New Year’s Inventory

It’s been five years since I did a thorough inventory of my collection. I know that my collection has grown since then, but it has also evolved, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the numbers and compare to five years ago.

I still think of my collection as having three main categories: Vintage, Novas and Impalas. But in recent years I have sold off a lot of my more recent items and have focused more on the vintage stuff. I’ve also tried to narrow the brands I collect. Currently, the collection stands at 1,477 items (up from 951 five years ago). Here’s how the collection breaks down.

993 Vintage
In my collection, “vintage” is essentially anything 1995 or before. These 993 items include my childhood collection and a bunch of almost entirely loose cars with a focus on blackwall-era Hot Wheels. The oldest items would be a few late-1950s Lesney-era Matchbox cars and I have a few items that blur past the 1995 date. For the most part, I’ve narrowed this category to include only brands that I had when I was a kid; Hot Wheels, Matchbox (England-cast), Tomica (Japan-cast), Husky (and by extension Corgi Juniors), Playart and Majorette (French-cast). This category has nearly tripled in size from a total of only 397 five years ago.

I have 52 cars that I’ve managed to hold onto from my childhood. They include 18 Matchbox, 9 Hot Wheels, 7 Tomica Pocket Cars, 5 Zee Toys, 6 Husky, 4 Playart and a single Majorette.

The remaining 941 Vintage cars break down as follows:

Hot Wheels – 602 (up from 219 five years ago)
Matchbox – 178 (up from 53)
Budgie – 3 (up from 0)
Corgi and Corgi Juniors – 31 (up from 14)
Husky – 14 (up from 1)
Johnny Lightning ­– 1 (up from 0)
Majorette – 46 (up from 7)
Playart – 14 (up from 1)
Road Champs – 3 (down from 4)
Shinsei – 1 (unchanged)
Tomica – 53 (up from 4)
Welly – 1 (up from 0)
Yatming – 2 (down from 9)
Zee Toys – 1 (down from 11)

196 Impalas
This category has shrunk from a total of 262 five years ago, largely due to the fact that I sold off most of my M2s and other brands, narrowing the focus to Hot Wheels and Johnny Lightning. Also, for whatever reason, many of the Hot Wheels Impala castings haven’t been released with new variations in recent years.

Hot Wheels – 91 (up from 85 five years ago)
Johnny Lightning – 62 (up from 59)Corgi – 3 (up from 2)
Greenlight – 5 (down from 14)
Jada Toys – 5 (down from 21)
M2 Machines – 4 (down from 15)
Maisto – 3 (down from 11)
Racing Champions – 2 (down from 6)
Revell – 20 (down from 22)

171 Novas
Despite focusing on Hot Wheels and Johnny Lightning and selling off many of my other brands, this category shrunk only slightly from 188 five years ago as Hot Wheels continues to crank out variations of the existing Nova castings. Matchbox even entered this category for the first time when they released the 1979 Chevy Nova casting in 2021.

Hot Wheels – 120 (up from 85)
Matchbox – 1 (up from 0)
Johnny Lightning – 40 (up from 38)
Auto World – 1 (up from 0)
GMP – 1 (unchanged)
M2 Machines – 3 (down from 27)
Maisto – 2 (down from 10)
Racing Champions – 2 (down from 3)
Universal Hobbies – 1 (unchanged)

109 Miscellaneous
This category only grew by 1 item in five years as I sold off a few brands and tried to be disciplined in keeping a focused collection. The 105 items here include 19 Hot Wheels 30th Anniversary models from 1998, Batmobiles and Mystery Machines, NASA-themed items including 3 Hot Wheels Action Packs, 17 2005-2006 Hot Wheels Classics and a few other odds and ends.

Hot Wheels – 82 (up from 78)
Matchbox – 8 (up from 4)
Johnny Lightning – 6 (up from 5)
Bauer – 1 (unchanged)
Ertl – 2 (up from 0)
Jada Toys – 4 (unchanged)
Majorette – 2 (up from 0)
Racing Champions – 1 (up from 0)
Revell – 1 (down from 2)
Unknown – 2 (unchanged)

My Collection by Brand
My collection is made up of at least 25 different brands, down from 41 five years ago. Being well-represented in all of my categories, the Hot Wheels brand still dominates with 904 items. Matchbox has moved up to second place (from third five years ago) due to steady growth in my vintage category. Johnny Lightning drops to third with 109 and I’ve added quite a bit to vintage brands like Tomica, Majorette, Corgi Juniors and Husky.

Hot Wheels – 904 (up from 476 five years ago)
Matchbox – 205 (up from 75)
Johnny Lightning – 109 (up from 102)
Tomica – 60 (up from 11)
Majorette – 49 (up from 7)
Corgi (includes Corgi Juniors) – 34 (up from 13)
Revell – 21 (down from 24)
Husky – 20 (up from 7)
Playart – 18 (up from 5)
Jada – 9 (down from 31)
M2 Machines – 7 (down from 42)
Zylmex (Zee Toys) – 6 (down from 11)
Greenlight – 5 (down from 14)
Maisto – 5 (down from 22)
Racing Champions – 5 (down from 18)
Budgie – 3 (up from 0)
Road Champs – 3 (down from 4)
Ertl – 2 (down from 6)
Yatming – 2 (down from 9)
Unknown – 2 (down from 12)
Auto World – 1 (down from 3)
Bauer – 1 (unchanged)
GMP – 1 (unchanged)
Universal Hobbies – 1 (unchanged)
Welly – 1 (up from 0)

2017 Greenlight Hot Pursuit Indiana State Police 1967 Chevrolet Impala

Sometimes, after I’ve scoured all of the Targets and Walmarts in town, I remember that Hobby Lobby has a small diecast car section. And sometimes I’m even willing to wait in the long lines of crafters at the check-out to make a purchase.

I enjoy the Greenlight Hot Pursuit series and have several already, including the Glendale Police ’67 Biscayne from series 18. I like the look of this stripped-down Indiana State Police ’67 Impala cruiser with its stock wheels, simple door badge and the single cherry on the roof.

2017 Greenlight Hot Pursuit | Series 23 | 1967 Chevrolet Impala | white with Indiana State Police trim

2016 Greenlight Hot Pursuit 1967 Chevrolet Police

Remember the days when to look intimidating, a police car only needed a single cherry on top and a badge on the door? Yeah, and it helped if the car happened to be a metallic green ’67 Biscayne. The two other variations of the Greenlight 1967 Chevrolet Police Pursuit already in my collection are the 2013 Louisiana State Police version and the 2014 Wisconsin State Patrol car.
2016 | Greenlight Hot Pursuit Series 18 | 1967 Chevrolet (Biscayne) Police Pursuit | metallic green with Glendale, Wisconsin Police trim

2014 Greelight Hitch & Tow ’67 Impala and Airstream

As summer draws to an end (already!), I find myself thinking about family vacations from my youth. I’m pretty sure my family camped next to this Impala and Airstream combo one summer many years ago in the Black Hills of South Dakota. My family’s trailer wasn’t a slick Airstream, but our ’66 Pontiac Catalina wagon would’ve given the Impala some stiff competition on the highway.

Somehow I missed this package when it was in the stores last year, so I had to chase this one down on eBay. It has all of the nice detailing typical of Greenlight models and I look forward to seeing what they come up with next in the Hitch & Tow series.
2014 | Greenlight Hitch & Tow Series 1 | 1967 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan and Airstream 16′ Bambi | blue

2014 Greenlight Hot Pursuit 1967 Chevrolet Wisconsin State Patrol

I was happy to find another variation of the Greenlight ’67 Biscayne at Toys “R” Us the other day. I don’t specifically collect police vehicles, but I feel I can justify adding this to my Impala collection. I previously posted about my Greenlight Louisiana State Police version from Series 12, with more information about the Chevrolet Biscayne and the nice details of this casting.

2014 | Greenlight Collectibles Hot Pursuit Series 14 | 1967 Chevrolet (Biscayne) Police Pursuit | dark blue and white with Wisconsin State Patrol trim

2013 Greenlight Louisiana State Police 1967 Chevrolet Police Pursuit

From 1958 until 1972, Chevrolet offered 3 models in their full-size car line. The Biscayne was the low end, the Bel Air was in the middle, and the Impala was at the high end. Absent most of the interior and exterior trim options of the more expensive models, the Biscayne was produced mostly for the fleet market. It was, however, the availability of optional big-block V8 engines and performance-oriented transmissions that made these cars popular among hot-rodders as well.

I recently found this Greenlight Chevrolet Biscayne, with its striking Louisiana State Police livery, at Toys R Us. A patrol car like this would have been powered by a big-block 396 V8 engine, which had been an available option since 1965.

The B pillar is a painted part of the clear plastic window insert, a nice detail which differentiates it from the Impala hardtop version of this Greenlight ’67 four-door casting.

The Biscayne casting is also slightly modified to show the correct 2 taillights per side, versus three per side on the Impala casting.

2013 | Hot Pursuit Series 12 | 1967 Chevrolet (Biscayne) Police Pursuit | red and white with Louisiana State Police deco