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Getting back into model cars and collectables.

Like many kids in India born in the early part of the new millennium, I grew up with model cars and other collectable items (most notably Cricket Attax in the early 2010's).

I too had a small collection of HotWheels growing up, I had maybe 6 cars at the peak of my collection but I loved them all. Off the top of my head I can remember three. A purple Custom VW Beetle and blue BoneShaker (which I later found out are both part of the 2012 HotWheels HW Racing series) and some sort of blue Ford Mustang based on the S197 generation.

Recently my interest in model cars had been reignited. After watching the new Spiderman movie with a couple of friends we decided to roam around Vega City mall here in Bangalore and aimlessly wandered into Hamleys in the same mall to look a few automotive Lego sets (we found a magnificent Lego BMW S1000RR although it was priced at an eye watering 30k). We then spotted an all too familiar shelf blue blister packs. It was two full shelves of HotWheels. While most of the ones there were fantasy cars from the Color Shifter series I did find two gems. A "Dodge Van" in white based on the 3rd gen (1998-2003) Dodge Ram Van and a HotWheels version of the silver 1966 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport Stingray seen in Fast 5. A little bit of research showed that HotWheels was officially back in India following the Idiotic ban in September 2019.

Dodge Van

The interior of the Dodge van seems to have an entire Go-Kart and two spare wheels, nice detail

Fast Five C2 Corvette Grand Sport Stingray


Yesterday I was with a friend and we went to Church Street to grab a cup of coffee. Since there was a line for Indian Coffee House we were about to go else where. My friend spotted a few cool looking anime figurines in the window of a store called Play Port, we decided to check it out. As soon as I walked in I was treated to a whole bunch of HotWheels cars just hanging around and a few more boxes full of HotWheels waiting to be put on shelves. I was even more delighted when I found a shelf filled with Tomica cars and I believe a few Mini GT ones as well.

After about half an hour of choosing I went home with 6 HotWheels cars and a Tomica Premium series Toyota 2000GT.

C1 Corvette in Barbie spec

First gen Nissan Maxima Wagon drift car

Drag Spec EG Civic Hatch

Mercedes Unimog

'69 Shelby GT500 Convertible

Ford Sierra Cosworth

and finally, The Toyota 2000GT



Also could anyone tell me where I could find a scale model of the AE86 from Initial D, Hotwheels/Tomica size is fine but I'd like something a little bigger.

Looks like hot wheels is finally allowed back in india with their individual packs. Yesterday I was at ashirwad supermarket Btm layout and found a rack full of individual blister pack units. They now carry the ISI mark on the rear of the pack. They are priced at Rs. 149/- a piece. Got myself a Maxima Wagon drift car. :)

My Mercedes-Benz original 1:43 EQC400. The detailing is okay, but could have been better considering the price. Lost the ORVMs unfortunately.

Came to Ooty.
Saw these Schuco Porsches at Mohan’s. He is trying to sell them on behalf of a friend who is a collector but slowly jettisoning his collection.
So I grabbed them.
1:43 Schuco 911 2.7 and a 356A

Pleasantly surprised to see an ad of this classic w123 Mercedes on our website, and it is never available in the toy store chains here.

https://snooplay.in/products/vintage...es-benz-w123-1

My son presented me a model muscle car.



Out of several hot wheel cars, these were the only two salvaged from debris. I still don't miss a look whenever I cross the living room.



I have few more which was presented by my uncle during the year 1980, he got those from Saudi. 42 years have passed but even now it’s a priceless possession for me. I’ll try to get a picture during my next home trip.

I saw this at a toy store and was really excited. But when I actually opened the box, I realised the quality was pathetic. It's priced very cheap in the stores - 300 bucks - but it feels very cheap too.

Avoid - not worth it!

Great news!! Made my day. Time to restart my HotWheels collection.

My EQS from Herpa. Unfortunately, the mirrors are very easy to break


Both my Tata Indigo Manzas from Norev.


My KUV 1OO NXT I found in a bookshop selling hotwheels.

I apologise for the photo quality. I've never been good at taking photos!:Frustrati

Added 2 more HotWheels and another Tomica to the collection.


First up is the "Limited Grip", while this looks like a fantasy car it's actually a modified version of Bill Speed's Chevrolet S-10 drift truck.



I added the first Two Wheeler to the collection, a Honda Super Cub Custom delivery moped.



And now for the Tomica, a Nissan R34 GTR Police Car. Managed to get Google Translate to focus on the Japanese text on the side of the car, it translates to "Saitama Prefectural Police"

Where are you able to get these Tomicas?
I love those. They are solid little die cast vehicles.

The 1950s was an era of amazing cars!

I wasn't into cars, but I liked the VW Microbus and a few other legendary classics, apart from some airplane models. I thought setting up false perspectives would be a good diversification for my photography hobby.

I realised suddenly that I could get 'scale models' cheaply as long as they were sold as toys, and so began a quest to get as many 1:32-1:38 scale classic vehicles as I could afford.

Of course, the dream was brought to a sudden halt almost as soon as it started due to the ban on toy imports from China, and the models I was ignoring started to disappear.

So I started to buy what I could get at a reasonable price (which is three digits in INR) and later brought myself to buy 1:43 models. I should have started sooner, because there was a lot of good stuff out there when I started, which is all gone now. I've even bought three 1:64 models (Majorette) from the choice still available.

I've also tried to find dioramas but 1:32 is not a popular scale for this purpose. Luckily O gauge / 1:43 fares better, so I got a few City Builder cardboard diorama kits and put them together. Still willing to sink more time and money into it to build a mini town.

Anyway, you can see my humble collection on Flickr. Link below:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/davelok/64dA307262

I found both the Tomica and Hot Wheels at Playport on Church Street. They have Anime and Marvel stuff as well if you're into that.

Google Maps Link

Hotwheels are 150 a piece, the regular Tomica cars are 499 and the Tomica Premium series cars are 699.

They also have Majorette and MiniGT models but I don't know how much those are.