LEGO Cars!

Did you guys play with LEGO as a kid?  I did.  LEGO & Japanese blocks called "Diablocks".  Loved them.  Today, like minicars & hot wheels, LEGO also are hotly pursued collectibles.  I've seen the scalpers in action at Walmart, trying to hijack one of those roll cages from the stocking clerk trying to put them away.  Yikes.

Anywho, today, I wanted to share the cool LEGO cars from Jarrod's collection.  I googled these things & they are not cheap!  I think they start just below $100, then they go up from there.  Let us start off with the LEGO based on the best car ever produced(it's true).

Ferrari F40

As all adults with driver's license know, F40 should have the steering wheel in front of the left seat(I don't want to hear about some custom Brunei Sultan F40s okay lol).  Jarrod's in Australia, land of upside down, so I'm going to let this defect slide this time.  :p

Volkswagen Beetle

Love this Beetle.  Really nice touches with the roof rack & accessories(love that cooler!).

Oh, god.  Sweet stickers.

Mini Cooper

Love the old Mini Cooper.  Sweet color, too.

Volkswagen T1 Camper Van

Another really nice selection by Jarrod.  He has really nice taste.  If Lego made Ford Edge, I'm sure he'll have that in his collection as well(my car lol).  Right Jarrod?

Flatbed Truck

This flatbed's one of my two fav's in here.  OMG, wait for it.....

And there it is.  Bed tilts.  Super awesome.

Caterham Seven 620R

Never been a huge fan of Caterham's, but they are cool, too.  Love those tires.

London Bus

And this one's probably my favorite.  When I was a toddler, buses in my neighborhood looked like this.  One of my dreams as a kid was to ride on the upper deck of the London Bus.  They must be the coolest bus in the world.  Jarrod, this is what I want for my birthday.  Much thanks in advance!  :)

Lower deck & upper deck.

Noice.  *drool*

Neo Scale Models 1/64 - Diamond Reo Raider 1974 Metallic Light Blue/ダイアモンド レオ Raider 1974 メタリックライトブルー

My buddy Jarrod gives me link to amiami for some 1/43 scale Suzuki he saw & had him almost excited.......(always thought maybe he was kidding about the Suzuki infatuation, but maybe not lol)  

I go browsing on there to see if they had anything new, and that, they did:

It didn't look very impressive, but 1/64 big rigs always interested me, so I figured it was Tonkin, First Gear, one of the brands you sometimes come across on American online stores, but no sir.  It was a brand called Neo.  I didn't know if they were Japanese, American, or ???

Are they worth the super high price?  It's a different truck, but here's one I found with free shipping to lower U.S. for $110.

From farmtoysandmore.com

I wasn't sure of their quality in detail from the notoriously tiny amiami photos, but here, you can see they are definitely high quality.  Only "big rigs" I really collect are TLVs.  Not tractor trailers, but I also have handful of GreenLight trucks.  If I was a collector of big rigs in 1/64 scale, I'd definitely consider checking out Neos.

Took me few tries, but I found their website & they are German!  Check out their limited line of 1/64 stuff.  If I was still expanding my collection, I'd have ordered that Lincoln Mark V.  Looks so good.

Have You Ever Played It?: Virtual Vending Machine

I looked & looked.  Only pic of  the HWC/RLC "Virtual Vending Machine" I could find was this.

My search results came back with bunch of different hot wheels vending machines I've never seen or heard about before, but I don't think any of them were presented as the "virtual" vending machine.  

In reality, I'm sure Mattel employees aren't physically stocking the "vending machine", then press the button, load whatever car dispensed into shipping box.  It's probably employees going through random leftovers & shipping them out to customers at discount.  I've played these "Virtual Vending Machine" gimmick just two times, and both times, I purchased two "pull".  My first one was from the Hot Wheels Club/Red Line Club & it looked like this:

As soon as the order was completed, I was able to see what I got coming in mail to me & it was a mix of disappointment & boredom.  lol  They get you playing these with the big prizes in mind, like some super rare & coveted cars.  Well, I've always liked playing lotteries too, I had to try it.  My post on GTPlanet soon after:

$12 per car, shipped, isn't bad for these cars.... except I didn't really want them.  :D  This was back in 2014.

Real reason for this post, I just received two cars from the second attempt at this "virtual vending machine", and this time, it was from the houseofcars.toys(online store).  Their prizes included coveted RLC cars like the pink Bel Air Gasser, even that green spectraflame Silverado(they are both featured on this blog, so take a look!).  This vending machine was more expensive.  $35 a pull.  I'd have bought just one, but it was 50% off on sale, so I had to go for two pulls!(still $35).

In the mail today:

I'm not gonna lie, I like these two convention M2 cars a lot better than the HWC hot wheels from the first try..... but again, not any cars I was looking to add to my collection.  :/

Anyway, that's it.  I just wanted to share my personal experience with the virtual vending machines.  Would I play it again in the future?  I'd like to say "maybe", but knowing me, it's probably likely.  lol  Unlike with lottery tickets, at least you get something to show for in return amrite.

New Car-Nel: Very Rarely Represented Lexus + One Odd Duck

This link covers all Car-Nel on amiami, but just the first four are the new 1/64 scale cars of theirs(as of June, 2018).  Car in above pic is the one that grabs my attention, but the Subaru preorder is currently sold out.  Oh, well.  Even if I still actively collected minicars, I think I'd be on the fence with Car-Nels anyway due to my previous impression of their cars.  They were Kyosho based cars(these new ones probably are, too).

Still, this Subie looks clean & face it; Detailed Lexus in 1/64 scale are hard to find.  Pics from amiami website:

Lexus LC500h

2010 Lexus LFA

Lexus LFA Nurburgring

Subaru Impreza 22B STI

For $23-ish(before shipping), it's not cheap, but it's not crazy expensive.  Again, amiami preorder page is here.  Approach with caution I'd say.  :p

INNO Models 1/64 Honda Civic

Another one incoming:  INNO Models(INNO website / Facebook).  More Civics.

Tough habit to break.  Retro Civic = Buy.  I saw a preorder for this on amiami & I had to give them a shot.  They also had Mugen version as well.  I settled for just plain white(w/decals) + Idemitsu(my fav).

amiami preorder page

For maybe just over $20 a pop, they are not cheap.  I've never heard of INNO Models, but I hope they do well.  It looks like they recognize how successful Civic castings tend to be, but they also wanted to stand out from the rest little bit.  Yes, Civics again, but most collectors don't have Civics like these in their collection.  :)

I also saw this on amiami, but I wasn't feeling the sedan or the livery(just personal taste):

Looking good so far.