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.