First things first: This Saturday, September 14th, is not only our next meeting-date, it’s also the next K-Mart Collector Day! And, because more is better, it’s also the beginning of the next K-mart Mail-in Promo! Please check our updated Calendar for links to the information.

Third things second: Hey, did you know that there’s a major movie production of the story of real-life friends and professional rivals Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and  Tom “The Mongoo$e” McEwen? In fact, it opened last Friday! However, it’s in limited theater release, and according to the official website the only Florida city currently listed is Gainesville. …Perhaps we can do a right-in campaign to bring it to Pinellas County. Well, it’s a thought, anyway. Please visit Snake and Mongoo$e to learn more.

Now, onto the August photos!

August 2013

Big Tractor Mike snagged this Tootsie Toy triple treat: dual materials-hoppers with “working” hopper gates. I didn’t test the gates, as I had no idea how well the plastic has aged. Nonetheless, a great find.

I had recently gone through some of my storage, sorting my disinterred toys into five categories: 1) Keep (for a while yet); 2) Attempt to sell online; 3) Donate to thrift store; 4) toss; and of course, 5) Sell to fellow Suncoast Diecasters members. (Those categories aren’t in really in any particular order, by way, except for no. 1.) Thus, this handy “Fold & Go” playset, complete with Emergency Squad, soft molded ‘copter which looks a lot like Propper Chopper (including tailhook) but isn’t, and comically out-of-scale stretcher. When stored inside the upper garage, a vehicle can be “launched” by swinging back the gate. This set is now owned by Big Tractor Mike.

To prove the “Fold & Go” claim, here is how the set looks golded so you can fo. I mean, folded so you can go. And is Emergency Squad in there? Yep. With the helicopter, the stretcher, and the “launch” mechanism, the truck is in fact in there … but just barely.

Again, a storage find. Again, now owned by Big Tractor Mike. True, Suncoast Diecasters primarily focuses on 1/64-scale diecast vehicles, but on our tables you can vehicles in larger scales, playsets (see above), memorabilia and, you know, other stuff.

Bill adds yet even more awesome Redlines to his collection. Technical info: this Peepin’ Bomb in enamel yellow is a Shell promo.

Near the end of the day, AW had picked four items from my table. I advised him that if he gets one more, he gets two more. (My regular cars are $1 apiece, and 6 for $5.) So, he picked out a fifth vehicle, and thus he got six vehicles.

A young lad, a child of a patron of the Sports Bar (& Grill), had purchased several cars from me throughout the day. He comes over once again, and asks the cost of this set. I tell him, and he says he’ll take it, and holds out the money. I, concerned, ask if it’s okay with his parents to buy such an expensive set. He says yes, because it’s his birthday money. So, now Young Lad owns this set. I have another such set, and it can be yours if you attend our September meeting this Saturday.

So, Jim has these bags of half-a-dozen or more cars, for $3 a bag. I look over several. One vehicle catches my eye. I take it out of the bag and verify its identity. I head over to Jim, car in one hand, bag in the other. I tells him, I won’t buy the whole bag for $3, because I have enough of my own cars to get rid of … but, I would give him a dollar for this one car. He accepts. So, now I happily own a first-edition Lickety Six for an Embarrassingly Low Price®.

Far and away, the coolest find at our August meeting is Ken’s Jaguar. It’s a tiny little thing, approximately 1:87 scale. But what really makes it cool is its internationality: it’s by a company out of New Zealand called Fun Ho!. (The exclamation point is part of the name.) I’m presuming the “Ho” is meant as a call of discovery, like when a lookout sights land and calls out “Land, ho!” You know, as in, “Fun, hooo-ooo!!!”

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