When the first order got cancelled, I began to lose hope. But I got a tip off the Hot Wheels subreddit that they were available again, and after a fairly nerve-wracking wait, they actually made it to my house.

As I ponder an RLC membership this month, I noticed this piece on Orange Track Diecast:

I bought the Maverick and the Super Bee ages ago. Finally took a stab at them today. I even drilled the Maverick just to be able to paint the bumper correctly. I also used panel liner again, on the R32 grill and the Super Bee grill and tail assembly. Nice to have options. 

Big weekend of customs. Figured I’d just do a mega-post so as not to monopolize the front page.

You might even say... Mach 1. I got bored while watching the kids and decided to do a quick paint-pen freshen up. The subject?

Since I restarted collecting in 2018, this covers basically everything I’ve got that didn’t come from that closet in my parents’ house. Let’s get started.

Head on over to Entertainment Earth and grab a set. No word on whether it’s two BREs or if it has the Advan.

Along with last week’s mega-hawl, I decided to smuggle four more vintage cars north.

After a week of rolling my eyes at my inlaws, the family shifted to LA so we could visit my folks. But these days my newest LA ritual is to visit the collectibles show and make up for all the crummy hunting in my neck of the woods. So between my hawl yesterday and meeting up with Doug and all the stuff he’d saved for…

This is the thing that got me back into diecast in the first place. This is why I started collecting again. All the JDM and Euro stuff, which I love, has been an offshoot of this.

Maybe I shouldn’t work at Hot Wheels. Never would I have imagined that the Gulf Galaxie and the Camaro would be left to rot while that little red truck with the crummy pipes would go flying off the pegs.

Finally made it to the collectibles show during my trip to LA. Didn’t spend myself all the way into penury like I thought I would, but I still did AOK.

Got a positively huge shipment in from my man in the Inland Empire.

Dipped into my local Walgreens after a half day of jury duty and found this bad boy. This is my first.

I kind of impulsively snagged this during my Saturday Peg Miracle, but I am happy to send it to a home where it will be better appreciated. Does anyone want it? It’s yours for retail cost plus shipping.

As I get deeper into collecting outside of my diorama projects, my tastes tend towards nostalgia. I love the 70s Z, so I’ve piled up a ton of those.

Those are some tests I’m running for an asphalt texture, on bare wood, which is going to be the base. On the left, joint compound, which I realize isn’t going to work because it’s STILL soft after several weeks. Oh well.

Yeah, I’ve been quiet. And that’s because the pegs have been barren around me. I basically hit a month-plus dry spell that had me questioning getting into this mess in the first place.

I must have turned my nose up at these half a dozen times. But there I was in Safeway and they were just sitting there. And I figured, what the hell... I don’t have ANYTHING in Spectraflame in my entire collection. Well, until today.

It’s finally out and it's glorious.