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I have to hand it to the Lord, making a Snoopy car available when I already had the Red Baron so I could do a four-wheel version of the classic air battle.

No doubt you recall the song from which the holiday greeting is taken; nonetheless, enjoy this pleasant reminder:

Well, along with a big ol’ stack of new photos, there several other updates: our Calendar has 2014 all closed out; the holiday diorama at the top of the page has been added to our Christmas panels; and — big announcement — all the Members’ Galleries from the original site are now available here. Just mouse over Galleries on the menu bar atop this page, then mouse over Members’ Galleries, then click on the gallery you want to see.

Now, I have to tell you something about the look of these galleries. The old site was web-based, thus all the pages were coded in HTML. For the sake of speed and simplicity, rather than completely rebuild all the galleries here, I just dropped whole coded pages into blank WordPress templates. This process works … mostly. As WordPress does not recognize all HTML tags, much of the formatting has been either lost or oddly interpreted. Over time I’ll strip out the unneeded code, but meanwhile the pages look a bit, um, off. For example, I’m already halfway through Big Tractor Mike’s page. The first half of his gallery has the same clean appearance as the other WordPress pages here, while the second half appears rather clunky and ungainly – much like Big Tractor Mike himself.

And a special thanks to GoodStockPhotos for the “snow-covered pines” backdrop. Now on to the photos!

December 2014

Our December 2014 meeting starts with a RAOK from me to Big Tractor Mike. Below are just two of about forty or more vehicles and accessories from Kenner’s Mega Force line. No, no, this has nothing to do with the 1982 movie. This is a “futuristic” battle between the Triax and V-ROCS nations, which loosely represent Euro-socialists and NATO respectively.

The series came in two lines. One was a blister-pack of three basically realistic vehicles with a military-esque accessory (such as the radar tower below). The other was individual command vehicles which, being on the same unspecified scale as the blister trios, were so large as be cartoonish. No, no, there are no TAC-COMs; this is not from the movie. One example is the TAR-TRAKS carrier. It’s a land vehicle which can deliver up to four tanks to the battlefield. If a Mega Force tank is comparable to a modern real-world tank, the TAR-TRAKS machine would be about the size of a small office building.

Interesting marketing gimmick for the blister trios: one vehicle was always a command vehicle. You could tell because it was physically different. For example, the “command chopper” version of the one above has five blades.

Mike delicately tip-toes back into the world of Transformers, with this purchase from me of Blaster and several mini-cassette characters. Starting on the upper left and going left-right, left-right, they are Rewind, Eject, Slugfest, Overkill, Rain Dance, Grand Slam, Beastbox, Squawktalk and Ramhorn.

Mike C. made a (comparatively) rare appearance, and RAOK’d members (plural) with these sweet T-Hunt Custom ’62 Chevejo, packaged nicefully in ProTech protector shells.

Bill ROAK’d me with this sweet maroon Saturn Seeker from Kenner’s Fast111s line, and Ken ROAK’d me with this tasty green Dynamo from Kenner’s Fast111s line. Life … is good.

Bob had this awesome (awwwe-SOMMMME!) “Show Team” boxed set, still shrink-wrapped and mostly still with original rubber bands holding the cars in place. This set is so rare, I can’t any info on it online. Feel free to submit data!

Bob also had this Dinky fork lift. Which, to use the vernacular, isn’t so dinky. The toy is nearly the size of a 6-volt lantern battery. No scale is stated, but I’m guessing it’s in the 1/32 range.

Tom gets into the “holiday spirits” (Comedy!) with this triple serving of Lager lorries (More comedy!). They’re all from a subset of Matchbox’s Models of Yesteryear series named, quite inexplicably, Great Beers of the World.

Tom grooves on in his holiday shopping with this krazy-kolored Kool Kombi, an original-edition Sunagon from BTM, and this beautiful Mercedes 300 SE from Matchbox. No, your eyes are not lying; yes, the 300 SE has operating partses.

Clockwise from left: Green Matchbox Superfast VW Golf (1976, no. 7); magenta Matchbox Superfast Ford Capri (1970, no. 54); yellow Hot Wheels Peterbilt Dump Truck (Extras series); and yellow Matchbox Superfast Mod Rod (1971, no. 1). By the way, 1971 was the year Bill was born. Awwwwww!

Clockwise from left: Matchbox Beach Hopper, from the Rolamatics series (1973, no. 47); yellow Hot wheels Dump Truck with CAT Diesel Power tampo on doors (1998) [Note: Came originally in a baggie]; blue Hot Wheels Ford Dump Truck (1982); and light green Matchbox Superfast Dodge Charger III concept (1970). Hey, did you know that Bill was born in 1971? Awwwwww!

AW carried in this cool, crazy collection of colorful cranes. The cranes carefully and cautiously carry cargo, while the catalina-colored cutter in the corner cuts and cuts and cuts and never hits. (…You older readers will get that one eventually.)

I purchased this Corgi NBC garbager from Ken. Now, you know for a certainty that Ken collects garbage trucks; it’s quite unheard of for him to part with one. However, this’n’s a duplicate (he’s culling his collection), so he put it on the table, whence I purchased it. I think it’ll look good next to my other TV news trucks. Not that I’m editorializing on a certain network’s journalistic quality or anything!

I also bought this Corgi racer from Ken. I’ll tell you more about it when I find it!

I remarked to Ken that it was odd that he’d buy a truck with such damage. He said he has a “minty” one at home, but it’s missing its camper top.

…I don’t get it.

Proving that Mike C. did in fact RAOK members (plural) with these sweet T-Hunt Custom ’62 Chevejo, packaged nicefully in ProTech protector shells, here’s Ken’s. Along with the desktop trash can with which I RAOK’d him, and that blue tractor for which he owes me an explanation.

Okay, you’re wondering why I posted a photo so badly out of focus. It’s not out of focus; the PowerAde box in the background is sharp and clear! Heh. Okay, here’s what happened: Big Tractor Mike RAOK’d me beyond all RAOKedness with both this original Sunagon and this outrageously rare Swingin’ Wing from the outrageous imagination of Ira Gilford. I was attempting an artsy low-angle shot, when my camera’s battery went too low for the “live view” on the screen to be possible. So, knowing this would be the last shot of the day, I pointed the camera towards the cars and pressed the button. This is what I got.

I posted this photo anyway to prove that these models actually came from our December meeting, and weren’t acquired separately.

But since you deserve better, here it is: A nice, clear, well-focused shot of Swingin’ Wing. By the way, you see before you double the rarity: Not just a rare model, but one with its air brake still intact.

Since it’s quite likely that some of you have never seen Swingin’ Wing before, in the spirit of the holiday I offer you this Christmas Bonus photo of the model’s base as well. You have to admit, it even looks sleek and fast from underneath!

Ha! Holiday humor. No, the engine didn’t fall out. This just verifies that Ira Gilford indeed has an outrageous imagination. A sleek custom rod with a groovy spoiler? Cool enough. A functioning air brake built into the spoiler? Super cool. But a detailed engine that slides out on an Extend-O-Shelf gimmick? That’s wildly cool!

With thanks again to the Lord and to Big Tractor Mike, I hereby very readily declare this model to be our Find of the Month(*) for December 2014! (Even if it is partly stuck in a snow drift.)

Well, that wraps it up for 2014. We here at Suncoast Diecasters wish you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a very happy Happy New Year!

See you at the January (2015!) meeting!

~WM