WINTER WARMERS

As winter approaches, I am drawn more to eBay, as traipsing round shops in the rain has little appeal. This month it has delivered in spades, with a great selection of vintage Hot Wheels.

Just arrived are a pair of later Sizzlers, ‘Flat Out’ above an ‘March Ford’ below are Formula 1 type cars, which like the blue ‘Indy Eagle’ shown later, have a narrower body and a different tubular battery to the more drum-shaped one in the earlier cars. As a result, I can’t test them out until I source a new battery.

Even so, after removing a greasy deposit that covered all the cars, from the decayed battery, they scrubbed up really well. The engines were all re-chromed with a silver marker and the plastic bodies polished up. Unlike Redlines, Sizzlers are almost all plastic, to save weight and help the tiny motor run faster.

An earlier win brought the ‘Indy Eagle’, a similar race car layout with large exposed engine.

This week, I was pleasantly surprised to get two vintage Redlines, the ‘Ford Vicky’ and ‘Ford Woody’ in one sale for a very low bid. Both had slightly bent axles and worn paintwork, but a swift spray of auto paint brought the two back to good order.

The Vicky was in slightly better shape than its sister, but benefitted from a coat of blue to hide the chips and scratches.

Originally Ultramarine Spectraflame, the Woody’s paint job had deteriorated badly, but a light coating of automotive lacquer, let the metallic finish shine through. 

My second ever Hot Wheels, back in the sixties was a green Silhouette, which these days is showing its age. Luckily eBay provided me with a lovely purple example, with good paint and just needing a new side pipe.

The ‘Repco Brabham’ has appeared here before, just needing a little lick of chrome on those fragile exhausts.

The ‘Indy Eagle’ Sizzler arrived with a more futuristic model, ‘Sideburn’. The Sideburn is one of the first wave and uses the standard drum battery, so may well be running on a track sometime soon.

Last of all, the trusty Deora, my first ever redlines, back in the day. This replacement model just needed a clean and a pair of handmade surfboards for a great finish.