Spot the difference

The Porsche 911 Turbo by Matchbox is probably the best casting of the iconic sports car which, incidentally, turned 50 years old this year.

Sadly though, for reasons unbeknownst to collectors, Matchbox has been on a tampo-stripping rampage as of late (read: recent years). This pathetic (mis)strategy leaves some of their models half-baked and unable to attain their full glory, such as the case with the red 911 from one of MBX's 5-packs. Tampos, except for the "Turbo" on the side, are practically non-existent for this model.

However, with a steady hand, several images of the actual car referenced by Google, and a few dashes of paint here and there, one could bring the casting to the attention it deserves.

Here's the nekkid casting straight off the 5-pack. Note the lack of tampo detailing...

Upon counting, which basically means heading over to Matchbox Database and looking at their list, 6 out of 19 Turbos lack details for the head and tail lamps, while only 4 among them have painted bumper grills.

It seems that the only properly detailed models come out of special releases, like the 60th Anniversary line, which costs thrice as much. This sorta thing sucks.

I shouldn't have written this piece. I should've let the pictures speak for themselves. I should stop ranting. I marred the legacy of this great cast with a tirade. *sigh*

Click on the thumbnails below to see more on Flickr.

What the f**k have I been up to?

It's been more than a year. Priorities have changed and my taste in collections has changed. A bit.

So, what has kept me busy during the past 18 months? These

It all started with trying to get Matchbox and Hot Wheels versions of the Volkswagen I'm most crazy for -- the VW Type 181. Call it the Kurierwagen, the Trekker, the Safari, or the Thing. Back during my high school days, I was lucky enough to have driven one that was owned by a very good friend. May God bless your soul, Beng.

The want to get them all turned into an urge. The urge turned into an obsession. So I turned to the toy stores.

The Hot Wheels (and some Matchbox) versions were easy to acquire off the pegs.

Getting two variants made by Matchbox was a bit more challenging. Luckily, I found the zebra and red (Lesney) editions being sold by a nice chap from one of the local die-cast forums.

The pearl-white variant from the 2011 Matchbox VW Classics 5-pack was a given due to it's recent release:

So was the HW Boulevard Series release (shown below with a Johnny Lightning one), since it was just released last year:

I got so into it that I grabbed another Johnny Lightning Thing.

That's not all. I'm still in the process of finalizing a sale and getting Jada V-Dub 1/64 versions.

However, until now, I'm still looking for the one significant variant that's missing from my MBX/HW collection -- the green Matchbox VW Thing from the 2008 10-pack. I let one being offered in eBay slip by a few months ago, and I still can't forgive myself for doing so. If you've got one, and are willing to part with it, kindly drop me a message (arnelmanlises @ yahoo . com) and I'd be more than willing to work things out.

Here's a pic of the Thing (excuse the pun) I'm desperately looking for:

Pic borrowed from http://www.freewebs.com/71westfalia/vwmatchboxthingghia.htm

Maybe you're wondering how come it took me 1.5 years to snag the 8 variants from Matchbox and 6 from Hot Wheels. Well, here's the great part -- it wasn't only VW Type 181s that I went after. But that's for another blog post. :D

See you all next year! ^_^