Another week, another round of the usual errands – which of course meant dropping by the diecast aisle to see what kind of gold I could strike. This week’s finds includes cars from Meijer, Wal-Mart, O’ Reilly Auto Parts, Target, Kroger, and a mail find in the form of the RLC car. Let’s get to it!
Stop 1: Kroger
Buy these Kroger finds on eBay: M2 Chrysler 300C and 2020 Matchbox Power Grabs
We have several Krogers in our area, but one of the closest to me is a larger store that usually has a load of diecast in stock. This week’s selection was so so, but I did find a few new Matchbox Power Grabs boxes, carded Matchboxs, and a sweet M2 1957 Chrysler 300C.
M2’s are hit or miss for me as I’ve had varying levels of experience with their quality control, but I do really like a lot of their castings – especially this 300C. I have several versions of them and couldn’t pass up the vintage Mopar card art on this one.
I combined all the basics/mainlines from the day into one photo for ease of time, but most of the Matchboxes and Power Grab boxes were from this stop. The purple Formula E and the JDM Legends Datsun 620 were from O’Reilly’s, and are the sole international cards of the bunch. The remaining cars were found at a local Wal-Mart and Target.
I like buying the Power Grab boxes as they have expanded card art on them. I really wish Hot Wheels and Matchbox would sell posters of their card/box art because they do a fantastic job on the graphics.
Stop 2: Target
Buy these Target Finds on Ebay: Jada Hero Patrol and PowerTrains 2.0
Target is where I find most of my new Hot Wheels mainlines and premiums, but this week they were hardcore picked over. As I made my way down the aisle I found two unexpected surprises in the form of a Jada Hero Patrol car and some discounted PowerTrains.
I am a frequent visitor of the diecast aisle to say the least, and I don’t remember seeing the Jada Hero Patrol line before. It’s possible I glossed over them, but it’s something I would definitely look at if I had known they existed. With that being said, it’s an amazing line of cars. No they aren’t Real Rider equipped, no they aren’t the most detailed models, but they have working lightbars and sirens – and THAT is hella cool.
The single car on the pegs was a blue Ford Mustang GT pursuit. The card is bright yet simple, and there is a sticker that reads “ONLY AT TARGET” right on the front. As a kid I wore out several Majorette Lights & Sounds cars as they were more dynamic than the standard mainline car, so I was glad to see a lights and sounds release sitting on the pegs again.
Flipping the card over shows the line is six cars, three models with a recolor on each. The VW Crafter is extra cool as I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that casting here in the States.
Just over from the Jada cars were the highly discounted PowerTrains 2.0 packs. Now I know these aren’t typical Lamley fair, but I’m a big diorama guy who likes actually “playing with” the stuff I buy. PowerTrains are cheap train sets that build like Hot Wheels playsets in that most of them connect to build a larger “city”. They are a bit of an odd scale and are probably closest to N gauge…but look cool setup around 1/64th scale cars and are basically the only trains that a kid can afford nowadays. AAA battery powered and plenty of train car packs to choose from, they aren’t a bad investment by any means. I was able to score two of the car packs — a construction pack and a space pack — both 50% off for a cool $4.99 each at the register.
Stop 3: Wal-Mart
Buy these Wal-Mart finds on eBay:
Spin Master Monster Jam Grave Digger Ride Truck
Spin Master Grave Digger Bone Yard Truck
Hot Wheels 2020 Camouflage Series
Hot Wheels 2020 Stars & Stripes Series
Matchbox Jurassic Park 2020 5-pack
Wal-Mart, sweet Wal-Mart. Either I score big or leave empty handed, there’s no in-between…luckily this week’s stop was one for the score column.
Walking towards the diecast aisle I saw that huge, four-sided Monster Jam display right in the center of the aisle — and it was freshly stocked. I started digging and found FIVE of the Grave Digger ride chase trucks. I bought three and left two for the next collector. I also found the new Bone Yard Grave Digger too.
As a long time monster truck fan, I can confidently say that Spin Master is KILLING the game right now. To say I was a little nervous about the fate of the MJ brand after Mattel’s contract with Monster Jam expired is an understatement. I loved Hot Wheels MJ trucks and bought a ton of them, especially Grave Diggers. When Spin Master took over I was expecting….well, I don’t know what I was expecting. It was a new endeavor for both Spin Master and monster truck fans, but Spin Master delivered. I’ll save the details for a monster truck centric post later on, but these trucks are awesome. Not to say Hot Wheels’ new Monster Truck line isn’t good, they both excel in different ways, but these castings from Spin Master are darn good. If you want to see something interesting, eBay search for Spin Master Monster Jam Chase Truck and see the impact they are already having on the aftermarket.
After I found some Monster Jam gold, I hit the main diecast aisle when I found some more rad stuff.
The first two finds were both 5-packs, a new Hot Wheels Batman pack and Jurassic World pack.
I’m a diehard Hollywood car collector, so naturally I grabbed these two. I probably have over 500 various Matchbox Jurassic Park vehicles at this point, so I was pumped to add this new 5-pack to the collection. David Tilley did an amazing write-up on the whole JP series, so if you like JP stuff definitely check it out.
Wal-Mart always seems to have some sort of exclusive line from Mattel lining the pegs, and this week I found the newest Camo and Stars & Stripes sets.
We’ve gotten a few different camo sets from Wal-Mart, but this one is particularly stacked. It has the Skyline 2000 H/T GT-R, ’16 Civic Type R, 2010 Shelby Super Snake, ’18 Camaro SS, and the custom ’68 Elco. All solid buys – and the store had all five which was nice. Set complete!
The next set they had was the 2020 Stars & Stripes series. Unfortunately they did not have all 10 cars, so I picked a few of my favorites since I couldn’t complete the series in one sweep. They are badass to say the least. The Mopars are particularly sexy looking covered in the red, white, and blue schemes.
The ’68 Barracuda is my favorite of the bunch – the livery on it is outstanding – but the AMX is perfection. It may have the cleanest design I’ve seen on any mainline+ car….or a Hot Wheels car in general. Awesome artwork on every car in this series and the card art that combines into a giant flag is a nice touch. It would be cool to see a giant card art puzzle using all 250 or so mainline cards from an entire year.
Stop 4: Meijer
Buy these Meijer finds on eBay: Greenlight Gone in 60 Seconds CHP Crown Victoria
While I found a few cars at Meijer, the standout is the Greenlight Gone in 60 Seconds CHP Crown Victoria. CHP cars are always a good investment as they are such an iconic livery, and Hollywood releases seem to have good staying power too.
BONUS: Mail Find
My RLC sELECTIONS ’55 Chevy Gassers came in this week too, and they are HOT. I haven’t had the chance to unbox one yet, but so far it looks like the Dirty Blonde is a literal fan favorite with over 550 recently being sold on eBay. The gasser hype is definitely real.
Buy this mail find on eBay: Hot Wheels RLC Dirt Blonde
Here’s a closer look at the finds in video form:
I thought I was the only adult who liked Power Trains. They’re inexpensive (think I got my freight starter set from Amazon for $10). Most of the battery-operated small sets you’ll find are utter crap. Poorly made, cheap plastic, fragile couplers, weak motors. Power Trains are good quality, and they work well. While derailing is a problem (if there’s ever a Power Trains 3.0, I’d love to see some kind of wireless controller to add variable speed; even if it’s a smartphone), it is, quite often due more to improperly connected track more than it is the (somewhat excessive) speed of the locomotive. My freight set has a pretty neat gantry crane; that can both load and unload containers, and it has a crane for loads such as that bundle of logs in your expansion set.
Model trains have gotten both hard to work on, and (insanely) expensive. I’ve been buying some Marklin; and what ain’t cheap has been wrecked by poor upkeep; and I’ve got a locomotive right now that screams like a banshee; even after cleaning and oiling. It was full of pet hair, dust, and carpet fiber; and somewhat had actually BENT a piece of the track sort of like a taco. Old Lionel have become mainstream antiques, and are near impossible to find 1950s-1970s trains at reasonable prices; even worse for the stuff before that. A lot of the lower-end HO scale stuff (Bachmann esp.) isn’t all that great. Those are very cheap on the secondary market, just not good. Athearn was what everyone recommended when I was into the American HO scale stuff (mostly Norfolk Western) that everyone else around here was. It is expensive, though I have seen some of the themed locomotives (John Deere, Farmall) originally sold through The Bradford Exchange for insane prices very cheap used.
Congratulations on your finds! There are a few good items in there. The last Hot Wheels case I’ve been able to find is H case, so I’ve got the Corvette and black Formula-e. Looking for the purple Formula-e and Datsun 620. A lot of great Matchbox models there! I was fortunate enough of to find this wave a few weeks back and bought a couple of each licensed model. Not a big fan of camo or muscle cars. I’ve seen both lines well stocked and passed on all but the camo Civic since I’m a big Honda fan. I was surprised, although I shouldn’t have been, to see that among the 4 overflowing pegs worth of freshly stocked camo, likely 40-50 cars in all, there was not a single Skyline. Clearly someone was there before me and cleared them all out to flip on eBay for inflated prices. I hate that there are people like this that pretend to be a “part of this hobby” when all they do is hurt those without the means to spend many times retail price for a single model on the secondary market. For me, although a fan of the Skyline and this casting, I can live without it.