Hot Wheels!

[topforcein 1764]

A couple of pictures of 'em wouldn't hurt, mate

Would love to post pics but tamiyaclub won't allow me to put pics on here

[mongoose1983 3335]

Would love to post pics but tamiyaclub won't allow me to put pics on here

Have you tried what I pointed you to a while ago? It's not complicated.

[Crash Cramer 617]

Well, Erich, I blame you for the time an frustration I am about to try doing a post of photos from Photobucket. I think I might be smart enough to pull this off/?? Who knows.

As of about a month ago, I have been playing Hot Wheels vs Tamiya. It has been over a year since I started collecting some cars that I like. It would seem Hot Wheels wants to suck me back into collecting. Nearly 20 years ago, it seems my brother and I were trying to out collect each other in looking for just Corvettes, now Hot Wheels makes a wide variety of cool cars that I would have loved to own in real life and since everyone seems to think their used cars are lined in gold, I won't ever get the chance to own a running condition version. Enter Hot Wheels and so, in an attempt to make the car look more lifelike, I have taken a big bundle of Sharpie Markers, drill bits, sticky glue and some patience to each one that I like. I have even gone so far as to RESEAL some of the Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars back into their protective cocoons so I won't worry about them getting ruined.

Let's see if I can pull this off on posting photos.

The Mooneye's collection, these were simply cars that HWs had decaled up and I found that the Packin Pacer had the right donor wheels to make the iconic MoonDiscs go right on. I drilled them all open and then resealed the cars when I was done, did some extra line work on the van, but that was because it was the right color as well as it was big enough for me to hold steady.

ERICH is most responsible for this conversion. I had to do it once I saw this on the Matchbox shelves. It has custom wheels stolen from a Hot Wheels "bread box" with real rider tires. It got plenty of details including a feable attempt at getting the chrome to stand out well and lastly, I tried my best to get a wheelie out of it for that dragster look. I have thought of putting a parachute out the back, but thought better of it.

MOVING on to some of my "sealed creations" This is one of the first modified cars I tackled, it didn't get the wild treatment of the red A100, but I had to start somewhere, then I sealed it up again.

One of my favorite shows growing up and reruns was TAXI, WOW, I thought Christopher Lloyd was WAYYYYYY Out there and then to see Kenickie, aka Bobby Wheeler aka Jeff Conway playing a cabbie that was trying to act, well it was just too crazy to not watch and then add in a little Danny Devito and his twisted sense of inhumanity, well I liked it, so here is an homage to the whole gang in the garage. I basically removed a bunch of the TACKY Taxi decals and left it simple and added all the light detail and grille details to bring some depth to the car, then sealed it up to keep it safe. Recently I stumbled across the more expensive(read 4x the price of this one) detailed Hot Wheels Retro Hollywood or whatever line Taxi edition. At first glance I thought it was stolen from this casting, but at a second detailed look, found they had done theirs differently, so I bought that one too, but THIS ONE is MINE.

[Crash Cramer 617]

Well that set of photos went so well, I shall try some more. Did I mention that I still want a Checker car to drive around daily in??? It would be cool and if Uber would let me drive it, I could "wrap" it for a more modern cool look??? Someday.

Onto more stuff I sealed back up when I was done playing, one word JEEP.

Here is my take on the classic CJ, got rid of the MASSIVELY tacky oversized tires from HW and stole some regular sized looking wheels from a Matchbox, then took a marker to all the interior to try and match up the color and then hide all that bright Teal chassis work and such, added a windshield surround to get a little better look to it. Hope you like it, I would love to hit the beach in this.

Next up is the SCRAMBLER, again Hot wheels went with stupid HUGE wheels, so I robbed a few more Matchbox wheels and for the red one, well I went all Wyoming on it. In a nod to Seth, aka Wyoming here on TC, I put some weathering and such on all aspects of this Jeep and then sealed it up, that may have happened because I scratched the paint or something like that.
For the black one, well, once I got rid of those stupid wheels, I just took a lot of the decal stripes off and left enough to be tasteful and then glued it back together. I even tried for a wood look on both Scramblers bed rails, hope you like them.

Last SEALED card today is a simple one. I added Snoopy to a bumper car, he seems properly sized for this car and I added just a detail or two in the grill, but I didn't take a photo of it.

Stay tuned, next time I will share some of my other creations, but right now it is bed time.

[mongoose1983 3335]

All your customs are interesting Chris, and the ones I like the most are the Lil' Red Wagon Dodge, Orange Jeep, and the Mooneyes van. You did great with those wheels! Oh, and I can see what a lil silver paint can do with the Jeep lenses. Now, here's something I can't stop wondering when looking at your custom Hot Wheels: how do you open and then reseal those blisters?

By the way, I see you're doing alright with PB now

Here's another shot of your Lil Red wagon

One or two months ago I saw someone on eBay using custom welded metal stands for Hot Wheels' Monster Jam vehicles. I wish I would have saved some pictures, cause they were totally genius. Great for monster trucks and a good idea also to try for jump and wheelstading vehicle "scenes" in a shelf.

[Crash Cramer 617]

Well, that didn't go off without a hitch. I had a very nice new post all typed up and such and it would seem PhotoBucket jammed up the works and when I got Firefox working again, no text or linking was saved, SOOOOO, here goes again.

I think PB may have been a better program in the past, but now that it has ads all over it, well, it is a stumbling block. Train of thought, where was I??? Hmm, some more creations of mine, here goes, enjoy. I suppose you might want to know how I got some photos without a lot of shadow, well I built a light box out of things I had laying around here. I used a plastic sweater box, some 12v leds my brother gave me for auto usage, they are self adhesive strips, a lot light another lightbox I have seen here. I then hooked their wires up with simple 9V battery style connector that interfaces with an ancient DC power supply that I have had going on 30 years with multiple range of volts produced as well as multiple tips for out put as well as ability to change the polarity of voltage which came in rather nicely for the leds, all of it works well and cost me nothing but time. I started without any reflectors, just leds in a box.

I forgot to mention I used some leftover static cling window "frosting" that was leftover from another project.

View from the top

Now that looked okay, but then I started to see a pattern, so I pulled out the trusty aluminum tape and went round the inside walls and then stuck the LED strip in one line around that and here is what it looks like finished

And you can see in this sideways shot that the tape has let less light bleed out of the sides so it comes out the "top" better

Now, since things are getting "sticky" again while I type and such, I am going to post this and work on posting more Hot Wheels in another post so I don't overload PB again or what ever happened???

[mongoose1983 3335]

Re: PB ads, you can always try the Firefox's add-ons to keep flash things AND the ads from turning up when using the Photobucket. That is how I do it by the way

[Crash Cramer 617]

Well, you are dealing with a computer user infant, you lost me at add-ons. LOL

[Crash Cramer 617]

Here is another go, had a bit of things to do, still have a ton to do in less than a month's time with visitors coming, so taking a slow down from just about all things and moving into hiding/organizing/cleaning everything.

Next up is a great little Fiat. This is also the third color HW has done and it began life as a Police vehicle, but I made it my own version of the 1957 Edition that Fiat sold. I think it would be cool to own one of these, but I wonder just how much headache it would cause since it is more a novelty car than great transport without breaking down. I am all about getting from point A to B without headaches, that is why my Honda is still around. It will need a major overhaul soon, but that will keep my car payments at ZERO too, so, I keep holding onto it.

Some other angles

Seems the learning curve is still there, have to choose correctly from PB about the size I want to post here. SIGH

While I admit that these photos can showcase my errors and bad lines, when you look at them NOT under the magnifying glass that is the camera lens, well they kinda look cool to me.

Next up, a favorite, one of 4 that HW put out and I have modified all of them or have plans to do that, just waiting on the details, here is one of the BMW 2002 that I have done, went with some retro steelies and that was simple, steal some Matchbox dog dish wheels and paint them up.

Little chrome on the bumpers and headlights and such and this one was done, had to wait and upload a rear 3/4 shot, it wasn't in my PB

Next, an homage to an alternate universe Smokey and the Bandit '77 TA Firebird, enjoy, this one got some Indy car wheels beleive it or not to emulate the snowflake wheels and I painted them gold, that was tedious. I am still wondering about the yellow sidewalls, but it could work?? You tell me

Headlights and grilles were added along with shut/panel lines

I better post this, things are getting "sticky" again

[Crash Cramer 617]

Moving closer to some HW that Tamiya folks might like, here is a nice Porsche 934 RSR Turbo, a bit like kit number 1. Hot Wheels have done this car in 4 colors to date, they started with Jagermeister Orange, then metallic black, moved onto a "grabber blue" with no decals and then put decals all over essentially the same blue car. The orange and black cars got lace wheels, then they switched to boring chrome ring wheels where the inset is basically unseen. That would simply not do for a racer livery, so I found some more Indy cars, from Johnny Lightning I think this time, I raid my old bucket/box of cars I have had for one reason or another for some years now. I stole the wheels from the JL car and had to reverse the tire as it has GoodYear on the sidewall and that might conflict with the race livery. LOL

Added some shut and panel lines and some grilles and bumper details, this was a LOT of work, but I think I am ready to do it again on the orange one, when I get more time, until then, enjoy this one.

A view from above, nice curves

Now for something completley different, an exercise in hilarity. I had a Snoopy house leftover, so plop it on this hot rod "truck" and see what it looks like, wellllll

Wheelie stance >LOL

HERE are some upcoming projects a whole row of German Jager cars to work on and then some GT cars

Right out of the bat, the GT40, this one is done, debating about doing anything to the others as they are kinda cool just the way they are

This one got some wheel treatment and shut/panel lines, venting was filled in, lights on the back, etc

Another collection within a collection of mine is "Hot Wheels Racing Blue" cars, they usually have racing stripes and the HW logo on them and are this blue color that isn't often used on a normal car, notice I say USUALLY not used as I have some others that are the same color and never came with HW Racing logos or stripes. Enjoy this Stratos

Again, robbed real rider tires and wheels from something and added them here with shut/panel lines and some lights and valence and spoilers painted up to resemble the real thing

Again, a beautiful bird's eye view, white paper added to pull some of the "pebbles" out of the base of the lightbox

I shall leave you with that as my next post might be a lengthy one with the details on one of my biggest modifications made to date.

Enjoy,

Chris

[Crash Cramer 617]

Well, I guess I am the ONLY guy on TC that has this many Hot Wheels, I guess it was/is an addiction. I have some more to add today.

Here are some of my MAJOR reconstruction jobs. I don't profess to be some Chip Foose of Hot Wheels, but I do see things differently when I see a mold I like and it doesn't have the "right" wheels or details, etc. I haven't begun painting whole cars...YET, but I have added details when I could with what limited skill and supplies I have around me.

With that said, here is my vision of two cars, let me go snag the two that I combined to make a MONSTER DRAG MINI.It was first a Nash Dragster, not unlike this one

The Nash I used had not chrome, but BLACK engine and exhaust parts, then I added a MINI I had around here, it looked identical to this

and then I went all crazy on it, some filing and opening of the bonnet and some hacking of the interior and gluing and nashing of teeth and such and the next thing you know, I had THIS BEAST, enjoy

a Fake wheelie. LOL

Leaving the line

Looks REAL MEAN from here

Side by side with the unaltered version to help you see some of the details.

little too much flash

I think the one on the right is going to win this drag race

the innards, you can see I altered a bit in there.

I tried my best to put black fender lips on, but I can see I didn't have a steady hand

Last photo

[Crash Cramer 617]

Okay all you wagon/estate lovers, here is your post.Oh yea, hot hatchs too.

I haven't done too much to these other than add some needed shut lines and remove, in the case of the minis a BUNCH of decals that were far to crazy for me. The Datsun got some tasteful details to the grill and mirrors and such.

I am still trying to figure out what/where I want to put taillights on the Dastun.

Couple of Mk2 Golfs

Wheel changes, details added

Detailed Continental SuperSports and I had to pull all the HIP HOP decals off them, they looked way to tacky for my liking, as well as change to some more traditional wheels

Blue one got finished up, but you can barely see the taillights on the red one. Speaking of the red, I am a sucker for Candy Apple Red.
More Hot Hatchs, the Civic I used to own, would like an Si version these days and the time to enjoy driving the wheels off it.

I stripped the paint off of the teal color that HW put on the one car here, then attempted to put a "primer black" look to the top surfaces

ONTO some crazy stuff.

SpongeBob got a new ride.

The Torquoise car has a smaller than regular wheel and I intend another driver, but will have to wait til I find the normal size car

I am still kicking myself for opening the "error" car as it isn't worth anything now. Oh well, $1 wasted. LOL

For my final post today, well I don't know what catagory this would be. HW made a WILD Kombi to begin with, but since I wasn't lucky enough to find a "Super Treasure Hunt" version with a deeper shade of paint and real rubber tires and some other rims, I decided to make my own. I put some real work on this one to get a Samba look and I am still unsure if I want to paint up the interior and engine area, so I am thinking on that, but for now, enjoy what I have done to this.

[mongoose1983 3335]

I remember when you was working on the yellow mini. Oh, that GT40 looks pretty, and I'm not even a fan of on-roaders!

I like what you did with SpongeBob's new ride. That square helmet is custom or came with the figure?

That VW Kombi needs a little black & silver on the engine, Chris. By the way, that reminded me of some old Tonka pullback VW wheelie from the late 80's.

And... the glass case. Any updates?

[Crash Cramer 617]

You got a tease on the glass case in the Scorcher BUILDS and thanks for the input on the engine, will have to sort something out. The Spongebob helmet came with the Lego style figure.

[Crash Cramer 617]

Seems you guys don't have many as many Hot Wheels as I might. I did try to downsize my collection over the years, but I haven't even begun to show you all the VW related cars I have in a storage box. My O my, these are getting outta hand. Not much done lately on HW, but I did make a few final touches on a Tourquoise pedal car. I found one with the "proper" sized steering wheel and went to work with the driver I got lucky enough to find first try in a blind package of Lego Minifig packets, I thought it was the perfect one for this.

EAT MY SHORTS MAN

Not the greatest shot from the rear, but I added lights front and back, touched up the chrome side strips, obviously put different wheels with rubber tires in there and touched up the grille to get some depth in there along with taking Bartman's shorts and feeding them to him while I glued the other half of his body onto the seat.

Next up, the second in a GULF series that I hope to get a third car done this year when it debuts. On the HW page they show the modern Ford GT coming out with a Gulf livery, so I hope to get it done up similar to this one.

Love these wheels and thankfully, they made them available on a Star Wars car recently. I have to be tempting fate though as they came off Darth Vader's black van. I haven't felt the force causing me to have an auto wreck or any unseen grasps around my throat, but I am watching my back since I left the van in the parking garage up on blocks. LOL

Really simple as the front lights were all done by HW, I added the taillights and some chrome to the tips and backup lights. Oh yea, added the front fog lights in white. Enjoy, more coming when I can set up the camera with good light, a very rainy weekend and a long one at that, so I am still trying to find what I got accomplished in 3.5 days and it doesn't seem like much.

Chris

[mongoose1983 3335]

The fat tires on the GULF look good. It's funny I never thought about replacing wheels in 1:64 die casts before.

And the Bart one looks pretty good. I'm not a fan of the series, but if the figure wasn't originally there I think you achieved something more than interesting there Chris.

[StrokerBoy 772]

Had a bit of a spring clean of the attic at the weekend, counted my 1:64-scale 55/56/57 Chevys.  I've got 171, all different, plus a few duplicates.  A few are still in their packaging, most aren't.  And I still don't collect these, they just seem to find me...

[topforcein 1764]

that looks great. if i displayed my collection it would be in a cabinet but i don't open mine so they just go straight into a storage box

[Crash Cramer 617]

Wow, 171 and hardly a duplicate, that is impresive. Seeing that matte black one with flames reminds me of the on like that I just customized, shameless plug, but my handle on Instagram is cubooth for anyone who is interested in what has taken more time taphan it should from m6 Tamiya time

[topforcein 1764]

A few pictures of my collection. Not that good tbh. In there storage boxes. Not how I like to store them but at least it keeps the dust off them. I have 2 boxs full and am on the 3rd atm. one box has american muscle in it and the other has europen and japan cars in it

[Crash Cramer 617]

2 minutes ago, topforcein said:

A few pictures of my collection. Not that good tbh. In there storage boxes. Not how I like to store them but at least it keeps the dust off them. I have 2 boxs full and am on the 3rd atm. 

Not to sound snobby, perhaps I have gone overboard, but to me that looks like a good start 😋 I also have too many in a dust free box collection, but I do have some loose ones in there own “garage”,last count on the loose was nearly 300!!! Don’t tell the wife.

[topforcein 1764]

6 minutes ago, Crash Cramer said:

Not to sound snobby, perhaps I have gone overboard, but to me that looks like a good start 😋 I also have too many in a dust free box collection, but I do have some loose ones in there own “garage”,last count on the loose was nearly 300!!! Don’t tell the wife.

 

tbh i forgot about the loose ones that i have got they are the one's that i started with plus i have acquired my sons box also that he played with but they are ok for restorations or for the wheel changes. i dont buy every week or month but when i feel in the mood and i only buy what i have said i have in my collection even if there is a car i really like but its in he wrong colour i won't buy it. you could say the collection is like my tamiya collection and is for me only as i wont sell it 

[novicelad 787]

My son who is now 7 loves hot wheels, I love them too his interest is wavering a bit in that he no longer looks out for them in a shop but he still loves his collection and he can regularly be seen clutching a car or driving it over the sofa making tracks down the stairs! A couple of years ago we saw a Tesla S at a show and remember telling my son all about it and how cool it was. Later that year my wife was out shopping with the kids and my son picked this out of the shop for me I will cherish it for the rest of my life! 

 

[topforcein 1764]

 

4 hours ago, novicelad said:

My son who is now 7 loves hot wheels, I love them too his interest is wavering a bit in that he no longer looks out for them in a shop but he still loves his collection and he can regularly be seen clutching a car or driving it over the sofa making tracks down the stairs! A couple of years ago we saw a Tesla S at a show and remember telling my son all about it and how cool it was. Later that year my wife was out shopping with the kids and my son picked this out of the shop for me I will cherish it for the rest of my life! 

 

yeah i have one like that also its a mitsy evo that was on my 40th birthday cake that my wife had made for me by the cousin