Do You Really Get What You Pay For? Analyzing Both of Hot Wheels' Gran Turismo-Themed Ford GT's

Two Ford GT LMs, both Hot Wheels and both with the same Gran Turismo-inspired livery. But one is five times the price of the other, which begs the question: is it actually five times the model?

In short: yes.

Not sure what prompted Hot Wheels to finally start producing cars based from video games (seems like common sense to me), but it's better late than never. And, in my opinion, they've knocked it out of the park with these Gran Turismo cars, which are featured in both "mainline" and Retro Entertainment forms. The mainlines can be found at Walgreens and online hobby dealers, and consist of a set of eight cars; the Retro Entertainment is a set of five and can be found at all major retailers. Both series feature different models, but they do share one in common. This one.

Thus, it's only right that we compare these two.

This is neither the first nor the last time Hot Wheels has produced the same casting with the same livery in two different "levels" of detail. Earlier this year, the Aston Martin DB10 from the James Bond thriller Spectre was first introduced in the mainline and then thrown into the Retro Entertainment series. I picked up both and regretted neither. The "premium" version is many times more expensive, but totally worth it. I would say the same here as well.

Starting with the basics, the Retro Entertainment Ford GT LM wears Real Riders (plus Goodyear lettering on the tires) to go along with its metal base and cast rear wing. The basic one curiously has a separate, plastic wing that sits a little shorter. I say curious because recent releases of this model have all been converted to the cast wing. The premium GT has windscreen decals, wing decals, printed fuel caps, and full rear detailing, none of which the basic one has. The headlight treatments are slightly different in execution. The interior of the premium version is a little darker and more metallic, the body paint a bit glossier. Everything else remains the same.

At five times the price, Retro Entertainment models would seem like worse value than their mainline counterparts, but trust me, they're completely worth it. The Real Riders alone completely change the look of the whole model, just as having the right set of wheels would on a real car. Which is why most Hot Wheels premium lines tend to sell very quickly and why they're wildly popular with customizers.

Quality over quantity - the golden rule of collecting diecast.

Seeing Green: Scoring a Greenlight Green Machine Dodge Charger Pursuit

The diecast gods have blessed me with another chase car.

That's two in a week, and suddenly I'm feeling very good about myself.

It's nice to get a reminder of how fun the hunt can be and how essential it is to this hobby. I used to rely solely on my weekly expeditions to the local store to get my diecast fix. Lately, I've resorted to obtaining most of my diecast from the world wide web, as a lot of what I want isn't available around here. But this past week has solidified my long-standing belief that, yes, the hunt is 90% of the fun in collecting diecast. It can be downright frustrating when stores are going through their dry spells, but damn right rewarding when they're overflowing.

So here we have the Green Machine versus the regular release of the 2015 Dodge Charger Pursuit, from the Greenlight Hot Pursuit, Series 19. I found the regular version a week ago, so it's already been liberated. I hate to say this, but I think the Green Machine will stay in its package. It's just way too rare. Too valuable. Like, you know, I could sell this down the line for a fortune and be a rich man.

I hope you realized that was sarcasm, because you know me: I open all of them. No "if"s, "and"s, or "but"s.

I vividly remember the first time I found a Green Machine. I was on the way back home from K-Day, many years ago, and I figured I would stop by Toys"R"Us for a quick peek. And there it was, the Green Machine Chrysler 300C from the Motor World series. It was pastel baby blue, and a casting I would normally have picked up. But I left the store empty-handed.

I can remember this particular event because I had never booked it so quickly to the restroom before, Seeing those vomit-inducing green wheels really gets your stomach turning. I'm glad Greenlight has started doing these Green Machines with the metallic green paint scheme in lieu of those horrendous wheels. It's like what Auto World does with its Ultra Reds, and it looks Greenlight has started figuring things out. Hopefully M2 is next in line, because those chases are just plain awful.

This one was hiding at the end of the rack, covered in shadows. I could barely make out that green paint color, but it was enough for me to instantly realize that something wasn't right. Yanked it off the pegs to confirm my suspicions. It's the first one I have in my collection, and it makes a great pair with the regular release.

Here's hoping for more.

The Myth, The Legend, The Racing Champions Dodge Charger Daytona

Since the return of the Racing Champions brand in 2016, we have only seen one wave thus far, and the end of the year is coming up fast. Actually, let me reiterate. We have seen five-sixths of a wave, because the Dodge Charger Daytona did not initially make it to production. The team at Round 2 (which also owns brands such as Auto World and Johnny Lightning) said they were working to fix some issues with the casting, thus causing the delay.

I waited many months for this release. As a fledgling Mopar fan, this is one that got me hyped about the return of Racing Champions. I was badly in need of a good Daytona casting for my collection - the M2 releases never looked quite right to me. As the months passed, I began to lose hope, as did plenty of other collectors. It seemed like the Charger Daytona would never be released - or any new product at all for that matter. Simply put, for all I was concerned, the Daytona was a myth.

A stroll into Toys"R"Us one afternoon unveiled something I had never seen before and something I was completely not expecting. "Could that really be.....the Racing Champions Dodge Charger Daytona?!", my mind spoke to me as I glanced, left to right, through the pegs. There it was, hanging from the very front of a sparse peg of Racing Champions product. I couldn't believe my eyes. Yes, it's real, and I'm very excited to share it here.

First impressions: good casting, nice color, love the wheels, looks very realistic, but too much junk hanging from the undercarriage (clearly visible from the side profile shown below).

That last bit was almost the tipping point. I'm ashamed to admit that I almost put it back. That would have been disastrous, after all the months of waiting. I gave it a chance, and it's the best decision I've made in a while.

A Quick Recap Of The September K-Day Snoozefest

Hands up if you went to the K-Day this past Saturday and found nothing interesting!

Or how about, hands up if you did your research, looked through others' K-Day case finds, and chose to skip it! Or better yet, slept right through it! If so, you're much smarter than I am.

If you missed it, well, you didn't. It was that bad. I'm not talking about the event per se, but the assortment of cars in this particular case was atrocious. Perhaps the absolute worst since I started going to these events five, six, seven years ago. I like to rag on Hot Wheels a lot, and I'll do plenty of it here. Who is in charge of deciding which castings make it to production? Did we really need a dozen generic animal/creature/UFO castings? Who thought it was a good idea to make the regular Treasure Hunt AND the $uper Treasure Hunt both generics?

At my local K-mart, everyone gets a case to themselves on most occasions. I grabbed my handful of cars (plus a few extras for trade) and bounced. Didn't bother sticking around till the end. I'd be willing to be there were a bunch of leftovers. Poor K-mart. They have to go through the long and arduous process of selling off all of that junk. Might as well close shop now.

Amongst the pile of crap, I found two particularly noteworthy releases: the Bel Air Gasser (a First-To-Market) and the black Subaru WRX STi (a K-Day exclusive colorway), or 'Rex for short. I collect all the 'Rex hatchback releases - it's my favorite generation of the beloved rally-turned-pocket rocket that adolescents and teens fawn over. It looks OK, but not as nice as the red one released months prior. Flat black is poor taste in general, and this model is in need of front and rear detailing in place of those graphics. Overall, it's worth getting for the fanboys, and I certainly woke up early Saturday morning to get mine.

The real star of the show was the Gasser. I remember the first release of this casting, in flat light grey, was debuted at K-Day no less. I don't recall if it was an exclusive or a First-To-Market (pretty sure it was the latter), but I fondly recall not getting picked for a case that day and not having the chance to get one. They had all been picked through by the time we got to the free-for-all session. Needless to say, the hype was real back then, and it still is now.

This is my first of this casting. I've skipped them over in the past because I wasn't into American muscle then. Shame on me. These are fantastic.