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)

2003-2004 Revell Lowrider Magazine Impalas

I recently showed a favorite series from the early 2000s – the Collectible Chevy line – which was made by Revell during the short time it was making 1:64 diecast cars. Well, here’s another favorite series of diecast that was made by Revell, the Lowrider Magazine series. These beautifully detailed models feature opening hoods or trunks and most have positionable axles. Each card features a cover image from a different issue of Lowrider Magazine with those famous Lowrider Girls (though the diecast cars are not necessarily a faithful representation of the cars featured on the magazine cover). Unfortunately, the moving parts on the models required the application of large bilingual choking hazard warnings to the fronts of the packages.

Revell | 86-3064 | 2004 | Issue #135 Lowrider Magazine | ‘58 Chevy Impala | dark red with gold trim

Revell | 86-3071 | 2003 | Issue #142 Lowrider Magazine | ‘63 Chevy Impala white with pink trim

Revell | 86-3074 | 2003 | Issue #145 Lowrider Magazine | ‘61 Chevy Impala black with joker on trunk

Revell | 86-3077 | 2003 | Issue #148 Lowrider Magazine | ‘64 Chevy Impala purple with lime green trim

Revell | 86-3079 | 2003 | Issue #150 Lowrider Magazine | ‘59 Chevy Impala | dark green with flames

In 2004, the card was redesigned with a different color scheme.

Revell | 86-3097 | 2004 | Issue #156 Lowrider Magazine | ‘63 Chevy Impala | green with white top

Revell | 86-3098 | 2004 | Issue #157 Lowrider Magazine | ‘59 Chevy Impala | yellow with white top

Revell | 86-3099 | 2004 | Issue #158 Lowrider Magazine | ‘61 Chevy Impala | metallic gray with red trim

Later issues had a complete redesign of the package, now completely encased in plastic, with the featured magazine cover treated more like a collector’s card. Comparing some of the models above with those below, you’ll see that, despite the models being identical to previous releases, they were paired with different magazine covers and given new item/issue numbers.

Revell | 86-3220 | 2004 | Issue #182 Lowrider Magazine | ‘61 Chevy Impala | red with pink trim

Revell | 86-3224 | 2004 | Issue #186 Lowrider Magazine | ‘63 Chevy Impala | green with white top

Revell | 86-3225 | 2004 | Issue #187 Lowrider Magazine | ‘59 Chevy Impala | yellow with white top

Revell | 86-3226 | 2004 | Issue #188 Lowrider Magazine | ‘61 Chevy Impala | metallic gray with red trim

I also have the ’82 Buick Regal from the same series. I bought this one because, at the time, my wife was driving an ’89 Buick LeSabre that we had bought used for $500.

Revell | 86-3211 | 2004 | Issue #185 Lowrider Magazine | ‘82 Buick Regal | red with maroon and gold trim

The images of the card backs below show lists of the various model available. (You’ll notice the listings are different on some of the cards, so I’m including the lists that cover the range of item numbers in my collection.)

2000-2002 Revell Collectible Chevy Impalas

Revell is mostly known for producing quality plastic model kits. In fact it’s difficult to find information about the company’s foray into die-cast cars. The company history on their website only briefly mentions “the integration of … die-cast models into the portfolio.” But the Revell Collectible Chevy series from the early 2000s is a favorite of mine. The 1:64 scale cars, which feature an opening hood or trunk, are extremely accurate and nicely detailed, while each blister card is printed with vintage advertising art.

Revell Collectible Chevy | 86-3363 | 2000 | Issue #58 | ‘64 Chevy Impala | metallic gray-green

Revell Collectible Chevy | 86-3370 | 2001 | Issue #68 | ‘58 Chevy Impala | red and white two-tone

Revell Collectible Chevy | 86-3371 | 2001 | Issue #69 | ‘61 Chevy Impala | blue

Revell Collectible Chevy | 86-3391 | 2002 | Issue #86 | ‘58 Chevy Impala | metallic purple

Revell Collectible Chevy | 86-3393 | 2002 | Issue #88 | ‘63 Chevy Impala | white

I also have a ’70 Monte Carlo from the same series. For some reason the blister on this package is even more yellowed than on the others.

Revell Collectible Chevy | 86-3364 | 2000 | Issue #59 | ’70 Chevy Monte Carlo | gold

As you can see by the list on the back of the card pictured below, I don’t have the complete collection. Most castings were offered in two different variations and, though I have at least one of most of the Impalas offered, I’m missing the ’59 entirely. It’s interesting that the card describes the incredible cars of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, yet one of the castings they included was a ’96 Impala.

2002 Revell American Graffiti '58 Impala

I never saw the movie American Graffiti when it came out in theaters in 1973, but I did watch it on television a few years later. While I don’t remember a lot of details from the movie, I do remember being impressed by the cars and the rock n’ roll spirit of the Southern California cruising culture depicted in the movie. I also remember listening to the soundtrack quite a bit on an 8-track player in a good friend’s basement.

This Revell American Graffiti ’58 Impala, released in 2002, includes a miniature figure of the character Toad from the movie. The car has an opening hood and nice details. Toad, however, is not the same scale as the car.

86-3170 | Revell 2002 Issue #108 American Graffiti | ‘58 Chevy Impala with Toad Figure | white with silver & red trim

Other American Graffiti Impalas in my collection include one from the 2013 Hot Wheels Retro Entertainment series and a Johnny Lightning model from 2001.