Nice to see some beautiful Orange castings this year fron Hotwheels!

Thought I'll share a few i have from my recent collection 😄

For context please check my previous post or click the link for Previous post

TLDR ; found a copy of NFS most wanted 2005 at a local game store, was disappointed it had a crack and didn't work when tried on 3 different consoles at the shop, when i decided to leave the shopkeeper gave it to me for free because it's of no use to him and he was anyway going to throw it in the trash.

With the motivation from the people in this sub who commented and have tips, i decided to keep trying even though the install failed thrice-once at 20% and twice at 74%.

Applied some superglue on the cracks with a toothpick, got help from a colleague who works with automotive polishing and buffed out some of the scratches to make it better than before.

Got home, tried to install and voila!....100% install completed and i now have a working game!!!!🤩❤️‍🔥💯

Unbelievable roller coaster of emotions leading to a happy result!

Have so many memories with this game from childhood!

Spotted this at a tiny local game shop and rushed over the moment I saw it on their Instagram.

The disc wasn't in great shape and had a crack, so I wasn't too hopeful....but the shopkeeper assured me it worked.

We tried it on three different Xbox 360s... no luck...it just kept getting stuck on loading and then froze💔

He said he was going to throw it away after he knew it was faulty, so I asked if I could keep it as a display piece for my collection instead to which he duly agreed.

Super disappointed it didn't work, but at least it found a home. 😪

I had very low expectations while playing this game because back in release days i remember many people hated it so bad....was that for multiplayer?

Because i just played through the campaign and it was quite decent and cool to be honest, the space fight chapter was a bit over the top but hey end of the day that's what games are for!(escape from reality)

Ft Ford F150 lightning custom

Thought it will be heavy but feels very light for it's size!

As part of exploring and buying cars other than Hotwheels, i came across this 1:64 scale Hummer H1 while casually browsing Ali express.

I had no idea of such a brand, and was interesting to see it named just by numbers; 596!

Continued browsing and flicked through the pictures, it looked quite well finished and detailed. Checked the customer reviews when i scrolled down and some of them had shared their pictures after receiving theirs and the casting seemed to be pretty awesome.

Went ahead and ordered one for myself, got it delivered to the place of my residence (Bahrain) within 4 days and i was quite impressed upon unboxing this beast!

First thing in noticed is how heavy it feels in the hand, and it's quite big when compared to other castings (obviously because IRL the H1 is a behemoth, which i thought of only later)😅

The paint quality is really nice and the metallic orange really pops...and the Hood opens up too, quite a bit of engine bay detailing and it closes perfectly.

Wheels roll smooth and overall it feels really premium. Costed me ₹1,110/- for this casting including shipping which i personally feel is a steal deal!

Pics attached after unboxing😄

Arranged few of my loosies from the collection to make it a fun lil traffic jam😉

What's your favourite amongst these?...let me know in the comments and the reason why😄

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I'll go first, it's very hard to pick one but i love the Purple Hirohata Merc💜...stunning colour and the white wall wheels make it an awesome classic looking casting!

I've been playing Portal 2 everyday after work since last week now, must say it's one of the best games i played and i enjoy cracking the levels!❤️‍🔥...awesome puzzles, there was a point where i ised to feel frustrated and give up bit then i just put my brain to work and take my time to crack the level every time...feels very rewarding 👏

Currently at Chapter 7 and enjoying it thoroughly.....although i must mention that i jad to watch walk throughs for just 2 levels where i was absolutely stuck and couldn't find any leads!....other than that i was completely on my own until now😁

Uncarded a trio of red beauties, was surprised to find that the axle was bent on the Miura SV🧐....so i did a fun lil thing and aligned it in a way that it looks like as if the wheels appear turned to one side😉

Almost halfway through and I'm hooked on the retro gangsta vibe this game has!🤩....sucks to think that i didn't have the opportunity to play it when it was released, but hey atleast i got to experience it now😄

Long Read:

I have been collecting Hotwheels since 2016, had taken a pause during covid and then restarted on 2022 and counting. However most of the OGs here know how much things have changed over the years-unfortunately for the worst!...yeah it's sad to see the state of affairs in this hobby, from scalpers,resellers, hoarders I've seen it all yet still i kept my positive will and continued collecting.

But lately i have been living away from India because of work and due to that it's quite difficult to collect Hotwheels because i have to rely on combo sales post & reseller groups on FB..which had no thrill of the 'hunt'.

And since i had a job i had the opportunity to buy all my older ISOs from USA via Ebay (shipping is hella expensive),but that too seemed too expensive at one point. And every popular exotic/sports car casting are always hard to find because of scalpers/resellers anytime something new is released

It came to a point where if i wanted a few cars from a newly released case i had only 3 options

1.Wait for someone to post MRP combos with fantasies on groups

2.Buy singles at higher than MRP from groups

3.Buy off Ebay the desired castings you need and ship them in bulk to my place of work(Bahrain)

All of these were quite exhausting and expensive and it started to affect my finances too.

That's when i decided to stop overpaying for mainlines and instead approach with 'Quality' over 'Quantity'...so i thought of focusing less on Hotwheels and more to brands like MiniGT & Poprace.

And also this way i can curb overspending because earlier i used to think, okay it's just 180rupees per car so it's fine...or maybe 250per car so it's okay and i end up spending way more that in intended to.....while purchasing Mini GT or Poprace i think twice or thrice because of the price, and this makes me stick to a budget so that i don't end up gobbling them up like Hotwheels.

So as a first step i decided to pre-order the Mini GT Fast & Furious Supra & RX7🤩

Which has na ETA of December and can very well be delayed to 2027

Meanwhile i grabbed this "Yquem" shade McLaren F1 as an early birthday present to myself to kick-start my collection 😄

Before you come at me; i know very well that it's totally unfair to compare Hotwheels mainline to something premium like MiniGT, but i just did so for fun sake and as a memory of transitioning from Hotwheels collecting😉🤗

I've been collecting Hotwheels since 2016, but I finally decided to try a proper 1:64 premium!

I watched videos of the late Mr. Mansour Ojjeh's car collection on YouTube when it was for sale, and I absolutely loved the gorgeous orange-only collection.

I later learned from that video that "Yquem" was an exclusive color that only he used on all of his McLarens, and nobody else was allowed to use that shade on customer cars, regardless of their net worth.

So I had to grab a sample of this exclusivity! I'm blown away by the details!😍👌

Need the Orange variant to complete the mainline releases and I'm done ✔️

Hope this is resonates with everyone here😄

Happy collecting!

Swipe next for the custom car they got made🤩

Was travelling from Kochi so i tried my luck at the duty free shops and boy i couldn't be more happier!

Felt awesome getting these very peacefully at MRP hell yeahhhhh💯💥💥...the only place that's scalperproof