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These Are the Good Old Days |
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I’ve been mulling this over in my mind for the last couple of months, not sure at what angle I should hit this topic. It started one day when I was in the toy aisle of my local Big-K. I looked around and thought, ”Man, look at all the different types of diecast that are available!” I wasn’t just looking at the mainline HW and MB releases. On this particular day, the latest offering was the Route 66 series from Ertl/Racing Champions in both a nicely detailed $3 series and an even nicer $5 series. Hanging next to them was the RC Concept and Muscle series which features a wide range of esoteric vehicles from the 1929 Ford roadster pickup, to the 1951 Hudson Hornet, to the 2002 Jeep Compass Concept. You could also find some “Hot Tracks” where pop/rock stars from In Sync to Rob Zombie beckoned for your collecting dollars. (They’re probably still there but that’s beside the point.) Ertl’s Sportsman’s series on earth-toned cards sought out the outdoorsmen with pickup trucks, boats and 4 wheelers. Road Champs was even jumping into the niche market fray with their $2 Attitude Racers, which featured wrestling stars faces and logos emblazoned on cars that reflected the wrestlers’ lifestyles or ‘attitudes.’ I hadn’t even looked at the NASCAR section at the other end of the toy aisle, but it is almost equal in size to everything mentioned above. All of this was in one aisle of one of the worst toy sections in Muskegon! Within a 5 minute drive, you can find HW Milestones & Haulers, JL singles and 4 packs, Ertl American Muscle with working hoods and trunks, highly detailed 1:18 and 1:24 concepts and hot rods from a number of manufacturers, stacks of 1:43 models from Maisto for less than the cost of a meal at Burger King, M&M’s cascading down the pegs and making your mouth water not with hard candy shells but with giant chrome blowers and humongous slicks, Road Champion police vehicles with opening doors and details so realistic you can almost see the donut crumbs………..Lots of Stuff! I’m old enough to remember when the only mainline company that seemed to be marketing well-made, ‘realistic’ vehicles in the Chicago area was Matchbox. My English Lorry logged many miles on the ledge of the highboy in my bedroom. By the time the 60’s rolled around, I was in my mid teens, and had discovered girls. So between fighting my hormones and enjoying all that was going on during the 60’s, I never even noticed the emergence of Hot Wheels (or my short memory is shot, but that’s another story). Yes, Corgi, Husky and Tootsietoy were probably around, but their names didn’t have the familiar buzz that they do today. It was a given, back then, that these toys were meant for children, and they were produced inexpensively (wanna buy a vintage Tootsietoy interior?) so that our parents could afford to buy us more when we fulfilled our childhood obligation of losing or destroying them. Now that we “collect” little metal cars, as well as play with them, how many companies are competing for our diecast dollars? Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Jada, RC/Ertl, Maisto, Welly, Road Champs, Bandai, Siku, Majorette, Revell, Hongwell, Tomica, as well as the no-name factories that pump out 25 to 50 car sets for TRU and Wal-mart. These are just the 1:64 scale companies that I can think of off the top of my head. I don’t even want to think about Brumm, Northern, Solido Franklin Mint, etc. (Yes some of them are parts of the same corporation, but they are still separate profit centers with their own ‘flavor’ of diecast. With this beautiful smorgasbord of diecast spread out before us, why do so many people in the diecast world seem to be unhappy with the current state of affairs? Maybe when times were simpler, we were able to find everything that a particular company put out, and developed a mindset of “I can afford to find them all, this is cool!” Or maybe we were able to collect everything that we liked because there wasn’t that much out there. Now, because of production errors, intentional repeats, new product releases, and new competition from other companies, we can no longer afford to buy everything that we like, let alone everything that we want. The satisfied collectors that I know seem to have found a “niche” in much the same way that the diecast companies are searching for their “niches.” Mattel seems to be searching for a middle ground as they release Milestones and the Barrett Jackson series through Hot Wheels and Matchbox, respectively. Quality versus quantity, in a reasonable price range? Maisto and RC are releasing highly detailed models in the $2 to $5 range also. It’s their job. All of the diecast manufacturers have got to find a way to separate you from your diecast dollars. They might capitalize on the “gotta have every variation” mindset and release old cars with new wheels or old cars on new cards. They might produce a car in the “lunch money” range that makes you stop and say “Sweeeeeet!” when you walk down the diecast aisle. It could be that they hope that people who don’t ordinarily buy diecast cars will, if they have a music or wrestling or NASCAR “hook”. Regardless, we control what they produce, because we are voting with our wallets. With all the different types of diecast already being produced, how many more companies can jump into this ever-expanding diecast pool? I won't be surprised when someday there is a shake-up in the diecast industry and some of the manufacturers either drop out or scale back on what they offer. The fact is, there is too much diecast chasing a limited pool of money. Some of the market is going upscale (JL, RLC, Maisto, RC), some collectors seem to be getting tired of collecting every single car that Hot Wheels puts out just because it’s there, and some people are just buying cheaper diecast toys for their children because they are available. I handle the variety problem by defining what are the most important areas of my collection. It might be “authentic” cars, or purple cars, or cars with 5 spoke wheels made by JL. It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that I chose this hobby because it is fun. If I collect out of a need to complete what somebody else says is a “good collection” then I have missed the point and am a spineless bag of mucus. With all the variety and quality that is available now, versus forty years ago, we can reward the companies that make the best looking diecast by buying their products. If we enjoy the challenge of finding every single car that a particular company makes, that’s fun too, as long as we don’t allow it become a chore. If we choose to buy only cars that were made before a certain year, or only buy limited editions, we are not letting somebody else dictate our buying habits. I won’t say that the diecast boom has peaked, but it certainly is getting crowded on the shelves in the toy aisle. We win, because of all the choices that the various manufacturers and the secondary market have given us. Someday we may look back at the variety of both old and new diecast that was available to us in the early 2000’s and say, “Man, those were the good old days.” --Phil Kowalski (oldpole) |
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