Flea Hauls: Subaru 360 & Jeep Wrangler

Yesterday I went on flea hopping, I was not really expecting that much because I know that most of the flea markets that I usually go to does not have anything new on the shelves because it is not the time of the month yet. First Flea shop I went to was setting up for the new arrivals this coming week, tried to peek whats new but I did not find anything interesting. (If you are not from the Philippines you might be wondering how flea markets works here in the Philippines. Well it's like this, it's like a flea market slash thrift shop. Sellers rent their own units in old buildings or establishments and every month they have new stocks of second hand goods being sold everyday. If you have been watching Discovery Channel's "Dirty Money", the flea markets here in the Philippines is not like that.) Went to the next and still nothing. Went to the third and found a 1/35 Votoms pilot set. It's made by CMS, I picked it up because I have a 1/35 Votoms Marshydog and I am hoping to sell both for a profit.

CMS AT-Pilot Votoms

Yes it is for sale so drop me a mail. :D

I was loosing momentum after this, I was already thinking of not visiting the other shops but then I remembered that one of the shops in Manila just finished renovating their store. I went their thinking that I can also drop by the Die cast store near the flea shop. I arrived at the shop and saw that the lower ground was used for second hand clothes and shoes. The upper floor was used for used furniture and electronic gadgets. "No more toys?" I thought to myself. I still went it to take a look at the newly painted floor. On my way up I saw that there were a couple of 1/43 cars displayed behind the counter. Most of the time, items displayed behind the counters of flea markets here in the Philippines means that those items are not for sale or they are reserved. I approached the cashier and asked about the Nissan Skyline R34. She told me that it's up for sale. I checked it out and found out that it is a cheap bootleg. I gave it back and looked at the cars displayed, I saw a several Hotwheels and Matchbox, nothing special. While looking at the cars I asked if all of the cars are for sale. She answered yes and pointed at the cars that I was looking at, after that she said "Ito rin sir." ("and these as well") pointing at another shelf below the one I was looking at. A couple of 1/72's, several Choro Q's and a Tomica. A Tomica! My inside was screaming with joy, as soon as I saw the livery on this one I knew I got something good. I picked it up and checked the condition of the car. No scratches, some light discoloration, a little dirty but everything is good. Nothing a little TLC can't solve. I asked for the price and made a very good deal with the cashier. I went back to the shelf and found on top of the Japanese labeled CD's Choro Q Jeep Wrangler. I have posted my Choro Q Jeep Wrangler a while back and mentioned something about the rarity of this model. Well I guess my friend was referring to this specific model when he mentioned that it is a bit hard to find. Here are the pictures of my hauls. 

Takara Tomy 1/60 NO.21 

Subaru 360 Event Special

I wonder what that translates too?

Choro Q Jeep Wrangler with Display Case

Here are some pictures of the Standard and Limited together.

It's a shame that both cars did not come with their original boxes but for the price that I got them, that is asking for too much. I am really happy that I visited the shops yesterday and I am really thankful to my wife for allowing me to visit them!  : p

Well that is it for now, thanks for looking and keep on Over Haulin!

P.S. I will update this after I cleaned up the Subie! :D

4x4 Hauls: Tonka Turbo Trucksters & Tomy Choro Q

I have been mentioning that one of my sources for my hauls are flea markets also known here in the Philippines as "Ukay-Ukay". I make it a point that I try to visit all of the flea markets that I know once a month, particularly during their "New Arrivals". During one of my visits I found this Hilux No. 02 Choro Q HG Big Tire Series, there are broken and missing parts but for a mere 10  pesos and considering that this is the first time that I saw a Big Tire Series, I decided to buy it. 

(Just ignore the cars at the background :D those are for later)

I really liked the details of the truck, specially the shovel and the winch. At the back of my mind I was saying that I will restore this car. Well, that did not happen. :D I just did not have the time to restore it and the lack of pictures for reference in the net discouraged me. I do have several Choro Q's in my collection, I did try to collect them but the Choro Q's where pulled out from the stores and that made me stop collecting them. One of my favorite Choro Q haul that I have is my Jeep Wrangler, one of my Choro Q colleague mentioned that this is a pretty hard to find model. I am really not sure how true that is but here it is. 

What I really liked about the Choro Q's is the detail that goes with these little cars. With a little touch up and modifications, you can easily make them look like the real thing, and they have a huge line of different make and models. 

I know you saw a couple of Big Tire's at the background so let's get going. Years after my first Big Tire series catch, I found these trucks displayed among the cars that were tagged as new arrivals at the same flea shop where I got the first one. The cars are labeled Tonka Turbo Monsters, and I believe this series were released together with the Tonka Turbo Tricksters and Tonka Penny Racers in the U.S.A.. Here is a quote from Choro Q Wikipedia:

"In addition to "Penny Racers", Choro-Q pullback cars were also marketed under the Tonka branding in the late 1980s as "Tonka Turbo Tricksters". "Penny Racers" in the US are still marketed by Funrise, but are less popular for collectors compared with their true-to-life counterparts marketed elsewhere, and versus the ones formerly sold by Tonka. "Penny Racers" tend to be garishly colored and given silly names, ignoring the actual names of the makes and models, and marketed for US children, whereas the Choro Q in the far East are made to a much higher quality standard and many are specifically designed for the adult collector, with high detail and/or tiny, incredibly detailed racing graphics and occasionally other realistic gimmicks such as fold-out headlights."

There were a total of four cars displayed on the shelves and I picked them up immediately, they were priced at 20 pesos each, after I have secured the four cars I started to look for other cars that may have been placed somewhere inside the shop, but there was none. I went to the cashier and checked out with four cars for more or less $2. 

I am really not sure of the models of the cars, but two of them has the same Big Tire Series Hilux casting, one is sporting a Mercedes Benz emblem and the last one looks like a two door box type sedan. (I hope you can help me with the models, information about these little cars are really rare.) Some of the cars has paint chips and missing parts but over all they are a much much better samples of the Big Tire models compared to my first haul. Well, it's time for me to stop talking and start showing the pictures. 

Well that is it for now, thanks for looking and Keep on Over Haulin!

EBay Hauls: Hotwheels Ford Escort & Toyota MR2

I was watching one of my favorite T.V. series "Auction Hunters" last night, and in last night's episode they were able to pick up this unit with vintage slot cars hidden among the china glass wares. There were four cars in the lot and one of the cars is a Chaparral with a Jim Hall figure and it just so happens that I also have one made by Hotwheels. That car alone that they got was valued at $700 by the buyer.

Auction Hunter YouTube Video

After the show, I went to check my own Chaparral, picked it up, admired it for a while and returned it to my unfinished display cabinet. 

I tried to remember where I got my Chaparral and after remembering that I got it from a mall that sells wholesale items, I started to try and remember where I got the remaining cars that I have right now. Most of the cars that I have where purchased at the mall and hobby stores, some are from the flea market and others are from fellow collectors.

How about online stores you ask? Well I do have a couple of purchases from the net, the very first one is a Hotwheels Plymouth and the Nikko Cosmo Flash. I considered those trial purchases, the items were priced right, both sellers are willing to do meet ups and they both have good feed back scores. The transactions went pretty well and that pushed me to do my third purchase from the Internet, which turned out to be my most favorite haul for 1:64 diecast. I'm still new to diecast collecting when I saw two of my favorite casting and tampo from an EBay seller. I am not really a big fan of shipping items because of the fee and the possibility of being scammed, but I really liked the car that was being posted so I decided to give it a try. The cars were posted 150 pesos each and an additional 100 pesos for shipping and handling. There were two cars and the seller was willing to do combined shipping. I updated the seller's page and it showed that it was sold to me, I deposited the money to his bank and I received a confirmation SMS that he had the items shipped already to me. It took around three days before the items arrived at my doorstep, during those three days I was checking out all the pictures available in the Internet for both the cars and every time I look at the pictures, I keep on falling in love with them. Items arrived and I immediately opened them and checked the items out, true to the sellers promise the items were placed in a box protected. I stared at the cars for almost five minutes admiring the casting and the tampo. I looked at the car from all sides, itching to let them loose but I decided not to and just try to hunt for loose ones. I haven't had any online purchases after that because I have not found anything to buy, but I am sure that there will be one of these days. I am actually eyeing a vintage Radio Shack remote control right now, I have talked to the seller already I am just waiting for the price to drop.

Well enough talk, here are some of the pictures of my online haul. Two of my favorite diecast Hotwheels, the 1998 Hotwheels First Edition Ford Escort with white and blue rally tampo and the Collector #894 Toyota MR2 with white and red rally tampo.

That's it for now, thanks for viewing. Keep Over Haulin! :D