Action 2015 Bobby Labonte

The first new addition to my collection since I started Die Cast History. I was looking at what was available on Ebay, and I saw this paint scheme, which was used by both Labonte brothers, since 2013. I had to have it. It became my first Action issue of 2015.

I'm a big fan of small teams so I am extra happy to see Frankie Stoddard's team getting some diecast representation.

Hot Wheels Baja Breaker Van

I wanted to post a classic, and as a long time van fan, this one fit the bill nicely. Starting this blog has helped me to finally do something I've been putting off for a while- I took this photo in 2008, and I finally edited it and fixed it today...almost 2016. So much to do, so little time.

I am the second owner of this one, but it's been in the family since new. This is from back when it had an opening hood, in the 1970s. Later issues of this tooling had the hood permanently closed.

I love older Hot Wheels and you will see a lot of them over the coming years. I have more Hot Wheels street cars than any other brand. I plan to alternate street cars (and other forms of motorsports) with NASCAR.

Matchbox 1992 Brett Bodine - 1st NASCAR

Although I would not become a NASCAR fan until 12/26/92, this was actually my first NASCAR car in my collection, purchased sometime in summer 1992, solely for the fact that it was green, my favorite color. I wouldn't learn for months that the driver was Brett Bodine. The car has always been an important one for me ever since.

My first diecast cars ever

Flash back to 1985. I was a year old. I was already destined to be a car guy- my family has been involved in the world of automobiles since 1932 at least- and somebody, it's not known who, gave me these two cars as a two pack.

They were produced by Kidco, and until roughly 2011 or 2012, they were the only cars I had from the brand. Interestingly, it remains the only Honda in my 1/64 collection, but the Chevrolets would grow significantly higher.

Luckily, my brother remembered that these were my first two, because I've had them so long I can't remember NOT having them.

I do remember having them more paint, but the hatch on the Honda went missing before my memory begins.

This was the only Chevette available in scale until the mid-2000s when another was tooled up.

Thanks for reading!

Introduction / Mission Statement

For many years, collecting 1/64 diecast cars was my #1 hobby, my main mission in life. I began at roughly a year and a half old, and I never imagined I would ever stop...but health issues have forced me to mostly stop. I began with street cars and then, on 12/26/1992, I discovered NASCAR....and nothing would ever be the same! By the time we got to 2013, I had over 5000 unique NASCAR cars in my collection. Granted, not all of them are in great shape- many of them were purchased second hand - but I had them, and that was all that mattered. I had a count on the non-NASCAR as well but I lost it. Not that I physically lost my excel file, but I did lose track of what had been typed in and what hadn't; by that point I didn't have the energy nor the motivation to try and get it back.

Around 2000, I stopped collecting street cars totally. I wouldn't pick up again until 2008 or 09, I stopped again in 2013...although a well made, never before done in scale or just too cool to pass up car will still enter my collection; I've added two non-NASCAR cars to my collection in 2014 and 2015 combined, both Greenlight issues.

NASCAR was harder to let go of. I thought I was done in 2014, but I couldn't let go totally, and started getting what I could again in summer 2015. I used to get every car, but I can't do that anymore. In April 2013 I collapsed and came literally 5 minutes short of dying...it turned out I was diabetic and didn't know it. To pay for the medicine that now keeps me alive something had to give...and that was diecast. Ironically, in this time period Action finally started to get it right for the first time in years, but I am forced to do without.

Even though I may not add to my collection more than a couple of times a year, I still have my collection, and even better, it's been fully photographed. My photodocumenting efforts are my only real legacy, and I want them to survive years into the future. By posting them to Google's Blogger, I hope to keep them alive for decades.

Each car will get a post.

My collection is almost exclusively 1/64, (as we all know, most 1/64 releases are really scaled to the package they came in, but we all call them 1/64) or smaller. I was a big fan of Micro Machines. I have less than 20 diecast cars larger than 1/64, and pretty much all of them were gifts. They will be covered here too, eventually. (If I do a single post a day, every day, it will take me a few years to get my entire collection done, and knowing myself, that won't actually happen! I'm going to post as often as I can but 2 or 3 posts a week is the best I can really hope for, especially as I write multiple blogs about various hobbies)

Thanks for reading!