Championdjk Sums Up 2023 in 1/64

Another year has passed. I had lofty plans to post more content here after writing last year’s Top Ten. Time flies and here we are again where I’ve posted nothing since that Top Ten article for 2022. This might be my last post for another 12 months if history repeats, so I am going to try my best to make this a good one.

Instead of going through the usual of picking my top 10 new castings and collection additions of the year, I am going attempt to sum up my year of collecting diecast by telling you about the coolest part of the year and showing you a bunch of cars that I took the time to take and edit pictures of.

Another hobby of mine that I have recently gotten into is photography. I have been a bit obsessed with it. I really tried to push what I could do by creating the best images I could of these little cars. So, this post may read like a children’s book… there are going to be a lot of pictures and if you scroll fast you will miss the few words.

But, before we get into all of the pictures, I want to talk about the little diecast-focused journey I got to take this year.

Back in April, I took a road trip with my Dad from WI to Columbus, OH. This was definitely a highlight of the year. I have family in Columbus, but let’s be honest, the main purpose of the trip was to go to the Hot Wheels Collectors Nationals Convention.

Also, I arranged a stop in South Bend, Indiana to visit Chad and Mike at Round2 (Auto World, Johnny Lighting, Racing Champions…etc.) before heading on to Ohio.

The guys at Round2 were very gracious to us and gave us a tour of their office. It was awesome to get an inside look at their process and it was crazy to see that such a small team of people creates such a wide range of hobby related products. The visit to the office was great but the best part of it was a couple of beers, Mexican food and diecast chat with Mike and Chad after their workday.

Normally, during these end of the year posts all of us writers will list our Top 10 Collection Additions of the year. Out of the over 1,200 cars I added to the collection this year Mike at Round2 gave me what is easily the most significant collection add of the year. He gave me the pre-production sample of the White Lightning Chevy Van that has references to my YouTube channel on the back of it. How cool is that?

Riding on the high from that experience, my father and I left the next day for the short trip to Columbus, OH. We both got to spend some time with family and I got to go do some room to room shopping action at the convention.

On the last day of the convention I finally got meet Mr. Lamley himself. It is always a blast to finally meet someone in person that you have chatted with at a distance with for years.

If you want to see my haul from the trip in total, as well as hear some more of the story, it’s all here on my Youtube channel.

Alright, on to summing up what a cool year of 1/64 scale releases 2023 was.

We will start by going brand by brand and end with a gallery of miscellaneous diecast cars that I shot this year.

In the beginning of the year there was a lot to be excited about. My favorite brand, Auto World, had some great new castings on the verge of coming out. Also, John (Mr. Lamley himself) had teamed up with Jcar Diecast and Auto World to release some exclusives. I was super excited about all of this, especially since John had let me know that he and James (Jcar) were going to send me the exclusives along with the Ultra Red chase versions to showcase on my Youtube channel. 

The first release was the Shakotan Chevy.

The second was the Ford GT40. 

And, the last was the Caddy.

These three (six, including the chases) are one of my favorite parts of my massive Auto World collection. In a sea of hobby exclusive Auto World releases, these stand out to me as a little collection of their own.

Then, later in the year came the Lamley x JCCS x Auto World Toyota Celica Supra. This was an absolute banger of a release and was arguably my favorite release of the year. John also sent me an event exclusive model along with a chase.

Aside from these exclusive models, there was a lot more to get excited about when it came to collecting Auto World in 2023.

If memory serves, Auto World released more new toolings this year than they have any other year since the very beginning of their journey into premium 1/64 scale diecast.

There were 8 new premium toolings released by Auto World this year.

• 1991-1992 Mitsubishi 3000GT
• 1986 Dodge Conquest TSI/Mitsubishi Starion
• 1984 Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager
• 2021 Dodge Charger Widebody
• 2023 Nissan Z
• 2021 RAM Truck
• 2003-2007 Chevrolet Silverado
• 1982 Toyota Celica Supra

There is a nice variety there which is something that I love to see from a brand that has traditionally stuck with classic American cars. To stay relatively concise here, we will focus on 4 of the new toolings. 

A Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager was at the very top of my 1/64 premium diecast wishlist, and Auto World made that wish come true this year. Long story longer, I owned three of these in my younger years and used them to cart band equipment around so these boring old minivans are near and dear to me. I am very pleased with how this tooling turned out and from what I understand, they are selling really well. There is so much that they can do with this tooling and I cannot wait for more releases of it.

The next one on the list to talk about is the Dodge Conquest TSI/Mitsubishi Starion. What a rad 80’s car right? I absolutely love the look of this car and Auto World did a great job replicating it. Five total variations (not including chases) were released this year and it goes without saying that I have all of them.

Then there was the Mitsubishi 3000GT. Auto World had already done the sister car, the Dodge Stealth, so it only made sense for them to put out a 3000GT. Like the Starion/Conquest, this also got 5 releases this year including a Auto World Store Exclusive.

The last one I’ll talk about briefly is of course the Toyota Celica Supra. The first release was the Lamley x JCCS x Auto World release and it was followed by two stock colors in the last Auto World Premium release of the year. Here is a quick shot of one of the two factory colored ones.

Another one of my favorite brands to collect is Mini GT. Going on my own observations of comments and posts on various social media platforms Mini GT is becoming a favorite of many collectors. To me, it is easy to see why. They continue to release great diecast replicas of cool cars in quantity. 

I am not going to get into detail about all of my favorites of the year. However, to sum up, below is a smattering of some of the cars that I took the time to shoot and edit photos of this year. I suppose it should be noted that a couple may have actually been released last year and that I just didn’t shoot them until this year. Also, there is one BBR model in here as well…

Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO #13 2020 IMSA Daytona 24 Hrs GEAR Racing

Ford Puma Rally1 #19 M-Sport Ford WRT 2022 Rally MonteCarlo

McLaren F1 GTR #59 1995 LeMans 24 Hrs Winner

Lamborghini Sian FKP 37 Presentation

Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4MATIC Silver Metallic

Nissan Skyline GT-R White

Lincoln Capri Black

LB★WORKS BMW M4 Purple-Green Metallic

Lamborghini Huracan EVO Arancio Borealis

Lamborghini Huracán EVO Bologna Airport 2020 Follow-Me Car

Lotus 78 #5 1977 Presentation

Maserati MC20 Bianco Audace – BBR

BMW 750Li xDrive Black Sapphire

RUF Rodeo Presentation

Hyundai KONA N Performance Blue

This in no way really sums up what a stellar year it was for Mini GT, as there are a ton of models that are fantastic and deserving of some time in front of a lens. These are just some that I shot this year.

The next brand to look at is Inno64. I didn’t really get that much from them this year but the cars that I did buy are pretty awesome. Also, I would argue that one of them should be crowned model of the year for 2023. Can you guess which one that would be?

NISSAN FAIRLADY Z (300ZX) Fuji Speedway Pace Car

Nissan Skyline 2000 Turbo RS-X (DR30

Ford Escort RS Cosworth #1 “Michelin Pilot” Manx International Rally 1994

Ford Escort RS Cosworth #4 “Repsol” Safary Rally Kenya 1996

Ford Escort RS Cosworth

Nissan Skyline R31 GTS-R HR31 Australian Special Edition

LBWK (F40) Tokyo Auto Salon 2023

On to Tarmac Works, and what a great year it was for them. I think I purchased more TW this year than in any year prior. The GLOBAL64 line is really where Tarmac shines for me There were some awesome new toolings put out in that line that I was excited for. There were also some really cool Ferrari F40s that came out in collaboration with IXO models. Here are a few I shot this year.

Dodge Van

x Lamley Group Dodge Viper ACR Extreme

Pagani Huayra R Verde Trifoglio

Mercedes-Benz SL 500 Koenig Specials

x Lamley Group LB-WORKS Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat

x Lamley Group Land Rover Defender 90 and Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Coupe Black Series

Porsche 935 K3 24h of Le Mans 1980 #71

Ferrari F40 GT Italian GT Championship 1992

PosterCars was a new brand to appear on the scene. These cars definitely deserve a mention. They are notable for having some really nicely done castings that are highly detailed at a very inexpensive price. I picked up several of them. I only got around to shooting a couple. Here they are.

Koenigsegg Jesko

Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4

McLaren Speedtail

The last brand I’ll call out specifically is Hot Wheels. Undoubtedly, this is where it all started for the majority of us. Hot Wheels had a great year, particularly in the basic line. There were some cool RLC releases as well, and the Elite64 line really has grown on me. We saw some 1/43 scale Hot Wheels this year too (I bought a few but didn’t take the time to really photograph them). Here are a few Hot Wheels that I thought turned out well and had fun shooting.

Elite 64 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

RLC Dodge Tradesman Van

2023 RLC Membership 1993 Ford Mustang Cobra R

Porsche 935 (2022 Best Buy Exclusive)

Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 (Fast and Furious Premium Series)

Honda Civic Si (Target Ultra Hots)

RLC Nissan Skyline GT-R (BNR34)

Rimac Nevera

RLC Porsche 959

Elite 64 LBWK Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4

Super Treasure Hunt Lotus Evija

RLC 1972 Skyline H/T 2000GT-R (2021 Release)

Finally, here is a photo dump of various other diecast cars that I shot this last year. Again, not everything here was released in 2023.

Photography has really driven my current state of collecting. I really enjoy trying to get these little cars to look as cool as they can. My usual style is not necessarily to get them to look like a real car, but to get them to look like what they are… a really cool model of a real car. I hope you enjoyed thumbing through what is basically my current little car portfolio.

I think I probably dumped my entire Instagram content on here today but if you want to see what I post in 2024, give me a follow @championdjk_.

Annnnnnd that’s a wrap of 2023…. here’s to a stellar 2024…. and I hope all of you are able to add the little cars of your dreams to your collection.

-David Kiley aka Championdjk