony wars of the 60's and 70's brought some of the fiercest road racing America had ever seen. Not only did T/A racing bring us the popular Sunoco Camaros, Gurney Cudas, countless Mustangs and even AMCs, they paved the way for the street versions like the AAR Cuda, T/A Challengers, BOSS 302 Mustangs and "302" powered Camaros.

10 years ago, Trans Am series 1/64th car were rare with only Hot Wheels and Johnny Lightning making a select few. Today, almost everyone has a T/A series car in their line up. Johnny Lightnings Forever 64, Greenlight in both singles and dioramas, Hot Wheels Vintage Racers and even the normal Hot Wheels line up have a few.

Here is a small assortment of Trans Am series cars from the early 2000's to present. There are cars from the higher end Hot Wheels series like the Vintage Racers singles and Pony Wars box set, Johnny Lightning Forever 64, Greenlight box sets and the basic Hot Wheels line up.

I will post more pics of this set and others soon!

Sam

P.S. I know the Shebly Cobra coupe isn't a T/A series car, but it was too cool not to include!

Start Your Engines!

Welcome to 64 Wheels. 64 Wheels is a 1/64th scale car collectors blog designed to share my current and future collection of cars with other collectors and just plain ol' car guys. I will also be showcasing some awesome, full-sized cars that have inspired the millions of mini versions. I hope you visit and comment as I look forward to sharing my collection with you! 


Sam