New Dawn Fades
“A change of speed, a change of style
A change of scene, with no regrets
A chance to watch, admire the distance
Still occupied, though you forget
Different colours, different shades
Over each mistakes were made
I took the blame
Directionless, so plain to see
A loaded gun won’t set you free
So you say…”~ Joy Division
I will remember 2025 principally as a year of loss. Now it is 2026, a year that promises to bring some massive upheavals to your HB’s world; big changes are in the works for this year; I’ve mentioned some of these in previous posts. While wrapping up my affairs and moving on is going to occupy much of the time I don’t spend at work, I will always make time for play, because without play, life is not worth living. To meet that goal, several new and vintage Thunderjets are on their way, including those needed for the long awaited completion of my Group C sports car fleet. All the info on that, and other updates to the diorama and the track, are in store for the weeks to come.
Part of the sadness of the arrival of January is the requirement to “de-Christmas.” This has always been difficult for me; as a child I would shed tears every year when the tree was taken down, and now, as an adult, I still can’t help sad little sighs escaping me as I pack up the tree and the ornaments and the lights and decorations and take them to their storage places, marking the beginning of the long colorless slog through winter. At least the weather has been exceptionally nice so far this year…that’s something I will definitely miss about Colorado. For now, I’m spending this weekend on a partial and long-overdue bathroom remodel, which is creating a lot of dust and mess upstairs…a perfect excuse for me to be downstairs in the toy room whenever I can take a break from it!
The 2025 RLC Roundup in pictures
So on this Satuday I bounced between floors, between work and chores and the toys, and as such this seemed like a perfect opportunity to catch up with you, dear readers, on some of the Redline Club purchases of the last year! I’ve profiled some of these already, and there’s a lot of blurred lines between the RLC cars VS other special series, but here’s a closer look at what’s on display and in the collection as a result of the last years Hot Wheels hunting!
I was selective; there were a lot of cars offered throughout 2025, and I only chose to pick up a few of them. When I first signed up for the RLC I expressed my reservations about it, and a lot of those reservations have been confirmed: the RLC cars are very expensive, and that whole thing with the Gulf livery Porsche 959 left a really bad taste in my mouth. The other thing I’m unhappy about is that a lot of these RLC exclusive castings are coming out too big! Again that same complaint: SCALE! A lot of these cars are clearly larger than 1:64, and that’s not what I want to see no matter how nice they are, because I want them to be able to co-exist with all my other die-casts! I can usually make it work with “forced perspective,” but sometimes there are things that just don’t look right unless you squint hard and act very forgiving. Despite these complaints, there’s a lot to like, and there were some really cool castings brought out this year that gave demanding collectors the sugar we were looking for.
So here are a few of the choices I made: let’s see how they stack up against your own!
SCALE, SCALE!
No surprise that one of my favorite releases of 2025 was this awesome Spectraflame red Jaguar E-Type coupe. You know this is one of my favorite cars in history, and since I’ll likely never own the real thing, a model of this caliber is a great substitute! While the wheels aren’t strictly accurate to the real car, that’s of little consequence: they look great, the detailing is great, and overall this is just an awesome model. This one hits the mark 100%! Nice job, Mattel!
So here’s an example of 2 cars that are too big and one that’s too small…
Jason got me this recent MoMA release as an X-mas gift: a car that belongs in that museum if ANY car does! The detail is amazing, but it’s essentially HO scale. What bothers me is putting it next to the coupe version of the exact same car; seen next to the roadster, the two cars should be identical in every dimension, but they’re not even close. Its still a great model and I’m extremely greatful to my cub for picking it out for me – he knows what I like, that’s for sure! – but as much as I like it, I can’t do much more than display it in isolation.
On the other end of the scale is another one I couldn’t pass up: the ‘59 Chevy 2-door wagon. Initially I was going to dunk on Mattel for getting the model name wrong, but it turns out they were right and I was wrong: the Brookwood was the only of the 4 wagon models available in ‘59 as a 2-door, although the same trim level could also be had as a 4-door, which most of them were (causing this confusion: in 1958, the Brookwood model was a 4-door only: the ‘58 2-door wagon was called the Yeoman, a name they used only for that one year! In ‘59 the Yeoman name was dropped-never to appear on a Chevrolet again-and the Brookwood became the bottom-of-the-line wagon). The 2 door wagons from 1958-60 are, as we all know, excessively rare, and if someone were to get ahold of a real one and do it up like this model here, who could complain?! This 2-tone Spectraflame blue scalloped paint job just screams “Kustom Kulture” and its absolutely beautiful, leaving me to complain only about its large size as a hindrance to adding it to my diorama.
It can keep company with another big’un, the “2025 sELECTIONs car,” an awesome highly customized Spectraflame “anti-freeze” ‘68 Plymouth Barracuda notchback. This is the one I waited at least 8 months for between paying for it and getting it, and I bought 3: one for Jason, one to leave packaged, and one to open because I intended to add it to the diorama. I ultimately did, but not where I intended to put it; again, it’s a beautiful model, being all metal and looking like a “resto-mod” with enough vintage touches to be cool, but it’s a little too large to co-exist with most of the rest of the action around the track. The cars on the freeway that borders the layout are all larger than 1:64 (these are mostly Greenlights, some Universal-era Matchboxes, a few Johnny Lightnings) so there’s that “forced perspective” again: as long as I keep likes with likes, it mostly works…just squint a little.
Count The Doors!
I can’t help but think of that famous print ad for the Lincoln Continental convertible from 1962 when I look at my two favorite RLC acquisitions of the year! As much as I love that E-Type coupe, it was these 2 that really took the cake for me!
I’ve mentioned a million times that I once owned a 1:1 scale Lincoln Continental of this vintage, but while mine was a sedan, I know these cars intimately, and this model was simply a must-have no matter what the scale. Having a 1:64-ISH model with 4 opening doors is a kick due to its rarity-there can’t be more than a handful of models in this scale made over the last 50 years with that feature, and presenting it in black with black and white interior, a color combo common on the real car, is only “obvious” because it’s so bitchin’! The ‘61-’63 Lincoln is certainly one of the most beautiful 4-door cars ever made, and its mojo was perfectly captured by this model! Another home run, Mattel!
From the perspective of construction, however, the German equivalent of the Lincoln may be even more impressive! I did a detailed post about about the Mercedes-Benz 600 back when I bought it but before I received it, and after obtaining my “Limit 2 per customer” shipment – one for me, one for Jason – I bought another later on after they announced some were still available. This couldn’t have been an easy or cheap model to make, but they did a magnificent job on it; everything from the wheels to the color is spot-on. The packaging on this one was also the best I’ve seen, as it is easy to open and reclose without damage, allowing a collector to enjoy handling and examining the car and put it back without having to “violate” any virginal sealing. Even though I don’t see it making the diorama at this time, there has to be a future for it, either there or on a diorama I may build in the future. Some things are too cool not to share!
Keeping the Matchbox Flame
No way would I forget my childhood favorite brand, even if it is just an imprint of its biggest rival these days! Matchbox purchases throughout the year have already been well covered here and here, but I think I may have missed a couple I should have have picked up. I did get a lot of the Collector’s Series releases, however, so while they are not as exclusive as the RLC cars, they’re still pretty cool, and a lot cheaper besides!
In spite of it all, my heart still belongs to the Mainlines!
It’s a lifelong thing: I walk through the local grocery store picking up sundries for the week and pass an end cap and there’s one I just can’t pass up. I’ve been doing this since I was a child: all through my teen years, all through my adulthood; even in the decades when I wasn’t actively collecting, I just can’t resist picking one up now and then when it catches my eye.
Looking at some of today’s mainlines which can be bought at Wallyworld for $1.25, I have to wonder: why am I spending $32 on these RLC releases?! A couple of these latest grabs were good enough to land on the diorama, a metallic yellow Mazda RX3 and a “Neon Speeder” release of the VW SP2.
Sure, sometimes we want the premiums, no doubt; but I’m always leery of losing the child-like joy of the cars themselves and letting it be weaponized into “investing in collectibles.” Fortunately, there are enough cool mainlines still being produced to keep that warm feeling of the old days alive; grabbing a cool one on impulse while looking for butter or pasta sauce still brings a smile to my face. It’s the theme of this entire blog, and I can’t say it often enough: toy cars have been a part of my life since I was born, and they always will be!
What’s in YOUR collection???
You yourself might have made different choices, and like I always say, I’d love to hear from you, fellow die-cast collectors, on what choices you made: what did you add to your collection this year, and what do you think I missed that I should have grabbed? I do have a couple more on the way at this writing-a really cool early 80’s Toyota 4×4 truck and another of the endless renditions of the ‘55 Chevy gasser in a Spectraflame pink and white-but I know I missed a purple ‘72 Chevy Nova pro-stocker I probably should have grabbed, and there’s an Elite64 BMW CSL that looks pretty cool. Open to suggestions, guys!
