“Well, of course”, one might be tempted to say, “Of course it’s your car club. It’s certainly not — as Sammy Davis Jr. would point out — Irving’s car club.” Well, here’s the thing: Recently on Pandora radio, a song popped up which just seems exactly what Suncoast Diecasters needs as its (totally unofficial) official theme music:

If Suncoast Diecasters were a WWE tag-team, this would be our entrance theme — and Ya can’t. Teach. That.

And, since you can’t teach that, on to the photos!

April 2016

We start off with this quartet by Mike C. (See how I kept the music theme goin’ there? …It probably won’t last.)

1970 Plymouth Barracuda; Ferrari Testarossa; 1971 Plymouth GTX (Treasure Hunt); ’71 Dodge Challenger

(By the way, you may notice that this photo of Mike’s cars is slightly narrower than the other photos. Turns out I bobbled the dimension settings when I scaled the photo down for posting. That is, the actual JPG file itself is scaled wrong on my C-drive. ‘Tis my own fault, and not WordPress’s.)

Ken nabbed this groovy Sooo Fast done up in custom livery for the Early Times Car Club. Everything about this is great to look at, but my favorite element is the retro MotoMeter illustration.

And yes, I only learned about MotoMeters from ”American Pickers”

From Big Tractor Mike I bought this awesome large(r)-scale DeLorean DMC-12 Time Machine. Can’t tell whether its motor is pull-back or friction, as it doesn’t work anymore. But that honestly is quite irrelevant, as this big(ger) beast looks great just sitting on the shelf.

Based on the length of an actual DMC-12, and doing a little math, this model is about 1/43-scale.

Now, here’s a curious thing: I don’t know the toy’s maker. I’ve seen any number of regular production vehicles, both modern and classic, reproduced as friction/pull-back toys. But this is not a regular production vehicle; this is a licensed design owned by a major studio. You’d think the toy’s manufacturer would proudly want its name or logo on the base; but it only states Back to the Future and Made in China. This is simultaneously one of the most readily recognizable toys and a no-namer.

Yeah, I really, *really* need to update our ”Two Scales” page…

Big Tractor Mike picked up a bunch of MOC cars. As I was stacking them for photos, I realized that I could also more or less group them. But I was unsure of getting good lighting on all the models in a stack, so I photographed them individually, deciding to “stack” them in my photo editing software. Took longer, but it guaranteed well-lit cars, as well as preventing me from having to load all these as separate photos. (Did the same this with Mike C.’s cars above.) This first group is the Groupless Group, the models that didn’t really fit the other groups, or each other for that matter. (I hereby dub this phenomenon as Big Tractor Mike’s Conundrum, which I offer to you as a corollary of Russell’s Paradox.)

London Taxi; Dodge D-50 (Real Riders); Trailbuster

Next is the “Delivery Vans” group. And, yes, the blister over the first Dairy Delivery really is that yellow.

Dairy Delivery; Dairy Delivery; Land Rover MkII; ’32 Ford Delivery (Malt-O-Meal Ltd. Ed.); Delivery Van (Bob’s Toy Show)

Third is this trio of Mustangs. (See how I have a numerical theme goin’ there? …That probably won’t last either.)

’96 Mustang Convertible; ’65 Mustang Convertible; ’65 Mustang

Mike also picked up two Early Times-edition rides. And, no, I didn’t cheap out and just copy the photo of Ken’s Sooo Fast. Look closely, and you’ll see they’re two separate cars.

Sooo Fast; Classic ’32 Ford Vicky

Ah, now we’re gettin’ to the good stuff: This sweet ’55 Chevy, and three ’57s … Magnum. (No, no, I assure you, that one definitely won’t last.)

’55 Chevy (Hot Ones); ’57 Chevy; ’57 Chevy; ’57 Chevy (Yep, typed ’em all, because I care)

And finally, the Best of the Best: A nice tall, refreshing stack of Treasure Hunts, including a ’67 Camaro with an opening hood (which itself is a refreshing treasure).

’32 Ford Delivery; ’71 Plymouth GTX; 1967 Camaro; Go Kart; Mini Cooper (Treasure Hunts all)

Ed, a retired fireman, acquired his own trio of flamey greatness. First is this VW done up in German (!) fireservice livery. As you can see, it’s by a company named Vitesse. The back states the toy was manufactured in Portugal (and Vitesse was based there), which piqued Ed’s curiosity as the primary langauge on the packaging is French. I suggested (quite incorrectly, it turns out) that French might be the official language there. By the way, Vitesse has an office here in Florida.

Despite the French packaging, the end label gives the German description, ”Feuerwehr Tubingen”

Next, Ed got what has to be the most adorable li’l fire engine I ever did see. No, it’s not a Micro Machines product. It’s by a Hong Kong-based company named Soma, from their Micro Racers line. I was able to ID it on their “sell sheet”, which is a huge (1600+ x 2300+) JPG.

‘Tis picayune…

…Yet it doth perform!

Finally, Ed got this cool retro TV toy. This is a variation of the Police Launch. After Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1980, Code Red was Lorne Green’s next series. It ran for two seasons, as did BG, and obviously garnered some licensed toys, as did BG, so technically I guess the two shows were equally successful. (Yet, there was no much-hyped Code Red reboot on SyFy. Strange.) The vintage price tag reads “The Clover Leaf”; I couldn’t any info on that store, so feel free to inform us in the Comments. For its retro TV-ness, its LorneGreenness and vintage priceyness, I gladly dub this our Find of the Month(*) for April 2016.

Awww, it’s the cutest photobomb ever!

Bonus Image: The back of the Code Red card is basic, unbleached gray cardboard, illustrated with simple line drawings of the eight vehicles in the set. I was able to color-reduce it to black-&-white without too much loss or artifacting. By clicking the small image below, you can download the full-size image for your child to color.

Full size: 800 x 995

Hey, I got the April update updated while there’s still some April left! Victoryyyy!

See you at the May meeting!

~WM