Happy New Year - RS John Lassetire

My last car 2013:

R S John Lassetire.

It is a variant of John Lassetire the Team Chief

According to Pixar Wiki "John Lassetire is an all-American pick up truck. The truck he is most likely modeled after an early 1990s Chevrolet S-10 Pickup Truck."

There´s also a special edition where the car is wearing a "Hawaiian Shirt"painted on the back. That was given to all the people working on Cars 2.

But this one is also a Special Edition, it is from the same K-Mart Special that Muggsy Liftsome was in.

I love this one. Especially in this wiev, you see the similarity with the real John Lasseter - well. If you try real hard?

Anyway - have a really happy new year and let´s hope for som great cars 2014!

Unboxing Muggsy Liftsome

 As I wrote a couple of days ago, I joined in on an ebay acution. And I won:

I do not usually care for the Deluxe-series. They are simply too big for my garage. But this one, I just got to have it! I do think that the Lemons are the most interesting cars from Cars 2. They are cars that havn´t been known for beauty, speed or perfection. Quite the contrary. They are misfits. Experiments. Cheap, and breaks a lot. The have a bad history. Check out more about The Lemons here.

And I have been waiting for more of them. And this one, Muggsy Liftsome, is the first in a very long time:

Muggsy was released as a K-Mart Special in the US and there are still quite a few available on eBay.

As you can see he has the similarities of a pitty. The forklift and the hat. But he is way bigger:

So this is what my Lemon collection looks like right now (and you can see how troublesome it is to collect large DELUXE cars...) 

The beauty of language

Writing here on the blog gives me an opportunity that is really amazing. Before the internet this mass communication, this international mass broadcasting was impossible.
It is quite a revolution we take part in, the information highway people spoke of back in 1995 is really here and it is really vast.
For me porsonally, this gives me direct acess to the thoughts and feelings of another dad, living in the US with lots of similarities to my life. He also collects cars, hides them in a garage and he also has two sons, one of them with a disability.
I am very happy that this blog helped him find me and sharing things with him on email is an important way for me to deal with things around my son V. And my son A, as well.

So when I started to write in English, it was the right decision. This blog has always had more traffic from the US than from Sweden (Yes, even when I wrote in Swedish!) and since V has such a rare disease my hopes to get to know someone with something that looks a tiny bit similar to what he has, well the hope is bigger in the US, right?

My English isn´t very good, not all the time, I know that. And it makes me write a bit more selldom due to the larger effort it takes to first think, then translate, and then write.

But nevertheless this blog was a success for me when people emailed me from different parts of the world and told me something about their own children. Or their own car collections...

And I have always liked to read and write. I read my first word when I was 3 (according to my mom) and I read Roninson Crouse, the second edition, when I was about 8. Old difficult language. But what a freedom it was to be able to absorb all the stories out there!

And now. The irony. A son with so little language of his own. V knows a few words but almost all of them is a syllable in repeat: MA-MA. PA-PA. DI-DI, BA-BA (The last two is the names of two Babblare - toys made to help kids develop their speach)

But just the other day V took a giant leap. Well, to us it was.

We always read to V and A before they go to sleep. Lately he like to hear about "Mamma Mu och Kråkan" - that is somthing like "Mummy Moo and the Crow" a very funny series of books about the jolly Mummy Moo and the grumpy Crow. And then I tried with V.
- Say Mam-ma muuuu!
- Ma-mmma-mma
- Ma-Ma Muuu!
- Ma-Ma....Ma!

And then...
- Ma... Ma... Moooo!

Clearly two different words! Together. In a sentence!

The very first sentence!

***

I really really think you should listen to this episode of RadioLab ath WNYC - it is about words:

http://www.radiolab.org/story/91725-words/

November Blues for V

Last week I was filing a report. It was - as so many times before - a report about V and his disabilities. We are applying for some extra help. Assistance, you know.

V is quite a handfull. Sometimes it feels like I´m hurrying home from work just to start my next work. Get the kids from Daycare and School. Start cooking. Help V with his iPad (he loves watching Youtube-movies about trains, elevators and Teletubbies but Youtube laggs and buffers a lot and he simply hates that) finish cooking dinner. Feeding my kids, play som games with V, read some books, make the kids ready for bed and then read books before they go to sleep.

Some evenings my wife gets home early, and some evenings I work late. And I know, you are many out there, doing the same insane rituals. But believe me when I say that with a kid with a brain disability - it is a whole different ball game.

So we want help. Someone who can take V for some hours on a sunday. To go play outside, to the park, or just a ride with the bus (he really loves that).
It would be nice for me and my wife, we could relax, breath, recover a bit. But it would also benefit A a lot. We could care for him more, play with him without being interrupted every third minute by a scream or so. If you read my ramblings about the insane ritual above, you notice that I haven´t even mentioned A. That´s because he pretty much take care of himself. He is forced to do that.

So when I was filling in the application form the other night, making sure to put everything that V needs extra help with on paper, it all struck me as very sad.
"V has no friends of his own"
"V needs help and being looked after all the time"
"V har motoric difficulities"
"Although being 4,5 years old, V does not speak more words than dad and mom".

I cried.

Sometimes everything just hit you. And overwhelmes you. And you feel very very small. And that someone has treated you in a extremely unfair way.

But then I dried my tears. Tried to think about about all the good stuff V brought in our life.

And filled in the rest of the God damned application.

Finally some cars I really want!

It is dark now. Both here in Sweden, where the November darkness keeps us under it´s thick blankett. - This month is actually the darkest one since most of Sweden still has no snow.

But the darkness also keeps a tight grip on the Mattel Diecast Cars right now. It has been really a long time since any interesting cars has been released.

Until now!

I´ve place a bid on e-bay on these two beauties!

On my wish list this year - The Team Chiefs I miss:

• #2 Bruce Boxmann
• #4 Otto Bonn
• #5 Petro Cartalina
• #7 Mach Matsuo
• #8 Cruz Besouro

So please Santa! Please me!

Another Disney Pixar diecast car I did not really need (but somehow bought anyway) - Maurice

But it was so shiney. And red! And shiney! And also: I found it on the Amsterdam airport!

A car found in another country on a small toy store is a bargain whatever the price, it is almost like an adventure to go abroad to collect cars! So who cares Maurice is a car in a theme that I do not care for (Palace Chaos) and who cares I do not know anything about the car or the character. It was a new car that I did not already have and it was in Amsterdam, Holland, and it was only 10 Euro! Well only... it WAS 10 Euro...

Mama Topolino - looks not at all like Susie the Little Blue Coupe

First I thought that Mama Topolino was another way Pixar made a small tribute to great works before.
Like they did when Lightning McQueen got the number 95 because the first Pixar Movie, Toy Story, was released 1995. And like they did with all the great racers like the King (same number and car as Richard Petty). And tons of other references that fills the films.
So when I got a close look in this nice diecast, I was pretty sure I´ve seen it before.

The car may resemble a 1963 Renault Dauphine but I thought it was a tribute to the old Disney Car Susie The Little Blue Coupe.

Susie is important for the Cars movie. Originally Susie become famous starring a 8 minutes Disney short film back in 1952. But according to the wikipedia page of Cars, Susie was the inspiration with a capital I:
"From the very beginning of this project, John Lasseter had it in his mind to have the eyes be in the windshield. For one thing, it separates our characters from the more common approach where you have little cartoon eyes in the headlights. For another, he thought that having the eyes down near the mouth at the front end of the car feels more like a snake. With the eyes set in the windshield, the point of view is more human-like, and made it feel like the whole car could be involved in the animation of the character."

But Mama Topolino was no look-a-like to Susie.

 

So no tribute there. But reading some more about the car I found out that:
Topolino is a tribute to the Fiat 500 "Topolino" as well as a Disney in-joke: Topolino ("little mouse") is Mickey Mouse's name in Italian.

See. This is what I like so much with Lasseter and Pixar. Nothing just happens. Everything has a reason. Or more than one.

New Car - Mama Topolino!

Unboxing this beauty soon.

Brent Mustangburger - New Diecast! And another one...

As for the info from Disney Pixar Wika there is one fact that stands out:

My latest find in the local toy store!

Darrell Cartrip and Brent Mustangburger.
They come together in the Cars 2 Movie Moments 2 pack:

Darrell Cartrip is the TV commentary southern gentleman and ex champion car from Cars who gives the race a voice together with Bob Cutlass.

The car is a 1977 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and the flames are irresistable.

According to the Pixar Wika-page "Darrell is based on the real life NASCAR Champion driver Darrell Waltrip, who currently works as a television race commentator for Fox Broadcasting and Speed TV."

He also has a catch phrase in the movies: "Boogity, Boogity, Boogity! Let's go racing boys!"
Does anyone know if Darrell Waltrip uses the same in real life?

The main reason I bought this 2 pack was not because of Darrel Cartrip, I already got that one. But when you look at the one I got and this new one you could understand why I still consider myself a bit more happy with the new Darrell:

The mouth is a legendary bad job in the Disney Pixar Diecast-scene. So no more Clown Cartrip for me!

As for the other car, Brent Mustangburger (what a bad name that is!) - he is a real shiny and fresh looking fellow!

• Brent is based on, voiced by and named after ESPN/ABC sportscaster Brent Musburger. 
• Brent Mustangburger is a reporter for the RSN (Racing Sports Network), which appeared prominently in Cars.
• Brent is a 1965 Ford Mustang Coupe.
• His licence plate is BWM539. It represents the initials and the birthday (May 1939) of his voice actor, Brent Woody Musburger.
• The die-cast model of Brent has brown eyes, although Brent Mustangburger himself has green eyes. 

Yes of course I mean the last one. GREEN eyes! O boy! No wonder they changed it to brown. Green Eyes...

Well... I leave you with the fine lines of a 1965 Mustang. What a car!

Why Disney Planes won´t be as good as Cars

There´s a lot of fuzz about the new movie Planes from Disney right now.

It opened several weeks ago in the US but here in Sweden we still have to wait until the 27th of september to get to see the movie.
And of course I will see it. Me and A have already made up the plan. But will I like it? Probably just a bit.
Disney is a solid film making machinery and this movie won´t be an exception in the entertaining way. Action, cool characters, an impressive art work - I will get it all.

But it won´t be a new Cars. Or even close.

In one of the documentarys I´ve seen about the making of Cars (Yes I have seen several) one of the central things John Lassetere say about the reasons to the success of Cars is the strong connection between man and car.

In the very first frames of the film the first glances of Lightning McQueen is shiny. Sharp. Curves. Colors. Great music. Love to the machine.

And it´s not any machine. It´s the CAR. The symbol of freedom. And where the plane could be an even greater to escapism, flight and away awaya away - it is not. Because one does not simply have a plane.

Imagine Bruce Springsteen writing songs about escaping dullness of life in a Cessna on Born to Run...

Everybody could easily picture themselves owning a car. Even a shiny or a fast and powerful one.

But for us humans - the planes are still something untrusty, something we travel in and something we marvel upon. But it is no such thing as an item we own.

And this bond that do not exists between me and the airplane will affect me, and thousands of cinema visitors all over the world. We won´t get as excited this time.

And we won´t buy the diecast models.

V cracks the Duplo-code

Life with V is a fast ride in slow motion.

He is very busy keepin´ me and my wife busy. An almost constant need of attention and guiding.
And the days are much alike. V does not care too much for change. He want´s stability and routines. So even though we play and do a lot of stuff together with V - it is selldom any new things.


So we often feel that we are so busy doing stuff - that we havn´t got the time to really do anything.


But recently V has shown an interest in the (Lego) Duplo pieces we got. I know they got som Duplo at kindergarten as well. The main attraction at home is the train. It´s powered by batteries and the start button is easy to push (very important for V) but the tracks are not that easy to put together.

But last week he had a major break through. Now he understands how to put the lanes together and it is very much like when I wrote how he cracked the Wooden Brio Train code nine months ago.

 
So from Brio to Duplo trains in nine months. That´s one way to describe what goes around inside my sons head.

A tribute to Mr Watterson - you have never seen Calvin and Hobbes like this

My friend Tom (yeah one of my four followers on this blog!) once wrote to me about the one true big export America clings on to nowadays - culture.

In my case, I´ve been in constant influense of the USA since, well... I think it may have started with the Ingalls Wilder-books about Little House on the Prairie. I saw it when I was 4/5 years old and then my mom read the books for me.

After that: Knight Rider, Stephen King books (not the movies, too scary!) Tom Cruise, The Goonies, Disney, Springsteen, DeNiro, Steinbeck, Emmy-Lou Harris, Friends, Seinfeld, not to mention all the comic books.

TO mention all the comic books! One comic in particular: Calvin & Hobbes. Please take time to read more about this masterpiece of comics that Bill Watterson produced between 1985 and 1995.

Here´s a good piece that explains a lot of the greatness that builds this comic and why fans still want Bill Watterson to start drawing again.

Now there´s a MOVIE comming up about the Comic! Watch the trailer here!

November 15th is a date to remember. Wonder if they gonna show it here in Sweden?

To show my love of the superbly painted, hillariuosly written and the thoughts behind every inch of the strips - I´ve tried to copy one of the earlier pages. (The latter are simply too hard for me to draw since the details are insane!)

Red or Rödis as we call him in Sweden

Yeah! Finally I got Red!
This is the version from Cars 2.

He is rather big. Like all the "Oversized" and "DeLuxe"-cars. But this one should be big. He is a fire engine!

 Compared to some other nice cars you could see the variation of size.

It sure feels good to have such a big character in my collection. Sure feels good...

Wonder were I go next?

"What´s wrong with that boy? Why is he so strange?!"

Last week was a very big one for A. My oldest son started school.

He is 5 and a half and in Sweden we have a prep-school thing called "six years" that works like a transession between kindergarten and school. But this means that he has moved from his kindergarten to the large building where the school is. So he is a big boy now.

This also means that we have to leave and pick up the kids at two different locations.

And one day something happend.

My wife were saying goodbye to A. V was looking at all the kids. And one of them looked straight back. And he spoke right out.

Now. Things like this will happen. That´s clear. And it will happen a lot of times. But this was the first time for us. At least so clearly and in front of so many.

So how to react?

My wife did the very best you could do. At least that´s my opinion.

 

She turned directly to the kid. Instantly. And told him everything.

The kid had his mother with him. So she heard too. She heard my wife being totally open about V and his disease. In front of lots of kids. Making absolutely no drama about it at all.

And the mother reacted as good as you could ever imagine.

When she heard about V and his disability to talk but his ability to do sign language - she said "Oh really?! Do you sign V?" And then she started to do signs. She "said":
HI V! REALLY FUN THAT YOU COULD DO SIGNS!

Could that episode have gone much better?

And all because of my wife. She decided not to hide, not to pretend that she didn´t hear. She was all open about everything. And got the reward. Another person who could talk to V with signs.

So now we know. It is out there. Everyone can see that V is different. A lot of our friends do tell us otherwise. That he looks so perfectly normal. But they are used to him. And they are being nice.

Kids say the darnest things, don´t they?

The Big DNA Check of V - Swedish scientists to search for the lack of myelin in my son´s brain

We have entered the space between medecine and science. V is now subject to not only doctor´s and specialist´s interest but also to scientists here in Stockholm.

I´ve written about V´s special disease here and the problem to tell exactly what´s causing the lack of myelin in his brain. (Hypomyelination).

My last note there is from March 2012. Since then a lot has happened with V but with the one thing I wanted the most (and still have dreams about at night) - V´s problem to use words - very little has changed.

He is a very active young boy of 4 now. He runs, crawls, jumps (not high but still) and likes to take short strolls by himself down the street to check out the neighbourhood. But he only uses a few words like "mama, papa, Yes, no".

But he understands almost everything we say and we use sign communication. He understands a lot of different signs now and he master over 50 himself. Lately he combines them, like escalator, which in Swedish is "rolling stairs" - so we take the sign for roll and then the sign for stairs. And today V did the same (He loves to see movies on YouTube of Escalators, trains, elevators and buses)

But the cause of the matter is still not determined and now we´re going to let scientist check out all of V´s DNA-genome.
They are then going to compare this to me and my wifes genome (and his big brother´s) to try to see what´s gone wrong and where the mutation occured.

When we decided to go along with this we also had to decide whether we wanted to know about other differnt diseases the scientist could discover that our genes could bear.

Tricky questions, to say the least. Do I want to know if I have a 72% likelihood to grow cancer? Or if my son does?

But at the same time it feels good that we´re on this thing. I want to look under every stone possible to try to find out what has happened to V. And it feels good to have some smart scientists onboard.

Which Red is the right one?

I have to take care of the most obvious black hole in my collection - I have to get RED!

But there´s some unclarity with the Oversized and the Deluxe-variants according to size.


Since I have decided to collect the Mattel cars in 1:55 size (not the Disney varaints that are slightly larger, 1:43) I need to know which of the different variants of Red that would bed right for me?

All help would be great!


Some types I´ve seen so far:

 

Update on the New Categouries

This year Mattel started to organize the Cars and Cars 2 diecast models in 12 new categouries. 
You´ll find them on Mattel´s site and on my site here AND down below where I´ve added my thoughts about each and one of all the specific "collections".
 
In general - The good thing about this new way to bring some order to all the cars is that there is actually a pretty logical way to combine the cars from both the movies.
The bad thing - well it is obviously a way for Mattel to get to people that collect the new shiny cars from Cars 2 and say "hey, did you know that we have some really cool cars from the first film too?"
And there was a perfectly nicely working system with the single numbers up and running. Why fix something that wasn´t broken?

Anyway. Here´s the categouries with my thoughts and my cars. This far.

Airport Adventure Collection

Seven cars from the airport scene in the second film. Finn is cool but two variants of one diecast model in the same categourie is not good. They could have lost Security Guard Finn and added som more special cars like Krate instead. I´ll probably go for the last one, Waitress, but the others are just variants of cars I already got.

• 1 - Grem with Weapon

• 2 - Airport Mater

• 3 - Holley Shiftwell

• 4 - Security Guard Finn

• 5 - Finn McMissile

• 6 - Krate Rainson-Wash

• 7 - Airport Waitress

Festival Italiano Collection

Here´s some really nice models. Both Uncle and Mama Topolino are small diecasts with lots of curves. Got to get Mama! I´ll also go for both Franca and Francesca (wouldn´t have bothered if they weren´t in this collection) and of course I´ll buy the four pittys that makes the Topolinos´ Band.
Great Collection!

 

 

• 1 - Uncle Topolino 

• 2 - Race Team Luigi

• 3 - Race Team Guido 

• 4 - Franca

• 5 - Mama Topolino

• 6 - Francesca (Chase)

• 7, 8, 9 ,10 - Uncle Topolino's Band   

 

Lemons Collection

As you could see I like this one. I already got most of them. And even though I don´t go for variants I´ll probably make an exception for Tubbs Pacer with Paint Spray. Think I´ll collect them all here!

 

• 1 - J. Curby Gremlin

• 2 - Vladimir Trunkov

• 3 - Victor H.

• 4 - Petey Pacer 

• 5 - Tubbs Pacer

• 6, 7 - Tubbs Pacer with Paint Spray & Tolga Trunkov

Lightning McQueen Collection 

Rubbish. Variants. I got hte only one that is really beautiful.

• 1 - Cactus Lightning McQueen

• 2 - Lightning Storm Lightning McQueen

 

• 3 - Lightning McQueen with Cone   

• 4 - Cruisin´ Lightning McQueen

• 5 - Nature Drive Lightning McQueen

Maters Collection

Same here though the Maters are more artistic and seemed to be done with a great deal of imagination. But nothing for me.

 

• 1 - Race Team Mater

• 2 - Ivan Mater

 

• 3 - Kabuki Mater

 

• 4 - Francesco Mater

• 5 - Materhosen

• 6 - Dracula Mater

 

Palace Chaos Collection

Some variants here (Sally, Mater, Miles, Finn) - and that makes this collection not so interesting. The other cars are rather small characters in the movie so I´ll wait until I go for this one.

• 1 - Holley Shiftwell with Screen

• 2 - Mike Lorengine

• 3 - You the Bomb Mater 

• 4 - Miles Axlerod with Open Hood (Chase) 

• 5 - Maurice

• 6 - Victor Paveone

• 7 - Mark Wheelsen

• 8, 9 - Doug Speedcheck & Palace Danger Finn McMissile

Piston Cup Collection

This could have been great. From it´s name you could think that this collection would consist by a lot of race cars. But here´s where Mattel started to f**k things up, pardon my Swedish.
Only 6 out of 17 cars are race cars. The rest? Tow Trucks, helicopters, judges, Mrs The King (ok a cool car) and some announcers.
This is a bad trick from Mattel to make us buy boring Tow Trucks with boring flags that probably will... work on me. Darn.

 

• 1 - Chick Hicks

• 2 - Race Tow Truck Tom

• 3 - Bob Cutlass

• 4 - Darrel Cartrip - photo soon to come

• 5 - Mrs. The King - photo soon to come

• 6 - Tex Dinoco

• 7 - Dinoco Helicopter

• 8 - The King

• 9 - Al Oft the Lightyear Blimp

• 10 - Nitroade No. 28

• 11 - Marlon "Clutches" McKay

• 12 - Charlie Checker

• 13 - Dexter Hoover with Checkered Flag

• 14 - Lightning McQueen

• 15 - Sputter Stop No. 92 

• 16 - Elvis RV

• 17 - RPM No. 64

• 18 - Race Official Tom  

Retro Radiator Springs Collection

I´m not sure about this one. But I WILL buy the Brand New Mater. The others are not great characters in the movies...

Yeah I know this is "Sally with Cone"

 

• 1 - Sally

• 2 - Hank "Halloween" Murphy

• 3 - Lightning Ramone 

• 4 - Dustin Mellows 

• 5 - Brand New Mater

• 6 - Greta 

 

• 7 - Edwin Kranks

• 8 - Mildred Bylane

 

Rust-Eze Racing Collection

Same thing here. But the Rust-Eze brothers are cool. But No 4, 7 and 8? I don´t think so.

• 1 - Dusty Rust-Eze

• 2 - Mack

• 3 - Rusty Rust-Eze

• 4 - Jonathan Wrenchworths 

• 5 - Lightning McQueen with Sign

• 6 - Fred

• 7 - Donna Pits

• 8 - Vern  

Tuners Collection

This is not in my taste at all. I got a theory I would like to try on ya´ll: People who like the cars in this collection are the same people who actually pay money to see all the "the Fast and the Furious"-movies.

And that´s not me.

• 1 - Suki

• 2 - Kabuto

• 3 - DJ with Flames 

• 4 - Wingo with Flames

• 5 - Harumi

• 6 - Yokoza

• 7 - Chisaki 

• 8 - Snot Rod with Flames

• 9 - Boost with Flames 

• 10 - Ichigo (Chase) 

 

Wheel Well Motel Collection

Me like. I´ll buy them all. No, not Hudson Hornet Piston Cup Lightning McQueen and maybe not the Luigi and Guido, I do not go for variants. But RED - how could I not have got him already? Shame on me.

 

 

 

• 1 - Sheriff

• 2 - Sarge

• 3 - Red

• 4 - Hudson Hornet Piston Cup Lightning McQueen 

Yeah I know...

• 5 -  Sally 

• 6 - Fillmore

• 7 - Flo

• 8 - Body Shop Ramone

• 9, 10 - Luigi & Guido with Shaker and Glasses 

• 11 - COMING SOON

World Grand Prix Collection

I already got 12 out of 17 so YES this is my kind of cars. And the race car ratio is far more better here, 10 out of 17, but WHY did Mattel leave Carla Veloso out?
Why?

 

• 1 - Lightning McQueen with Racing Wheels

• 2 - Francesco Bernoulli

• 3 - Nigel Gearsley

• 4 - Austin Littleton

• 5 - Raoul CaRoule

• 6 - Bruno Motoreau

• 7 - Miguel Camino

• 8 - Rip Clutchgoneski

• 9 - Erik Laneley

• 10 - Max Schnell

• 11 - Lewis Hamilton

• 12 - Shu Todoroki

• 13 - David Hobbscapp with Headset

• 14 - Darrel Cartrip with Headset

• 15 - Brent Mustangburger with Headset

• 16 - Jeff Gorvette

• 17 - Alex Carvill