Sometimes you just can't beat a classic and it certainly shows with Hot Wheels latest releases, as they seem to be visiting real world car designs, rather than the more exotic. Much as I love the weird and the wonderful, I grew up with the more staid Matchbox and Corgi lines, which featured real life cars more regularly. In the seventies, Corgi had a lot of dragsters and funny cars and I loved the gleaming chrome and pop out engines. When I saw that Hot Wheels had released some hot rods which echoed this trait, I had to find them.
As its nearing Xmas, the toy selection in most stores is increasing and without high street toy shops anymore, its necessary to rely on supermarkets, where diecasts are strategically positioned around the store as impulse buys.
I was quite pleased to find another two hot rods this weekend, the Mod Rod and 32 Ford. The more restrained finish on these vehicles gives an edge of realism, especially on the Ford, with the classic Gulf Oil livery.
The big problem I find with Hot Wheels is the scale varies tremendously, so finding suitable figures to use with them can be a real headache. I found these vintage Corgi pedestrians were a fair match, but only just.
There are a couple of other classic rods out there, so a couple more visits to the shops are on the cards, I think.
The decline of the "Mom and Pop" toy stores as the Americans called them, is a tragedy! All due to the rise of the Supermarket "Category Killers" tactic where large chain stores stock super low priced products that edge out smaller retailers, by undercutting their profit margins.
ReplyDeletethats it. We have a big retail toy chain, the only one since the demise of Toys R Us, but even there, its just the mainline toys, huge stacks of Lego, Playmobil, film branded stuff. Theres no room for rack toys anymore like Woodsys Hydroplane set
DeleteGreat shots of these classic rods! I like the sieve floor! very industrial! Seeing Hot Wheels in food supermarkets is always a welcome sight in the otherwise mind-numbing drudgery that is modern food shopping.
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