Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Confessions of a Diecast Toy Car Lover Coming Out of the Closet

It all started about three years ago, when on a stopover on the way either to or from (I forget which) my in-laws' house in Cavite, in a town some 55 kilometers from our house in Quezon City, my wife and I spent some time in Alabang's Festival Mall.

A comic book collector, I knew that there was a Comic Quest there and I determined to find it. As anyone who has been there would know, Festival Mall is one of the bigger malls around, so finding a store on the topmost floor took some doing for someone who had never been there before.

When I found Comic Quest, I was surprised to find it tucked in the middle of three other stores, none of which carried comic books as their stock-in-trade but instead collectibles of all sorts: action figures, statues, and die-cast collectible cars.

That Comic Quest never became one of my staples: I only ever bought two or three issues. But from then on I always enjoyed going back to those collectibles stores. I liked looking at the Marvel Legends figures and their variants. I liked looking at the McFarlane toys, especially the ones based on movie scenes. I also liked the Neca toys with remarkably well-sculpted likenesses of the movie stars they were modeled after.

But nothing enchanted me the way the way the diecast toy cars did. I didn't much care for the 1:64 Hot Wheels that were practically littered throughout one of the stores (RAM collectibles, for anyone that's curious), because they weren't really big on detail, but I was particularly enchanted by the more detailed cars made in larger scales. Of course, the best to look at were the 1:18 cars, especially the Ferraris. I loved looking at all of the gorgeous replicas of both Formula One Ferraris as well as the various production cars as new as the Enzo and as old as the 250 GTO.

But there were cars in some smaller scales, namely 1:24 and 1:43, which were also quite easy on the eyes.

I am proud to say I found a way to truly and sincerely motivate myself to haul ass all the way to my in-law's every few weeks.

I also found myself heading to Uncle Johnny's Hobby Shop (those little toy car kiosks in SM North EDSA and Megamall), even though I never really gave them any business. Just looking at the things scratched my itch. I wasn't a collector yet.

However, I found myself wading into collector territory earlier this year. With some of the first paycheck from my new job last May, I bought myself a 1:18 replica, made by Maisto, of a Mercedes SLR McLaren, a car I instantly fell in love with when its commercials played during the 2004 Formula One season. Shortly thereafter, I bought a Maisto 1:64 SLR McLaren.

Still, I was not a collector.

The itch became stronger earlier this year, when my sister-in-law popped up at our house and invited my son out for an afternoon. When they came back, it turned out she had bought him two little "Hot Wheels" toys, specifically, a yellow Corvette and a silver Ford GR-1 Shelby Concept Car.

The 'Vette was generic enough, but my curiosity was piqued by the Shelby Concept Car, the like of which I had never seen before. I Googled the thing like crazy and loved what I saw. I immediately felt that Mattel had not done the car justice; it was a thing of beauty.

In the course of Googling, I happened upon the Ford GT, another beauty of a car, and before I knew it I bought myself a 1:64 toy made by DUB City, which left a little to be desired but which was quite attractive nonetheless.

But I still didn't consider myself a collector, even though I went absolutely green with envy when some collector proudly put on display in a glass case over at SM Toy Kingdom, his complete collection of DUB City Ford GTs, in both 1:24 and 1:64 scale.

Then, life caught up with me. All kinds of things happened which kind of made me forget about collecting or even just ogling toy cars.

Things settled down not too long afterwards, and I soon found myself on the brink of giving in to a long pent-up desire...I just didn't realize it yet.

It started just before Christmas came around. For some reason, I felt I just HAD to have a small Ferrari F430. Unfortunately, because Hot Wheels apparently has exclusive rights to make Ferrari toys, I had to content myself with buying their version, which, incidentally, is unavailable in most toy stores, and only available in these specialty stores like the ones I love to visit in Festival mall, at two or three times the price of a regular Hot Wheels car. I bit the bullet and paid the premium for the little thing. In the course of my searching for that Ferrari (which proved surprisingly rare in Greenhills that day), I stumbled upon a charcoal black Hot Wheels Shelby GR-1 concept (as opposed to the now beat-up silver one my son owned). It was marked up, but not as much a Ferrari, and the saleslady confirmed it was hard to find. I know I had never seen it anywhere else. Despite its rarity, however, I passed on buying it.

I still did not consider myself a collector. I had been Googling off and on for diecast replicas of Shelby GR-1s, but unable to find anything other than the Hot Wheels model, or a yet-to-be-released 1:18 model by high-end toymaker AutoArt, I just didn't have the heart to buy anything that didn't truly capture the GR's unique blend of beauty and ferocity.

Then, Christmas season rolled around, and suddenly, my son was swimming in Hot Wheels cars. His godmother, my former law school classmate, gave him two, one of them a Shelby Cobra Daytona (and it was thus that I discovered the roots of the Shelby GR-1 Concept). His godfather, upon learning that he wanted Hot Wheels for Christmas, funded a little shopping expedition that I carried out, picking out what I hoped would be some durable Hot Wheels cars. I also took the chance to shop for about four other kids between the ages of three to six, and it was thus that I really, truly immersed myself in both Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars again for the first time in my entire adult life.

I found myself impressed by the way Matchbox had maintained their quality, even after having been bought out twice, first by Tyco, then indirectly as Mattel purchased Tyco. In the midst of my shopping I ended up buying a Matchbox Porsche 911, the only one in the store. I finished shopping, and not long afterwards my son's cars were wrapped and ready to go.

This time I was truly smitten. I was about to cross over from toy car ogler and occasional buyer into full-blown nascent collector.

I ordered two Hot Wheels "Dropstars" Ferrari 360s online, which should arrive sometime next month. After trawling the internet, I also found a number of Matchboxes that I really wanted to to buy, but I decided to go up close and personal and buy them at one of my favorite haunts.

On Christmas day, after the visit to my in-laws, I made a beeline that evening for my favorite row of stores, determined to start my collection in earnest. I wouldn't even know just how earnest until I set foot in RAM's collectibles.

Having been to something like two dozen stores in Greenhills, the store in Megamall and a number of other, smaller stores in a couple of other malls in the Metro Manila area, I can say with certainty that RAM Collectibles, which sits right beside Comic Quest in Festival Mall, has the widest car collection of any specialty store I have ever seen.

And so I searched the store's huge collection of 1:64 toy cars of several different models and manufacturers (mostly Hot Wheels) in search of some rare Matchbox cars, only to be disappointed. I had also hoped to find the rare black Hot Wheels Shelby GR-1 I had passed up in Greenhills only days before (and which had been promptly snapped up by some other eagle-eyed collector shortly thereafter), but to no avail.

I was about to content myself with an old Jaguar XJ220 which went for a measly PhP 70, together with a much pricier Ferrari 360 I had spotted sitting in a glass case, when I found a much greater treasure. As I handed both the toy cars and my cash to the saleslady, I looked around one last time, my eyes eventually falling on a rather low shelf with some unobtrusively placed toy cars made by a relatively obscure manufacturer, an Arkansas-based company called 1BaddRide.

One could say it was destiny as upon going through these cars, I finally, after months of searching, found not just one but TWO stunningly-rendered replicas of a Ford Shelby GR-1, one in silver and one in blue, supposedly done in 1:64 scale but which look a lot more like 1:55 or even 1:50. I ended up shelving the Ferrari 360 (which was not rendered anywhere near as well as the two other cars) and buying both Shelby GRs, spending PhP300 on each one. As pricey as they were, I didn't feel the slightest tinge of regret, especially after a quick online search showed me that each of them went for as much as $7, without shipping. The euphoria I felt upon fulfilling a quest that had been going on for the better part of a year was...incomparable!

NOW I am a collector.

This time, I know it's for real, as I am now on the verge of giving up collecting monthly comic books altogether, as I explained in another post. I hope to complete all four Shelby GR variants made by 1BaddRide. After that, maybe I'll save up for the AutoArt edition, or complete the 1BaddRide collection of sports cars, which includes C6 Corvettes and Mustang GTs. I don't know yet when I'll buy my next car, or how often I'll buy them. I don't even really know what my collecting style/trend will be, whether it will be by toy manufacturer (e.g. Hot Wheels, Dub City, 1BaddRide, etc.), or by car manufacturer (all things Ford, all things Ferrari, etc.). I DON'T EVEN KNOW!!!

All I know is that if I had my way right now, I would be the 40-year-old virgin of the diecast sports cars set (anyone who's seen that movie would know what I mean).

I don't think I could have gotten into this any earlier than just recently, considering that the Shelby GR-1 only just came out, but now that it's started I can see this going on for awhile.

I don't see myself ever collecting real-life supercars, but I will certainly be content to buy these babies. At least they don't poison the air my children breathe, and--who knows?--maybe they can even make a mint selling them on e-bay some day in the future (but only after I'm dead).

Oh, to get in touch with my inner child/diecast geek again!!! Ooooooohhhh...

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