Taking a Chance With The Hot Wheels Speed Graphics 5-Pack

Each year, there's a grand total of about two 5-packs worth getting, and they both revolve around the same theme. One is the annual Hot Wheels Exotics 5-pack, usually featuring five of the hottest European sports cars and supercars, with minimal graphics and occasionally the odd stripe or two. The other is Matchbox's version of the Exotics 5-pack, which is similar but with far better castings and more realistic designs. Otherwise, most of these multi-packs are best suited as children's gifts, for the ones who haven't yet reached the age to differentiate good taste from bad taste.

This year, there's a third, and it's this Speed Graphics fiver. There are two particular models in here absolutely worth having regardless of what you collect, and the rest is a toss-up depending on who you're talking to.

I personally like three of these models: the Corvette Grand Sport, Ford GT LM, and the Toyota Supra. Three out of five, for five bucks, is not bad at all. Last week, I took opportunity of Target's 40% off all Hot Wheels promotion on Cartwheel to snatch this quintet for $3, which brought me to a single dollar for each car I intend to keep.

Now that's more like it!

After examining each of these in person, I felt the Corvette was more ho-hum than I had thought. The yellow base is, naturally, hideous, at which point I had to remind myself that Hot Wheels and common sense are not synonymous with each other. The GT, while a bit simplistic, is pretty as always. The Supra really wowed with its bold colors and perfectly suited (and very underrated) Y5 wheels. It's fantastic and my favorite release of the Mark IV to date.

I think I'll keep those two tucked away safely and toss the others in the donation bin.

The Dodge Charger Drift car is merely a shell of its former self.

Love the colors and the livery, but this casting is plain awful.

Hot Wheels designers sure love their yellow bases!

The Other Half of Johnny Lightning's Classic Gold Series 2

Obscure cars for the win.

That's why Johnny Lightning and the rest of the Round 2 brands are so appealing. It's like you're building an encyclopedia of all the American cars ever made when you collect these. Here we have the '73 Pontiac GTO (not often done in diecast), Chevy Vega Wagon, and Dodge Warlock. Three more models that I didn't previously have. I've got a handful of GTOs but none of them are the '73. I've got the Vega, but not in wagon form. The truck, although one that I could've done without, is a complete unknown to me, but I expect this one will be among the most popular of the series.

These should either have arrived or be arriving at local stores soon. My local Toys"R"Us just restocked a new case of these a few days ago, after I wiped them out last week. The ones left over? The Monza, surprisingly, and the Vega Wagon.

A Titanium Trio: Three Models From M2 Machines' Latest Titanium Series

This just might be M2's best series to date.

It's the Walmart-exclusive Titanium series, and it's exactly what it sounds like - a showcase of some of their strongest and best castings, in the cool metallic color that we all love, finished off with earthy brown interiors. If there's been a better release by M2, I surely haven't seen it in the year-plus that I've been collecting them. Shown here are the '71 Dodge Charger R/T, '70 Ford F-100 Custom, and '58 Chevrolet Apache. Not shown here are the '68 Shelby GT500KR 'vert, '70 Olds 442, and '49 Custom Merc. All six models are well worthy of occupying your dwindling shelf space; these three are the ones that stood out to me the most.

I'd like to thank The Bell King over at LaLD for helping me scoop up a couple of these models, the Charger and the F-series. He is quite the lucky dude, always managing to find the latest releases before the rest of us do. These never saw the light of day in my neck of the woods, and based on the buzz that this series generated, they likely sold out before I could get to them. I did manage to snatch the Apache later on while I was out of town, but that's a different story.

The Charger is obviously my favorite of the group, because Mopar or no car. The '71 also happens to be the best-looking generation, in my opinion, with its sleek body lines compared to the boxier generations of prior (the '69 and '70 are shockingly absent from M2's casting lineup).

A neat little touch that M2 has added to these models is the "Titanium" logo on the front fenders and rear windows of each car. And if you look more closely, you'll see the "22" superscript, denoting the material's atomic number. The geek in me approves.