Gear Head

I had to laugh this weekend as we were going round the supermarket and I stopped in the toy aisle. My wife gave me the lazy eye and remarked "How many Hot Wheels do you actually need? It's not like you're a gear head!"

Needless to say, some found their way into the basket. An earlier purchase was the diminuitive 'The Nash', a souped up coupe with extra wide slicks and a pop out engine. The Nash isnt especially new and has been released in a nice cool green, but so far I have been unable to find that version, so I settled for second place with a gunmetal finish.

Another elusive model is the Armadillo Drop Ship from Pixar's Lightyear. Although the film itself wasn't exactly a roaring success, Mattel have wrung the franchise dry with new product. Its a tiny little thing though, shorter than an average HW car and not really in scale for any other toy, apart from the Lightyear triple pack in the states.

As a companion to the fifties style Nash, I picked up a 57 Chevy Bel Air this weekend, complete with high fins and white walls. This style of classic motor has grown on me over the years, probably as comtemporary cars have become more generic and boxy.

The last of my weekend finds, along with the Armadillo and the Chevy is a Twin Mill, decorated in braille. Made with the Blind Association charity, its a standard Twin Mill V1 with braille lettering on the sides and rear.

The engine modelling is dialled back to make a smoother profile and the entire upper body is diecast.

Its a very unusual model and a great move towards making mainstream toys accessible to the visually impaired.

Finally, a little Matchbox Model A Ford from about 1979. At the time of its release, I had reluctantly given up on buying Matchbox cars, due to pressure from my parents and also having other things taking precedence, so this series were left on the shelf. Not long after, MB cars lost their originality and charm and became quite dull and boring, until Lesney went under and were picked up by Mattel. Oddly, the line never really recovered its originality and remained a more staid and ordinary range.

 But the Model A was one model which stood out from the rest of the boring coupes and estates, so when I spotted one recently at a charity shop, I made sure it came home.

Incidentally, in response to my wifes comment about Hot Wheels, I came back with "As many as it takes".