It's The Time Of The Season

Once again, it's that time of year which everybody groans about but can't do anything about - Winter.  Yeah, baby it's cold outside, but who wants to get out in all that snow and ice?  Around here in Southern Illinois, it certainly ain't no winter wonderland.  To spotlight this season in diecast, I've chosen two cold-weather vehicles made by Maisto.  You'll probably recognize both from having seen them at work around your area as well.  Without further ado, here is a snowplow that keeps the roads scraped and the power company truck that keeps busy putting electric lines back up.  Enjoy!

 Maisto Snow Plow at work on an actual ice-covered road.

It says "Fire Department" on the side but it's called the "Maisto Utility Truck."  Used by electric companies everywhere.

It's Truck Month!

I've always loved pickup trucks, so I felt it was high time that I spotlighted some of the various pickup trucks in my diecast collection. This post features mostly Ford trucks, but there's a Dodge and a Toyota thrown in for good measure.

Suntoys Ford F-150

Maisto Road Warrior, based on a 1979 Ford F-150 stepside

A No-Name brand modeled after a Ford F-150 fleetside

Hot Wheels Ford F-150 4-wheel-drive

Maisto Ford Mighty F-350

Hot Wheels Ford F-150 4-wheel-drive

Maisto Ford Explorer Sport Trac

Maisto Dodge Ram Quad Cab

Suntoys Toyota Tacoma

Diecast Piece Of The Month, January 2011

Up until I was the age of 6, my family car was a 1956 Buick. I have fond memories of that car, so when I saw that Maisto was releasing a 1955 Buick, I had to have it. It debuted as part of a set in their Elite Transports series. It featured a COE flatbed truck hauling a 1955 Buick Century. The set is pictured above. I hate to break up the set because, however much I really like the flatbed truck, it's the car on back that is my allstar. The only detraction of the piece is that it's made out to look like some kind of dragster, with wide tires on the back and skinny ones up front. Other than that, it seems to be a fairly accurate representation of a 1955 Buick.

The first thing you notice is that it features a retro-styled paint scheme with lots of pinstriping and scallops along the sides; all done in silver so they really stand out against the black body.

The front end is really down in the weeds and is perhaps just a bit too low for your average car of the Fifties. But, it is detailed to include a colorful license plate.

Those classic 1950 styling cues show big time when viewed along the side and the wrap-around windshield is typical of that era. It also features wing windows that are all but a forgotten relic of the past.

From the side, the Buick design becomes quite noticeable. The distinctive trim is recreated to perfection and represents the period's affinity for the chrome look. The more chrome, the better.

From the rear, you can see this model is sporting dual exhaust. I'll bet it would sound real nice cruising by real slow.

Along the top, the intricate pinstriping is quite evident. Perhaps a little bit more than I would prefer, but it works well with the subtle metalflake black paint it covers.

The car lends itself to many interpretations and looks quite artistic when done up in collage form.

This last view shows the car with some normal-sized wheels and tires. Although sitting at a low rider stance, it's still more level and it's easy to see why the 1950's were thought of as a classic era in American automobile styling. Who wouldn't want a big piece of solid automobile around them when it's a beauty like this 1955 Buick Century. Check out the Maisto Elite Transports series - they've got some really unique cars and trucks represented.

Dodge Viper - A Modern Classic

When the Dodge Viper was first released in 1992, it immediately captured the attention of the public. After having made countless appearances in TV shows, video games, movies and music videos, it's still going strong. Here is my diecast tribute to this hot car.

Maisto 1995 Dodge Viper RT10

Maisto 1996 Dodge Viper GTS

Maisto 1998 Dodge Viper GT2

Hot Wheels Dodge Viper GTS-R

Matchbox Dodge Viper GTS-R

Customs I've Made

To me, there's a certain satisfaction to be gained when you can customize one of your favorite diecast pieces and paint it in a color of your own choosing. That way, it makes it special, and in a sense, a limited piece. Depending on the amount of detail you want to add, you can make them look quite eye-catching! Now, my skills at customizing are not even close to the level I've seen being turned out by some people out there, but I still find it something I enjoy doing. Above is a Summer Toyota Celica LB Turbo GR.5. I had a beat up old one that I acquired long ago and attempted to make it look nice again. Below, you can see my less than stellar attempt. But it was one of the first ones I ever repainted:

Recently, I dug it out and redid it again. Below you can see a transitional state it took before I applied the final coat of paint to it. There was a point that I almost left it with the chrome look because it looked kind of nice:

But, I went on and finished it later and it turned out like this:

Some of the other castings I have customized is one of my favorite Hot Wheels vehicle called a Letter Getter. It is basically a big panel truck with lots of room for the sponsor's logo on the sides. This makes it a nice choice to customize as you can put whatever writing on it that you want. I chose "Kodak" for this one because I like to take pictures and use a lot of Kodak film:

I chose "FedEx" for the side of this one simply because you see them everywhere:

Here's an old piece I had that was all but ready for the trash. I decided to bring it back to life and fixed it up. Here is the shiny, new truck it became:

One of my other early attempts at repaining a toy car was this Hot Wheels Gun Slinger. Originally, it was Army green and had a gun. Well, I had long since lost the gun, so I repainted it black. But, I did keep the Army theme by applying a star decal to the hood:

Another bodystyle I like is station wagons. My parents had one when I was little and ever since then, I've loved them. I've had three real ones of my own since becoming an adult! So, anytime one is released in 1:64 scale, you can bet I try to get one. Here is a Hot Wheels 8 Crate, based on a 1955 Ford station wagon that I started to customize. When it's finished, it will be two-tone, white over red. But for now, here's what it looks like:

Other station wagons I've customized is one put out by Matchbox, an Audi RS6 Avant:

And what some might consider to be a station wagon, a Volkswagen T2 minibus, also by Matchbox:

Matchbox also makes a Dodge Magnum station wagon model, in two varieties. Here is one of them that I am going to stripe and make into an Illinois State Police car:

Here's another Police vehicle I made, only it started out as a Hot Wheels Highway Patrol car and became an Arizona Border Patrol car:

Here is a Maisto Chevrolet Camaro Concept that I painted anodized blue over a chrome base. It is one of the first cars I ever drilled out the rivets and took it apart the right way:

A Hot Wheels '65 Mustang Fastback that I painted gloss black and used the old basic wheels they used to use:

I started customizing this Zee Volkswagen Beetle to look like Herbie, The Love Bug. All it needs are the racing strips and numbers to be finished:

Here's an old Lindberg Line Hertz Truck that I painted black long ago. It's essentially a 1:64 scale model car, so it was easy to take back apart and paint:

My most recent custom is a Hot Wheels Cadillac Seville. They only made it for a couple years and in a couple different paint schemes. For one release, they used the big, rubber tires known as Real Riders. I decided this one needed to be a different color, I had stripped it down to bare metal waiting to make up my mind what color that would be. The other day I decided what I wanted, so I finished painting it and putting it back together. This is how it turned out:

So, customizing your own cars can be quite fun. It can take as little or as much time and effort as you wish to put out and at any level of effort, you can come up with some nice results. As I said, I'm not really very good at it, but I think they turn out to be some great looking customs that I'm proud to display!

Corvette Mania

I thought this time I might feature some images of the quintessential American sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette. Probably every company that ever made a diecast car has put at least one Corvette into their line, and this post will feature just a few from my meager collection of the fiberglass-bodied speedster. So, please enjoy the show!

Summer 1956 Corvette

Maisto 1957 Corvette

Hot Wheels 1958 Corvette

Hot Wheels 1969 Corvette

Hot Wheels 1980's Corvette

Zee 1985 Corvette

Maisto 1997 Corvette

Hot Wheels 2009 Corvette

Well, I hope you got to see all the sports cars I just presented. Chevrolet Corvettes are fast and if you blinked, you might have missed them!