Cool is Cool is Cool: Greenlight 1968 Chevrolet C10 Cheyenne with Camper...

No, we don't feature a lot of Greenlight here.  We have heard from a lot of you about that, and we probably don't have a sufficient reason as to why that is.

But then again, when you think about it there are a lot of diecast lines we haven't featured.  Have you ever seen M2?  Or Jada?  Or in the last while Tomica basic?  Not a lot of Majorette either.  And maybe we should.  Like we said, we don't have any reason why other than there are not many of those models in the Lamley collection.

But there are some un-ignorable exceptions.  A couple of months ago we featured the undeniably cool vintage wagons that popped up in the Auto World lineup, as well as the yacht-tastic AW Cadillac Coupe DeVilles.  We may bypass Auto World's plethora of Mustangs and Camaros, but those models were impossible to pass up.  And there are more coming.

The same goes for Greenlight.  There is no denying the quality of Greenlight models.  The detail on many rival the best of 1:64.  But once again, the dominance of so many models that we have seen before, a la Mustangs and Camaros, dulls most excitement about them, at least around here.  I personally have always admired the police lines, as the liveries are real police departments, and the castings fantastic.  But collecting those means opening a whole new chunk of space I don't have.

But like the yachts of Auto World, there are the occasional models that must be picked up, and Greenlight's Chevy C10 Camper was a no-brainer.  It is undoubtedly a Cool is Cool is Cool model.

We don't have to explain why.  Campers are cool.  Wait, I should clarify.  Not all camping machines are cool.  RV's are nice, but not cool, and the UK's caravans are cool only when Top Gear is dealing with them.  But campers?  Pure nostalgic cool.

Wait.  Let's clarify again.  Campers on a 2014 S-10?  Not cool.  Campers on a '68 C10, or on this Ford like we encountered on Saturday?  Crazy cool.

If I hearken back to the days of Toughskins and wood-paneled wagons and family vacations, thoughts of passing campers is automatic.  Never set foot in one, wandering the West like we did meant seeing a lot of campers.

So thanks a ton to Greenlight for celebrating the camper, and kudos to a great C10 casting, which is one of our favorite classic trucks.  Lamley readers know we get giddy for vintage trucks, and with a camper on top?  Super giddy.  And, whether it was on purpose or not, a vintage truck with a camper that looks like it is too heavy for the bed?  Super-duper giddy.

(You can find the camper-topped Greenlights on ebay...)


Greenlight 1968 Chevrolet C10 Cheyenne with Camper:

Cool is Cool is Cool: The Hot Wheels 8-spoke Real Rider Wheels, aka fake watanabes aka fake minilites...

It was fun to watch the internet explode last night as word got out that Hot Wheels was releasing a Datsun 510 Wagon Super Treasure Hunt.  In our minds, this Super is darn-near perfect.  A great color with a great livery, along with the logos of some very important JDM names.

But what tops it off are the wheels it sits on.  Those, in official Hot Wheels speak, are the 8-Spoke Real Riders, introduced in 2011.  They serve a wide array or purposes, and signal many types of styles and eras.

There was a time when I shied away from Real Riders.  I like seeing cars roll, and the Real Riders of yesterday seemed to deter that from happening.  They were bulky, awkward, and play-value killers.  That has completely changed now.  Not only is there a wide array of styles, they actually work well on the models.  And they resemble all kinds of real rims.

There is the Exotic Real Rider, which resembles the 5-point rims used on Ferraris, the GT Real Rider, which adorns the Toyota 2000GT Super and many other cars from that era, like the Ferrari 250 GTO, and a wheel that is close to my heard, the Dish Style Real Rider, which resembles the wheels used on the speed demons of the Bonneville Salt Flats, which is only a hop, skip and a jump from the Lamley offices.  In fact, if you want to see something interesting, just check out the wheel guide at South Texas.  There are a lot of wheels available to the blue brand.

But back to the 8-spoke.  It seems to us the creation of this wheel was to serve two main purposes: to resemble the Minilite wheel used on many a vintage race car, as well as resemble the classic Watanabe rims from Japan.  Look them up, and you will see what we are talking about.  Some examples:

You can see why we like this style of rims.  Whether large or small, on low profile (but not too low) or meaty tires, these wheels really work on the right vintage car.  (And some current cars.)

So we picked some of our favorite 8-spoke-RR-wearing models that Hot Wheels has released in the last few years.  There are many others, so feel free to share your favorites with us as well on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or right here...

Enjoy.

Cool is Cool is Cool: Hot Wheels '76 Greenwood Corvette Super Treasure Hunt...

I guess it is best to introduce the '76 Greenwood Corvette Super Treasure Hunt as Lamley's favorite for 2014 so far.  But we know many of you completely disagree.  So today I give you my very compelling case.

And there are plenty of reasons.  It starts with the fact that I absolutely ADORE the Greenwood Corvette casting.  I haven't liked Corvettes from essentially the 1980's right up to the release of the 2014 Stingray, which I am definitely a fan.  But I love Corvettes from the late 60's into the 70's.  They went from classy cars in the 50's and early 60's (which I also loved), to over-the-top mustache holders that proudly and phallically boasted their true purpose.

Nothing epitomizes that more than the Greenwood.  Besides it obvious historical racing relevance, the Greenwood takes every design queue of the '70's Vette and exaggerates it.  Sure, the enhancements to the car were for racing purposes, but what resulted is a truly sensational car that, like the decade it lived in, ignored the word "subtle" like it was unfeathered hair.  

And Hot Wheels nailed the casting.  It's debut in the Hot Wheels Racing series was the highlight of 2012 in my book, and it is still one of my favorite models.  So take a casting that we hold in that high regard, and you can see that just being released as a Super TH makes it one of my favorites.

But Hot Wheels didn't give a great car a bad design.  Sure, a racing livery would have been cool, but remember, John Greenwood customized street-ready C3 Corvettes as well.  So having a non-racing version of the Hot Wheels casting is not a stretch.  We saw one in 2013 that looked nice, but the 2014 version looks even better.

It would be blasphemy to put a current deco on the vintage Greenwood, so Hot Wheels did it right.  They have it a wonderful brown/bronze combo, enhanced it with white and black stripes, and then topped it off perfectly with those fabulous gold(ish) rims.  The casting is already screaming 70's, so why not the deco?

We have seen comments from collectors saying how much they hate this Super.  We proudly disagree.  This model is SEXY, and let's be honest, there are not a lot of sexy Super Treasure Hunts...

(Find the Greenwood Vette in all its forms on ebay...)

Hot Wheels '76 Greenwood Corvette (2014 Super Treasure Hunt):

The family:

2012 HW Racing

2013 Mainline

2014 Super Treasure Hunt

Cool is Cool is Cool: Hot Wheels Vintage Racing Parnelli Jones & George Follmer '70 Mustang Boss 302's...

Can it get any cooler than the Trans Am Racing season of 1970?

If you are not qualified to answer that, google the names Parnelli Jones, George Follmer, Marc Donohue, Sam Posey, and Dan Gurney.  Or "1970 Trans Am".  Then prepare to go deep into the google-sphere.  Photos, stories, videos, it is a bit addictive.  And the cars.  Oh the cars.  Trans Am fans know what I mean.

I am not the racing nut that some are, but the Trans Am series is so intertwined with the pony car era that it is impossible to not become familiar with it if are even a casual fan of these cars.  Not to mention the sub-2.0 liters category, with its Porsches and Alfas and Audis and eventually Datsuns, the Trans Am series of the early '70s is a goldmine of gearhead porn.

After your little google voyage, we then dare you to try and avoid hitting ebay and gobbling up the Trans Am models from the Vintage Racing series in 2011.  It is near impossible to not want them, it just might be the aftermarket pricing that will keep you from jumping all in.

There are a lot of great models in the Vintage Racing series, and of course we have spent more than enough time on the BRE Datsun.  But in all honesty, for me the gems are the Trans Am cars from 1969 and 1970.  And over the next few months we will try and get through all of them.

So it is probably appropriate to start with the two cars that won the series for Ford in 1970: Parnelli Jones' #15 and George Follmer's #16 1970 Mustang Boss 302's.  There is not one without the other, so it makes perfect sense that Hot Wheels did both, even though they look so much alike.

And both are amazing models.  The '70 Boss 302 casting made its debut in this series, and to us there is no doubt this is the best Mustang casting Hot Wheels has ever done.  It may also be one of the most realistic models Hot Wheels has ever done as well.  The details are so spot on, the stance screams Trans Am, and while it seems trivial, look how perfectly the wheels fit in the wheel wells.  Considering other castings have been botched, this is at least evidence that they can do it right when needed.

As much as I am sad that this type of series hasn't continued, we can at least be happy that the 2011 Vintage Racing Series was completed, and we have some amazing models.  It was the Racing Series of 2012 that didn't make it, cutting short the Japanese Racing batch.  Now excuse me while I go cry...

(Find the 2011 Hot Wheels Vintage Racing on ebay...)


Hot Wheels Parnelli Jones '70 Mustang Boss 302 & George Follmer '70 Mustang Boss 302 (2011 Vintage Racing):

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