So if Santa could bring you one diecast car, what would it be?

Have you been a good boy or girl this year?  Hopefully you have.  Because Santa is coming, and coming soon.

From what I hear he will have a bag full of Hatching Animals and old Nintendos or whatever, but what else?  That bag is big enough, it seems a couple of toy cars wouldn’t kill him to include.  But he needs to know what cars to include.

So, if you had a chance to ask Diecast Santa for one car, what would it be?  Only one.  It’s gotta be a car you don’t have, and can’t get by just visiting the local store.  It has been on your list for awhile, and you either haven’t been able to come across one or haven’t been able to pull the trigger on getting one.

For me, picking one is hard.  But that is what Diecast Santa wants.

So I need to go with the first models that come to mind.  If I have to look up stuff to figure out what my one model would be, I clearly don’t want it that much.  But when I ask myself the question, three models come to mind.  Two Hot Wheels and a Tomica.

The Hot Wheels are easy – both ’83 Silverados, and both super hard to find.  Many Hot Wheels collectors know the two I am talking about.  Yep, the Military Rods and Fire Rods Silverados.

(photo credit: hobbyDB)

Some of you know the story of these two.  The Military/Fire/Police Rods series was another one of those “cut early” Hot Wheels lines from a few years ago.  The idea was to do three series – one for Fire, one for Police, and one for Military – and use the same castings in each.  That way collectors could have three of the same castings in different liveries.

The problem was each of these lines was exclusive to a different store chain.  I don’t remember which was which, but you had to go to Target for one set, TRU for another, and so on.  That made things inconsistent, and considering the line wasn’t doing well, many of the models weren’t released in large numbers.

That applies to the Silverado.  The Police Rods model was the easiest to get, but the Fire and Military Rods were released in terribly small numbers at the end of the series.  I can’t remember at what stores, but some of you may remember.  All three Silverados have gone up in value the last few years, but the Fire and Military Rods are in the stratosphere.  They command $400-plus prices on the rare occasion they hit eBay.  As much as I wan them, I don’t want to pay nearly $1000 to get both.  Thankfully I have the Police model, and I still think it is the best looking.

The other model that popped into my mind to ask Diecast Santa for was this Tomica beauty:

That is a Tomica Honda Civic Country Station Wagon.  The second-generation Civic in wagon form, complete with wood paneling:

photo credit: Wikipedia

I just don’t know if it gets any better.  At least for me, and I know for a lot of you.  The early Civics are special, and even more so in wagon form.  I remember the four-door and three-door Civics, even those with luggage racks on the back, but I can’t remember the wagon.  But as a lover of all things wagon, and as one who carries a massive soft spot for old Hondas since my father bought one in 1981, this just makes me smile.

And it is pretty apparent based on what you see on the blog that I know little about Tomica, especially classic Tomica Pocket Cars, so I had no idea this Tomica gem even existed.  That was until Ryu Asada mentioned it as one of his favorite toy cars as a kid during his presentation at the Hot Wheels Convention (fast forward to about around 2:15, but watch the whole thing when you can):

Ryu “Honda For Life” Asada, the excellent Hot Wheels Designer, turned me onto my grail diecast model.  Full circle eh?  I don’t collect basic Tomica, but I do have a few, and the Civic Country is one I want.

I apologize to Ryu for not paying attention during that middle few minutes of his presentation because I was already on an eBay dive looking for the Civic as soon as he showed it.  The prices were high on the few that were listed so I decided to give it some time to watch the trends.

Well I have watched, and all I have learned is that prices will stay high, so this morning I bit.  Diecast Santa told me to, so I did.  And his helpers are bringing it over.

So this year, I have been a good boy, and Santa is rewarding me.  I guess.  At least that is what I will tell everyone…

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