Not a lot of huge improvements to the diorama lately, dear readers, although I have recently changed a few things up around the track and thought I’d do a post highlighting these little additions, one in particular that I remember from my formative years, and I bet you do as well…
A few weeks ago, while watching some excellent documentaries online about the history of Hot Wheels (more about that topic coming up in a future post!), a particular Hot Wheels model was briefly mentioned that I recalled quite vividly when rummaging through the toy car aisle at the stores back in the day, but which I never had any desire to own: namely the “Rapid Transit” bus from the 1982 line. I hit the usual sites online looking for one and wasn’t too surprised to find that the original release of this model is now quite valuable; I saw several versions selling for upwards of $45. I think that’s a little high for something that’s barely 40 years old, but I did get a decent deal on one in very good condition for around half that. It’s not mint, but its good enough to present, and here it is, replacing the earlier red and white Matchbox TWA airport bus on the diorama right in front of the fire station and “Wardglenn General.”
Now, I’m no expert on old buses, but I wanted this model because I remember these vehicles quite clearly from my childhood in SoCal, as the original Hot Wheels issue is painted in the livery identical to the Los Angeles RTD of the era. A little online research revealed that the GM “RTS II” with the Detroit Diesel engines, which were ubiquitous in American’s urban areas in the 1980’s, were made in two “styles;” one had a sleek look with a steeply raked rear window, while the other, much more common variation, had the upright back which housed what I’m guessing was a large AC unit. I don’t know why these 2 styles were made and what different functions they served, but I remember them both from my childhood. Of course, the sleeker design is represented by the Hot Wheels model. When these buses first started appearing on the roads around 1980 and ’81, they really did look very modern compared to the blockier, polished aluminum-sided models more common in the ‘70’s and earlier. They may look dated now, but with their color-keyed bumpers and flush dark-tinted side glass, they seemed like the wave of the future when they were new! I thought adding one to the main drag down the middle of Wardglenn was an appropriate period-correct addition!
As for private transport, a couple of other icons of the ‘80’s now appear on the diorama; the black Fox Body Mustang I got for X-mas is now on the main road passing by the parking lot, and further north on the service road entering the inspection area for the track, we see a bright orange Porsche 911 Carrera. In the real world, these are two cars that your humble blogger never liked, but they were hot items when I was a young’un, and they appear here as period-correct homages to the era.
Far more to my liking are the two newly added pieces of the classic era; one, a purple ’70 Shelby Mustang convertible, now sits in the parking lot with the top left casually down, in an era when it was far less valuable and thus less likely to be messed with while left unattended, especially at a car-enthusiast’s function; and inside the paddock era, I changed out an earlier version of the cool 1956 Corvette racer with a different casting of the same car, which was released in the mid-aughts with chrome Halibrand wheels and “Real Rider” rubber tires; the previous version seen here was mist blue, this one is bright red, and looks great next to the dark metallic blue Jaguar D-Type it would have challenged on the track when it was new.
All of these models are Hot Wheels, and with the exception of the Corvette and the classic “Rapid Transit” they are “main line” models that can be bought at any retail store right now for around a buck and a quarter; nothing special, perhaps, but I think they add some nice vintage flavor to the layout, and help emphasize the world of my car-crazy boyhood that I seek to recreate in miniature in my basement. We can’t go back, but I ain’t letting go of my memory of better times!
The bus is absolutely a great touch and totally needed to ferry folks around Wardglenn and to the track. I think it is really cool and love the design. We only had the big blocky things lumbering through our town but I remember seeing these on TV shows and movies at the time. I’m jealous of how you can use all these Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. :-) Besides loving the idea of using these vintage toys like this, there are a lot more options that the 1:43 / 1:48 scale on mine. What you are doing there is awesome!
True that there are more options for cars in 1:64 than 1:43, but you have a lot more options for structures and other “points of interest.” That, after all, is the point of “forced perspective,” or what I call “HOSO”; there’s so much cool stuff in “O” scale that I often figure out ways to include some of it!