Well! Hot wheels Hunter Jason has sure been a busy little beaver these last couple of weeks, spending his post-work hour weekday evenings combing through stores all over town! He’s always good enough to check in with me via text message, sending me pictures of the things he’s found and asking me if I want any for myself, which I almost always reply in the affirmative! Whenever we get together, he usually has a new pile for me, as well as a new one of his own, and this week, I think he outdid himself!
His first round of foraging was at some of the thrift stores in the area, which often sell bags of cars for a few bucks, combining some nice ones with some junk no one wants in order to get rid of them. He scored a whole armload of finds from these stores, and while a few of them will wind up in the trash, there were some really good pieces in amongst the parts! But the thrift stores were only the beginning…
The Hunter’s most successful run was spending an entire day hitting virtually every instance of every chain with the word “Dollar” in the name: Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and Family Dollar. Although the secret may be getting out, it still seems that, at least in this area, the dollar stores are not as well traveled by collectors and scalpers as the big box stores, meaning that if we get there at the right time, we have a little bit better chance of finding the really good stuff before it all gets picked up by eBay flippers. I think he must’ve hit almost every one in the metro area, and some of the things he found are gems we’ve been looking for for months!
Take a look at this latest haul, and then I’ll show you some of the irresistible additions that I was forced to make to the Drag City layout because of these scores!
And now…To The Track!!!
When I got back from Jason‘s place, I emptied a huge grocery sack of additional Hot Wheels and Matchboxes on the dining room table and sorted through them, wondering how I could resist putting all of these latest finds on the diorama. Well, obviously that’s not possible, but there were some in this haul that just could not be resisted!
There were 3 cars in this latest haul that I thought were exceptional for several reasons, but I also managed to do a slight rearrangement to a tableau and clear enough space doing so to add an additional car! So tonight, after a great deal of thought, I decided to remove 3 cars from the diorama in order to add 4 new ones. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but when a layout becomes as crowded as mine has, each one of these decisions is crucial!
You might laugh at How much time I spend deliberating what to add to the diorama and want to remove in order to do so. I sometimes spend whole evenings examining the possibilities and running through the scenarios in my head, trying to figure out if I can stand to get rid of some of the beauties that are already there and possibly losing their related tableaus, while figuring out new ones.
ABOVE: the latest release of the MBZ C126 560SEC AMG is gorgeous, featuring chameleon paint that changes color when it catches the light. It’s hard to capture the effect on camera, but its stunning in person!
Now you probably noticed there were some exceptional ones that didn’t make the cut, like that black Miura. And the satin black El Camino? Well, I have both a ‘66 and a ‘67 Camino already on the layout, both by Johnny Lightning, that I’m very fond of. Sure, there’s room for one more, but where? Well, I’ll find a place eventually, trust me! And the ever-growing pile on the dining room table has dozens of worthys in it that I just don’t have a place for!
So, there’s the latest news from Drag City: the latest haul, the latest acquisitions, the latest action around the track. I wonder when I’m going to have enough uninterrupted time to spend a few days down here running a race again?
I had a fondness for those boxy Volvo’s. When I was a kid, there was a small dealership in town and there was something about them that fascinated me. Wow, that is a lot of cars and of course what should go where is an important consideration! It’s really cool how real these scenes around Drag City look. It is amazing the different models they are making and you are finding!