Ok. I lied. THIS is the last buy!

I got a nice price on these two Rubber-Tires-cars so I couldn´t resist.

Finally I got Lightning with Rubber Tires. I´ve looked for him all over the internet, or at least on the swedish sites, but to this day, the price have been way too high.
Now I´m only two more cars away from COMPLETION. Ohh! That almost gave me a somewhat religious feeling.

It surely is strange, this hobby of mine...

Happy New Year to You All - car collectors all over the world!

This years last treasures!

This was not only this years last buy, this was also the best buy!

I got The Dinoco "Piston Cup Nights Crew Pack" for only 137 swedish crowns (with shipping) - that is something like 20 dollar. In Sweden, that is a very very low price for a pack of four cars.

I´m so happy! Or... Satisfied at least.

So, now there´s only three Team Chiefs left but a whole 14 Pittys. After the late release of all the three Nitroade-pittys, there´s 28 pitty all together (and then I´m not counting Guido, just good ole´ plain racing-pittys).
So, in the words of the grand poet Bon Jovi - "I´m haaaaaalfway there!"

Another loot of the month came along with the mail today:

I have made a limit of 16 dollar per car in the Cars 2 Rubber Tires-series, and this was just under that.

A look at the collection this last week of 2011:

Yes. I have moved in to a second cabinet...

And there´s more. 2012 could be a tricky year, more temptations lure in the cars-world near Stockholm. At the very near to my office there is now a flourist shop that are selling cars. Yes - flowers and cars.
That is not very common here. As a matter of fact - it is the first store outside the toy stores I´ve heard of that will sell cars. And I´ve already spotted some nice things from the first Cars-movie: Team No Stall - Racer, pitty and Chief.
I gotta get that one!

And maybe some flowers for my wife...

It´s a win-win!

Another brick in the wall

I´m counting down here! Now it´s only four cars left in the Rubber Tire line - THEN I GOT THEM ALL! Mooooahahaha... eh...
Sorry. Got a little carried away there.
But look here, my latest brick in the wall (of diecast-cars in my garage):

K-mart decided to release Lightning, King and Chick Hicks, 3 of the remaining 4 cars not yet released in rubber tires.
The last one, Apple iCar, will probably never (?) be released, Apple wants them to be exclusive I guess and are quite happy knowing that there will be only 1000 real Apple iCars out there.

So. I´m even closer to my goal: To collect all Rubber Tires Piston Cup Race Cars.

But at the same time even farther away from another goal because K-mart also released Francesco Bernoulli, Nigel Gearsley and Shu Todoroki with Rubber Tires.
I guess all of the new Race Cars in Cars 2 will come... So much for my first Cars 2- Race Car Francesco... Of course I´ll have to get all of them in the really exclusive Rubber Tire-series as well...


But one thing is for sure: I´m almost hitting 100! Chick was my 96:th car. This will evenutally call for some kind of celebrating.
And this friday or saturday, me and my oldest son (3,5 years) are going to the movies to finally see the new Cars 2!
He is so thrilled.

Me... I´m indifferent. Totally.

The madness continues - and I´m in trouble

Look how sweet the new little shiny box is!
The Professor Z with a charming small fellow called Ape - in a nice displaybox.

Now I´ve got seven new Cars 2-cars: Lightning, Fransesco, Acer, Tomber and Finn.
But I do not have the space.
Let´s take a trip in an ordinary suburb garage.

Among lots of toilet paper, beers, old books and tools there´s a brown cabinet - actually it is two of them, but it´s the one to the left that we are interested in.

Yes, that´s the one. It looks like there is some light comming out from that small space in between the doors...

A-HA! Nitroade Hauler, 11 pittys, 7 chiefs and 4 Ramones!

And there it is - the pride and joy of my life! Or... pride and joy of my garage at least.
Well hidden from both of my young sons. They have never even asked about the cabinet.

Seen from a bit higher ground, so that you´re looking down a little, the lights works better. But I can´t risk that my sons are in chance of reaching the doors so that´s why I´ve put it up so high.
But that´s the least of my problems.

I have run out of space. Totally. And since I´ve made the discision not to open the cars from Cars 2, it´s even more crowded!

Look how I have to stuff Finn and Tomber away! That is definitely not the proper way to handle a british agent.

Looks like I have to start using the other cabinet, the one to the right, se the first picture of the garage again.
But then I´ll have to keep THAT a secret from my wife. That will not work.

Hmmmm. The 10 000 dollar question then - how to store and yet display - without showing it to the wrong persons?

While we wait...

In the US Cars 2 will have premiere in june 18 but here in Sweden we´ll have to wait all through the summer - the highly anticipated film isn´t going to reach movie theaters here until august 5.

But let´s not waist the time being angry, sad or bored - let´s collect the new cars!

Here´s a brief schedule over the new (and old) caracters that are released as Die Cast so far:

Yes, that´s my collection so far.

Rubber Tires - almost there!

As you can see in the right column down below, I have almost been able to collect all the Piston Cup Racers that has been released in the Rubber Tires-series.
Only two left - Easy Idle and Lil´Torquey.

From the original 36 Piston Cup Racers, 32 comes with Rubber Tires - as for now.

This summer, on the K-Mart Day Event, taking place on june 25th in the States - three of the four remaining cars will be released with Rubber Tires.
And for those of you who follows these kind of weird stuff on the internet, you won´t be in schock - the cars will be:
Lightning
Chick
The King

Now, the only car that remains is Apple iCar. There is something about Apple and trademark/licence-money-advertiment-hollabalooo that keeps new Apple Cars impossible for now.

Peronally, I think that Apple is quite happy with the fact that only 1000 Apple iCars exist. It makes the cars exclusive, hard to find and expensive. It gives the cars an aura of legendary status - and I think Steve Jobs doesn´t mind.

Makes me wonder... How many Cars has Steve in his collection? All of them? Only one - The number 84 and that´s it?
But he most certainly must have the Elvis Truck? Or Todd The Pizza Truck?
Wow, the question is bigger than I first thought. Steve! Please post an answer down below!

Sweden - the new Switzerland?

Sweden and Switzerland are two different countries. Yes. It is true. I live in Sweden. You´ll have to take my word for it. I´m not made of chocolate and cheese and have 23 million Swiss Francs secretly hidden away in some fancy bank in Zürich.
Unfortenately.
The last thing, I mean.

Because regardless from where in Europe you live, collecting Cars is a quite expensive hobby. Over here we have to pay about 120 kronor, that´s almost 19 US-dollar, for a single car.

When I read about sales on K-Mart where Lightning McQueens are thrown away for US$ 2,99 I almost concider emigration.

In Europe Switzerland is also known for being an expensive country. If you´ve been on a vacation to the Alps, and people ask you in which country you´ve been... well if the answer is Switzerland people know that you are well off.

But with the latest diecast Cars-prices running so damn high... I don´t know anymore. After more than 50 years of socialist-party-gowernment, we have now experienced right wing governance for two elections in a row. People have more money in shares per person than people in the US.

Mayby Sweden has become the new Switzerland?

But there are ways to go cheaper even here in Switz... I mean Sweden. We have our own version of E-bay: Tradera.

People are surprisingly early with the latest goods from US. I have been able to bid on new Cars 2-items for weeks (and I´ve bougth some too:)




The cheapest car I got from bidding on this site is Guido, I got him for about US$ 5 plus US$2 for shipping. So in the end, it´s almost twice the money you lucky bastards have to spend on a sale in America.

I have serious plans on a trip overseas just to get some cars. Just imagine travelling from Sweden with a large old fashioned suitecase.
Totally empty.

Going World Wide!

So I´m finally switching over to english.

Having read the facts and figures of my (very few) visitors I now have decided to skip my swedish for the greater good of mankind. Most of you, poor souls, who have found this site, is from the US or Europe.

So I try to write in english from now on. 

And I start with my first post, written in october 2010 - a late translation of the very subject of this blogg:

 

 

 

A disordered  hobby

The collection as it looks in September. Front row: Pittys, second row:  Piston Cup Racers with Synthetic Rubber Tires. Third row: a couple of Lightning with the golden Blu Ray-special in the middle. And the on and only hauler so far, Nitroade. They´ll have to wait, they steal so mych space! At the top to thel left: Milton Calypeer and Todd the Pizza Truck. And a Faux Wheel Drive from the Motor Speedway of the South-set!

I´ve always wanted to collect. But never had quite the patience or found the right objects.
I´ve tried with Tintin-figurines in plastic. It past quickly. I only managed to buy Tintin in a space suit with his dog. Then it all faded away.

Pretty cool, aren´t they? But I miss the space ship!

The I tried tiny soccer-players. I got to 20-something this time, and one is actually Henrik "Henke" Larsson in Celtic. And I got two  Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one from the Swedish squad and one from Juventus.
The he got transfered again and it took forever before a new one with Barcelona-colors were to be announced and I got kids and shifted commitment.

Larsson is nicely done but Ibra is hardly alike.Would still be a nice thing to get him with a Milan-shirt now but merely as a tribute-tjhing than an act of real collecting.

The only successful collection I ever made was the Donald Duck-paperbacks. I teenager-thing that covered one of my walls at home. From the first 200 issues that were released I got193 and at least 140 of the were in mint condition.

Then I moved and had no space left. When I sold the whole collection I didn´t get mcuh money, maybe 2 or 3 dollars a peace. Funny, I always thought that their value should rise.

But now I regret that I sold them. I got so little money and the sentimantal value ws bigger than I thought. It was a mission and I didn´t complete it!



So now I´ve found a new one.

Disney/Pixars Diecast-cars size1:55.
I love the aesthetics, I´ve always been a sucker for Disney-characters and Pixar-movies. Besides, it´s the Canadien company Mattel who designs the cars and they steam of great quality all through.

But there´s no kiddin´nobody: I collect toys. A gown man who buys things that are clerly meant for kids to play with. Only to place them into a cabinett to look on once in a while.
Disordered.
Had I seen myself now, as a kid, I´m sure I had called that person an idiot.

I will commit this blogg to psychoanalyze my collecting behaviour and enjoy my collecting.

Collecting Cars - the sequel

So... the contiunation of my madness i secured.
Yesterday my first item from Cars 2 arrived:

#13 Grem

I still have a few cars left to collect from the first movie (Ok. I have a lot of cars left, but I´ll keep my collectiong-deamons in a cage just big enough to fit the Piston Cup Race Cars, all the Pittys and all the Team Chiefs.)

Now I really have a storage problem. I have all my 70 something cars in a cabinet (with lights!) in the garage - I have to hide it from my two kids - YES this is a huge sign of madness...
But the cabinet is getting pretty crowded.

Even a small caracter like this one is hard to fit in properly:

#83 from the RaceORama-series: Easy Idle Pitty

Look how they all have to huddle in the pitty-section:

So I decided, at least for now, until I get a bigger or another cabinet - I will take my madness to the next level!

I will not open the packageing!

Even though I know that this very special moment is so... liberating.

But no. The car stays in the package!

58:orna är här

Ett hastigt men välkommet avbrott i rankingen av de snyggaste Piston Cup Racers: 

Team Octane Gain:

Plats 29-25

Plats nummer 29:

#34 Trunk Fresh
Trodde egentligen aldrig att en bil kunde vara för svart. Och här är problemet kanske att den är för grön. Men kombinationen gör att den svarta färgen tar bort konturerna och en idé som kanske lät cool på ritbordet blev en halvmesyr som färdig bil. Dirkson D´Agostino.


Plats nummer 28:

#76 Vinyl Toupee
Skulle så gärna vilja sätta den här högre upp på listan men Crusty Rotor är roligare än snygg. Rosa är en racingfärg, det kommer ni få se längre upp på listan. men inte den här rosa.




Plats nummer 27:

 

#64 RPM
Nu är det ju 26 bilar som ser bättre och coolare ut men redan nu känner jag att vi gått från att sortera ut de fulare till att kolla vilka av de snyggare som kanske inte riktigt räcker till. Snygga fälgar med blå och gula detaljer följer ju chassits design bra. Och namnet är kanske bäst av alla: Winford Bradford Rutherford. Men den är lite tam i färgerna ändå.




Plats nummer 26:

#56 Fiber Fuel
Svart och gult är en skön kombination, om det inte vore för AIK, men i racing bryr sig ingen om gnaget så det spelar kanske ingen roll. Brush Curber. En helt okej bil. Men inte mer.




Plats nummer 25:

#58 Octane Gain
Återigen gult och svart men den här designen andas mer fart. Gillar typsnittet på siffrorna också, lite klassiskt sportiga. Den här mer brandgula färgen är också lite mer edge än den snällare Fiber Fuel. Billy Oilchanger.

Piston Cup Racers - en studie i bilestetik

De är 36 totalt - här kommer listan över hur snygga dom egentligen är. Vi kör från fulast till coolast.

Först bara helt kort - det finns tre typer av bilar. Jag har klassificerat dem enligt bilden nedan:

Typ A är en långsmal lite fyrkantigare variant med lång motorhuv. Generellt inte så snygg, det kommer märkas i min sammanställning.
Typ B är den bulligaste varianten med högt bakparti.
Typ C är en strömlinjeformad dröm med lägre bakparti än B och kortare motorhuv än A.
Tre racers är utanför dessa typer. Det är huvudkaraktärerna Blixten, Kungen och Chick Hicks. Blixten är baserad på de uramerikanska bilarna Chevrolet, Corvette och Dodge Viper. Kungen är en Plymouth Superbird 1970 och Chick Hicks har former från en GM G-body men också från en Buick Grand National och Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
Dessa tre kommer inte vara med i snygghetslistan, de går utanför en sådan bedömning. Det här handlar bara om estetik, inte om bilarnas egenskaper som karaktärer i filmen. Alltså 33 bilar som tävlar i den här skönhetstävlingen.


Idag: Plats 33-30.

Plats nummer 33:

#92 Sputter Stop

Det är ingen höjdarkombination med färgerna direkt. Murray Clutchburn är hans namn. Gör ju heller ingen glad. Nä. Den här bilen är den minst snygga helt enkelt.



Plats nummer 32:

#93 Spare Mint
Ernie Gearson är ocskå en Typ A-bil med tämligen tråkig design. Plus för de vita navkapslarna men en helblå bil med ett blad på blir knappast en vinnare i den här ligan.



Plats nummer 31:

#90 Bumper Save
En Typ C-modell men det hjälper inte när färgerna är så mesiga. Visst är det de klassiska Red-White-and-Blue men jag är ingen amerikan och dessutom är den blå färgen för ljus för att kopplingen till flaggan ska funka. Ponchy Wipeout är namnet för den som undrar.




Plats nummer 30:

#70 Gasprin
Floyd Mulvihill. De här färgerna skulle jag ju vilja gilla och tänk om Mattias Ekström fick tävla i en Nascar som såg ut så här, visst vore det mumma! Men nu känns det bara fantasilöst och så är det ju det här med själva chassiformen också. Jag gillar helt enkelt inte Typ A.

Skrythyllan

Det är ju helt solklart att jag inte samlar för att kunna tjäna pengar. Då borde jag valt något annat - typ frimärken. Eller första numret av Kalle Anka & Co. Men jösses vilken tråkig samling det skulle vara.

Nä. Jag gillar hur de ser ut. Bilarna. Det räcker bra så.

Men några rariteter har jag kommit över ändå. Lite kul är det ju att se värdet förändras på Ebay.com också. 

Så här ser min skrythylla ut:

  

Om vi börjar längst inne i hörnet - i en egen monter(!) hittar vi Lightning Stom McQueen - The 2008 SD Comic Con Exclusive. Den finns också i en vanligare variant men då utan raket på taket. Detta är en av de 7000 exemplar som tillverkades till en "mässa" i San Diego 2008:

Pris på Ebay.com just nu: Mellan 280 - 490 kronor.

Framför står fyra bilar, från vänster är det Radiator Springs Lightning McQueen, sen Golden Blu Ray-Lightning McQueen. Sen Faux Wheel Drive från stora Motor Speedway of the South-kartongen och längst till höger Motorama Lightning McQueen:

Cruisin´-röda McQueen är med bara för att den är så snygg bredvid Golden Blu Ray McQueen. Den kallas också Cruisin´ McQueen (Gold) och ibland ser man att uttrycket Ransburg används. Det handlar om hur den är lackad. Ransburg är Die Cast-bilarnas metallic och anses mycket fint eftersom det kräver extra arbete vid tillverkningen. Den gyllene varianten dök upp när Cars-filmen Blu Ray-debuterade och då tillsammans med en röd Ransburg Bärgarn som brandbil och ett ex av filmen. Vet inte hur många exemplar som finns. Men den är ju snygg:

Pris på Ebay.com just nu: Mellan 105 - 175 kronor.

Bredvid dessa blänkande McQueens står den här skönheten:

Ett tag var den lika svår att få tag på som legendariska Apple iCar. Men nu har fler versioner släppts och Faux Wheel Drive finns dessutom som specialsläppt promo-bil i Frankrike och England. Men det här exemplaret kommer från stora Motor Speedway of the South-setet och är alltså en av blott 1000!

Pris på Ebay.com just nu: hittar ingen från Super Speedway. De nyproducerade med Rubber Tires kan man få för 25 spänn. De som släpptes som Promos går loss på 180 - 250 kronor.


Sen har vi Pixar Motorama Lightning McQueen. En bil som inte sålts i affärer, den var en giveaway till anställda på Pixar när de firade någon slags högtidsdag. Ingen vet exakt hur många bilar som tillverkats men man räknar med högst 2000. Och jag har en! Se:

Pris på Ebay.com just nu: 280 kronor.