Peanuts 75th Anniversary

Hi

I have only just noticed this – 2025 is the 75th Anniversary of the Peanuts comic strip. Written and drawn by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000), from 1950 until his death in 2000.

Peanuts featured the adventures of a boy named Charlie Brown, and his pet Beagle named Snoopy. Snoopy lived in a small kennel, which he often flew in combat with the Red Baron, as he dreamed he was a WW1 fighter ace.

Hot Wheels released a Hot Rod version of Snoopy's doghouse in 2014. The model was metal, with Snoopy in white plastic, with black detail painting, on the roof.

There have been numerous Mainline and premium versions since then. The finish of the model is always the same – black and white Snoopy, red doghouse, and green base, with a silver V8 engine.

While the finish remains the same, the type and colour of the wheels does differ. Those at the rear are larger than the front wheels.

For 2025 there are Anniversary models of Snoopy in both the Mainline (Screen Time sub-series), and the Pop Culture premium range. The Mainline card carries a small 75 Years logo next to the Peanuts name, in the upper left hand corner.

Two photos of my carded Anniversary model, and  this shot of an earlier version.

Do you like Peanuts?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Hot Shelf

 Well I made some more room in my cabinet and got my Hot Wheels out and onto their own shelf (my handful of Redlines are on the shelf above).

It's not all of them but I'm pleased with how they look. Are you?

Have you got any Hot Wheels?

WHAT GOES ROUND: Shelby’s Turbines

 

On a recent holiday excursion to the Peak District, I found a great little shop selling vintage toys and just outside was a basket of die-casts. 

After ferreting through the Matchbox, Hot Wheels and Corgi junkers, all labelled £1 a go and all in serious need of restoration, I spotted a plastic model, about 3" long, which I recognised as a Shelby Turbine. 

Digging deeper into the box and holding up foot traffic on the pavement as I sprawled on the floor, rooting about - I found another two, in similar beat up condition. A quick check underneath showed 'Made in Japan' but no other trademark. Nevertheless, all three went in my bag and came home with me. 

The models were pretty scuffed and had the remnants of stickers on them and all three had the cockpit windshield pushed down inside. All three were also missing a front spoiler. They were all freewheeling, being too small for a standard sized friction motor and seemed to date from the late seventies.

My principle interest in these odd shaped cars, was that Hot Wheels had released just such a car in their lineup in 1969. The Shelby Turbine was a real life race car, owned by Carrol Shelby and designed to steal the 1968 Indianapolis 500. 

Shelby had previously shown his expertise in car design with the Ford GT40 and had seen the potential in turbine powered race cars, with a rival entry almost running away with the win the previous year, until an engine fault had put paid to its finishing. As a result, Shelby procured the services of race car engineer Ken Wallis to build a turbine based car and Bruce McLaren and Dennis Hulme to drive it. 

With a massive budget, Shelby set to with Wallis to install a General Electric T58 aircraft engine in a car, which Shelby was aggressively confident in its success.

 However, after building the car and experiencing 200mph record breaking speeds and 'terrifying' acceleration, the Indy race directors and governing body at the USAC reviewed and changed the rules for the upcoming race, having seen the potential of turbine powered race cars over standard piston engines.

A turbine powered engine is reliant on the amount of air that can be fed into the engine and the intake for the Shelby car needed to be 24" or more wide, but concerned that aircraft engine powered cars would render other cars obsolete, the USAC dictated that the maximum intake diameter be just 16". 

As a result, the maximum achievable speed for the Shelby Turbine would only be around 160 mph, way below the speeds reached by standard Indy cars and nowhere near the STP Turbine car that had almost nailed the win the previous year. The regulations eventually led to Shelby giving up on his attempts to create a turbine based car.

Hot Wheels also made a model of the 1968 Lotus Turbine car as well as a standard Indy race car.

So, given that the three plastic cars were in pretty poor shape and did not appear to be particularly valuable or rare, I decided to customise them a little and make them a little more road worthy again.

The green car was in the worst condition and the plastic had become brittle. When I slipped a knife in to separate the two body shells, the side cracked by the cockpit and split in half. It was difficult to reset the windscreen, as I couldn’t separate the two pieces, so it had to stay in place as is. I added a roll bar on each one and for this one, dropped in a bit of chrome engine greenly. 

As all three were missing a front spoiler, I removed the remaining one from the other two and used one to complete one model. I hand painted the body with Revell acrylic paint, to cover the cracks and added orange accents like the classic Gulf Oil livery. Some hand made decals finished it off.

What had been the red car, got two new aerofoil wings on the front, courtesy of a Kinder Egg aircraft, a spray finish of lime green and a coat of lacquer. The windscreen sat a little higher and the chrome parts were touched up.

Finally, I left the cream coloured car as is, cleaned it up and removed both front spoilers for a more classic ‘Shelby’ look. Some white accents and laser printed decals completed the look.

Red Planet Transport

Hi Woodsy

         Back in 2021 and 2022 Hot Wheels released a model in their Super Rigs series called Red Planet Transport. 

This series comprises a large transport vehicle, and a smaller vehicle as the load.

In this case it was a space exploration vehicle, which closely resembles the Matchbox S.E.V./Chariot. 

The main differences being the Hot Wheels tractor unit has a longer cab, and only four wheels instead of six.

It is towing a large, two-wheeled trailer, with a lift-up rear end. There is therefore no loading ramp for the smaller vehicle to drive up.

The load is a regular Hot Wheels Mainline model called Da’Kar, which came out in 2003, and was modified in 2014. It is described as a futuristic Paris to Dakar rally car.

The original Red Planet Transport models were mainly white, with orange and black trim, and orange tinted windows. The base of the tractor unit was chromed, the base of the trailer was black plastic, and the Da’Kar was orange.

In 2021 there was also a darker version, which appears to have been mainly gold (?) and black. This had red and black trim, with red tinted windows.

As these models came out during all the lock-downs, I never saw them in the shops, since most shops were closed at the time. However the set has been re-issued as part of the 2025 Super Rigs line.

There are some differences in the card; and the name Red Planet Transport is now in the lower left hand corner, rather than the lower right hand corner. The finish of the actual models seems to be the same, and I do not know how to tell the re-issues from the originals.

This makes a great companion piece for the Matchbox S.E.V./Chariot models. But all these Matchbox and Hot Wheels space models tend to be short-lived and hard to find – so grab them when you see them, or miss out.

Here are the regular and Matchbox Collectors editions of the NASA S.E.V./Chariot six-wheel model.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-nasa-moon-chariot.html

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-nasa-sev-chariot.html

Four photos of my 2025 Transport set; with two photos of the original versions from Worthpoint.

Anyone got any?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Rrrumblers Assemble!

 My newly re-touched Rrrumblers have reunited with another I already had and a couple of my scratchbiulds.

They're off!

Rrrumblers Return

 At Christmas my good friend Paul Vreede kindly gave me some old toys as a birthday gift 

Among them were these lovely old re-painted childhood Rrrumblers.

With a Saturday afternoon free I thought I'd spruce these old Hot Wheels up a bit. I decided in most cases simply to re-glue some parts, re-touch the colours already used from childhood and re-chrome some of the metalwork.

It was a Rrreally fun to do and next I'll put them with a couple of others I have for their maiden Yorkshire tour later.

In the meantime here are the re-touched Rrrumblers. The third from the left just got cleaned, no painting - it just needs a rider, which I'm sure I have spare somewhere.

Hope you like them.

Have you any toy motorbikes?

Terranova's 4th July Wheels

Hello Woodsy,

So how does an uprooted Brit celebrate July 4th in New England?

He goes to a store and buys two Hot Wheels cars of what can only confuse American buyers, the three wheeled Morgan.

For American readers, the Morgan was made as a three wheeler because back in the day in the UK (the 1930's) it was classed as a motorcycle combination with lower Road Tax and insurance. 

Power was to the rear wheel and the ride was surprisingly car like but loud.

Morgan did, and still do hand craft four wheel cars, they even updated the 3 wheeler a few years ago.

Terranova47

USA

Paul's Hot Wheels Butterfingers

Woodsy, you recently mentioned the American Butterfinger chocolate bar, although apparently it is not officially 'chocolate'. The bar was originally made by the Curtiss Candy Company, but is now made by Nestle; and dates back to 1923

.

Hot Wheels have produced several die-cast models based on the Butterfinger bar (and lots of other yummy goodies). So I thought these were worth a quick look.

1996 Mustang GT convertible, from 1998. This one was part of the four-model Sugar Rush series within the Mainline, depicting various US candy bars.

'70 Chevelle SS coupe, from 2002. Part of the four-model Sweet Rides series within the Mainline.

'51 GMC C.O.E. (Cab Over Engine) truck, from 2016. This was part of a six-model Nestle set, within the Pop Culture line - premium models with metal bodies, metal baseplates, and Real Rider Wheels.

'71 Plymouth Satellite station wagon from 2018. Another Pop Culture line devoted to Nestle, but this time containing only five models

Four photographs from Worthpoint.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Hot Wheels Baby Ruth

Hi Woodsy,

I saw your recent post on the Baby Ruth chocolate bar.

 This is a very famous chocolate bar in America, and the Baby Ruth logo has appeared on at least three Hot Wheels models.

The bar was first made in 1920, by the Curtiss Candy Company of Chicago, so it is over a hundred years old. Officially, it is not related to the baseball player Babe Ruth, but it did appear while he was playing for the New York Yankees team.

Hot Wheels released their first Baby Ruth model in 1999, as part of Sugar Rush Series II – a set of four cars devoted to chocolate bars. This was a Dodge Concept Car.

Then came the Chevy Pro Stock Truck, a racing pick-up truck, in 2002. This was part of the Sweet Rides series.

In 2016 there was a '64 Ford Falcon Sprint, in one of the Hot Wheels premium lines. This had a metal body, metal baseplate, and Real Rider wheels.

Three photographs from Worthpoint

Paul Adams

New Zealand

Anyone got any Babe Ruth or baseball collectables?

Spectrum is Back!

Hello Moonbasers, I'm back in Australia and putting my shattered life back together!

I've begun carefully sorting the lovely items I managed to find and am becoming ever more amazed I was able to pick them up at all!

Japan is known for always going for the latest, so anything vintage

(in Moonbase Central's interest range)

is pretty difficult to find. As I know from personal experience, if you see something you like

( say some Konami Anderson vehicles) and don't buy it at that instant, it may not be there for a second look!

Taking a closer look at my carded Hot Wheels SPV, I was surprised to see it's dated 2001, so it's already almost 25 years old!

Researching the page at

https://hotwheels.fandom.com/wiki/Charawheels

I discovered a lot of products I'd never known before.

There were a number of Anderson related vehicles, released in a joint Mattel/Bandai project, over just two years.

I'll let the HW website categorise them, but the first year saw a number of individual vehicles and the second year, three amazing boxed sets of multiple TB2 Pod vehicles.

Just look at these photos! All new to me and copied from the HW website.

See anything that tickles your fancy here?

Cheers, 

Looey

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