There has been one question and one question only I have been answering the last couple of months:
“When is Japan Historics 2 coming out?
And the follow-up:
“When will A&J have them available for pre-order?”
Well, I don’t have a specific date for the release of Japan Historics 2 – thinking January – but I can answer the second question.
“Right now.”
A&J Toys just listed the Hot Wheels Car Culture Japan Historics 2 cases for pre-order. As always it will be a set of five cars, with 10 pieces per case. The price point has increased, as has been documented, due to the enhanced deco and packaging changes for 2018. And it is worth every penny.
Reserve a case now. Team up with a friend and buy a case so each of you gets a set (although Mattel is quick to remind all that two of each model is not a guarantee). If you need any convincing, look for a preview here on Lamley soon.
Right. We’re turning to JH3, now. What do we pick?
I’d say ’90 NSX, 2000GT, stock R32 GT-R, FC RX-7, and to debut…
I ran out. Suggest!
Its japan historics, not modern classics. So nothing after 1985 counts. For JH3, I would suggest SA22 RX7, Cosmo Sport, 2000GT roadster, 240Z (old one, not FuguZ) and Celica GT
That 240Z casting would be great if it wasn’t so massive and didn’t have the oversized rear wheels.
AE86 Corolla, Toyota Supra, R34 GTR, 1990 Acura NSX, FD3S RX7
I’ll second the AE86 Corolla, which would be an awesome JH release. I’d also love to see some models that HW either hasn’t done or hasn’t done in a while that could use a casting refresh – an S130, Z32, etc. Honestly, it would be so cool to see HW give Nissan similar attention to its racing heritage that it has give to Porsche, and include some great Nissan racing cars, like the JUN-BLITZ Bonneville Z32, the Clayton Cunningham Racing Z32, a GTP ZX-T, the Xanavi Nissan 350Z GT, R390 GT1, etc. And put some in the mainline with co-molds.
Mitsubishi Starion?….reckon JH4 should be 100% Kei cars, Honda Beat, Autozam AZ1 etc
How do get those pictured?
I took them at the HW Convention in October
“The price point has increased, as has been documented, due to the enhanced deco and packaging changes for 2018. And it is worth every penny.”
I would argue against that. The new packaging looks great, but with very few exceptions, I don’t buy cars for the packaging. I feel like Mattel had a good place on the scale between the basics and the expensive premiums, and I don’t think messing with that scale is going to help matters.
I’ll argue against your argument against…
The additional tampo-work on these is worth the nominal price increase, in my opinion. I don’t care about packaging either, for the same reason as you, but the tampo is important. And with the exception of the odd peg-warmer here and there, Car Culture continues to be very popular, so I don’t think the small increase in price is going to result in the series not selling well.
Collectors were pretty vocal about 4 sided deco for these and that was the main reason for the enhancement
Yes but the added cost for an extra tampo hit or 2 should not be a significant price hike. If that wasthe case any decoration on a model would cost more than retail. I can see a 25 cent increase perhaps. The increases are never small. They always jump by a factor of 25% or so.
I’m really torn about pre-ordering. I don’t want or need two of everything from this batch, so $45 for the whole box doesn’t look attractive to me from that standpoint…on the other hand, I don’t want to miss out if it turns out that I never find any on the pegs. I don’t regret pre-ordering JH1, but it did result in an extra set of cars that are just sitting, carded, in my closet that I have no use for.
Put ’em on Instagram or Ebay and they’ll be gone in minutes.
Take ’em apart and improve them.
Although the extra tampo passes are welcome but the almost 25% price rise isnt completely justified. If u think about it , for a dollar u get an entire mainline car which itself gets 3 tampo passes.Gonna buy these regardless but paying a few bucks less dsnt hurt either.
I don’t mind the price hike. If I remember correctly, the first Forza set and the Gran Turismo premium set were about the same price as the JH3 and those two sets are my personal favorites. The GT set even got windshield tampos. I understand extra tampo passes incur extra costs just as long as the detailing is good quality.
Quite a few good points here, but as mentioned PEG WARMERS. HA, I can’t find ANY Car Culture warming the pegs of the 4 local Walmarts I like to go to. Their pegs are LITTERALLY empty and quite often junk is just put there to fill the gap and I assume the dept manager really doesn’t care to order and place the correct product there, so I am looking at NO NEW CC since Race Day, pretty pitiful. Whether it is because there are only 10 per case or what, they don’t show up here or if they do, some collector or hoarder or resaler is hitting up the stores before I can shop as I think the folks in charge are not ordering multiple cases to stock the floor. They often have 4 pegs for CC, 4 for Pop Culture and 4 for retro Entertainment and I am still seeing BatMan on Ent pegs, and Mad just hit some shelfs for Pop, but CC remains empty and if I am honest, EACH peg could hold and entire case of these CC cars so it would reason to me that each store ought to order in multiples of 4 cases minimum, but they are either all gone as soon as they hit or they are not getting any???? A mystery and I live in the Houston area, so can’t seem to blame the population and shopping trends for this issue. I suppose it is a good thing I still have eBay at my fingertips as I might never get anything cool like this, but shopping in bulk seems to be the best case for shipping costs.