Speed Racer toys

[anarky]

Okay, most of them suck ass. However, the small Hot Wheels are pretty cool. Here's my recommendations for what to buy:

Mach 4
Prince Kabala
Snake Oiler
Mushu Motors (I don't recall seeing this one, but it is FUCKING SWEET!!!)
The GRX (which didn't come with an aerosol can, so I'd better not open it )
Grey Ghost
Racer X's Street Car (Shooting Star?)
Racer X's Race Car
Mach 5 vs Phantom Mach 4 (nice, but could've been even more transluscent)
Mach 6 vs Snake Oiler (Desert Car)

The Mach 5 and 6 in the two-packs are, as far as I can tell, absolutely identical to the single-packs. Snake's desert car is a totally different make from his race car (didn't catch that), and the Phantom Mach 4 is every bit a must-have as any of the other Mach-series.

There are two other two-packs that seemed far less vital (especially since, at $7 and change, they cost almost as much as three regular cars!). One was the Mach 5 (the same one) and "Ice Caves" Racer X, which had some snow on the tires and front fender. The other was the Mach 6 (again, the same) and "Battle-Damaged" Racer X, with some black streaks on it. (Are we sure Hasbro's not making these?)

[mabudon]

I still only have 3 of them, Mach 5+6 (got 6 by accident, Elf bought it and brought it home and I looked at it and said "Oh cool, it's the Mach 6, the new one!!" and she replied "No it's not, I made sure to get the 5" and I pointed to the "6" on the package AND on the side of the car- this resulted in me getting the greenlight for an additional purchase of the original mach 5 thank godness)

and the shooting star (called racer X street car but COME ON it's the fuckin shooting star or my names Suzy). I want the GRX (I have the Johnny lightning one and it's fuckin sweet to have the classic) and I REALLY want some of the "team" cars from the Casa Cristo but I doubt they'll be made

A hotwheels rig scale Mammoth Car would have been sweet too but even if it was on the drawing board I doubt it'll ever street

[anarky]

I realized this morning they didn't make Taejo's car, which is pretty odd. That seems like it should be a given. Also, there's a rig with Mach 5 that's on a sort of "deluxe" scale (I'm not familiar with Hot Wheels size classes, so I'm borrowing Hasbro's) which would be a perfect size for a Mammoth Car, only, uh, no Mammoth Car.

I think there's a 50/50 chance of more. On the one hand, it's not doing well. On the other hand, Speed Racer lends itself very well to Hot Wheels, some of the more obscure cars are moving pretty well, and, well, they're still making cars from Cars and they're selling like hotcakes. Plus, there have been Speed Racer cars pretty consistently available without the support of a movie or show. So, while still not great, I think the chances are better than they'd be otherwise for future cars.

[Ran]

After seeing anarky's post about finding the new GI Joe comic packs, I stopped by a Walmart this morning. They had about 30 pegs full of the matchbox-sized Speed Racer cars. It was quite impressive because I think there were more Speed Racer cars than either Hot Wheels or Matchbox. All the larger scale Speed Racer stuff was on the shelves below them.

[anarky]

Jada Toys finally got on the ball and released a set of eight "classic" Speed Racer cars in Hot Wheels style, and they seem much better made than the Mattel movie ones:

Mach 5
Formula One Mach 5
Shooting Star
Formula One Shooting Star
GRX
Snake Oiler
Prince Kabala

And an eighth one I can't remember.

[mabudon]

a quick search reveals it's the Black Tiger but I have no clue who it belonged to- you got the series Nark, you know??

[anarky]

I've not gotten that far yet. I haven't had time to watch much lately, so I'm still on Disc 3, and I don't remember him from before.

I picked up a couple of coloring books on clearance at Target yesterday for Anarky Jr. One has all sorts of villains, including Melange (the robot). I about shit a brick when I saw that, and yelled, "Melange still races!" Mrs A looked at me like I was a retard.

[vynsane]

after getting the walmart edition of the dvd movie with the mach 6 matchbox car, i was considering grabbing at least the other machs... well, while in another walmart this weekend getting cat litter to plant my 10 japanese black pine seedlings in (i'll explain in another thread), i saw that they had speed racer matchbox in the clearance isle. grabbed machs 4 and 5, and the shooting star roadster and t-180. might get a few more if i get back there before they're gone, though probably not.

[mabudon]

That's a good enough collection right there, you NEED the Mach 5 and shootin star "roadster"

I don't know as I saw a regular T-180, which car is that?? I know Rex referred to it in the film seemingly as a standard racing machine

[vynsane]

I don't know as I saw a regular T-180, which car is that?? I know Rex referred to it in the film seemingly as a standard racing machine

i meant i got the racer x roadster AND t-180... basically, the "supercharged" featurette on the dvd explains the differences in the cars this way: the mach 5 isn't a t-180, it's a roadster. the mach 6 is a t-180. this is because of the chassis/suspension/steering - particularly the 180 degree turning of the wheels makes it a t-180. so the car that racer x drives at fuji helexicon is a t-180-derived shooting star, and the one he drives at casa cristo (and on the road against the mammoth car trying to save taejo) is his shooting star roadster, same as the mach 6 t-180 at thunderhead/helexicon/grand prix, and the mach 5 roadster at casa cristo. the only thing strange about this is that the mach 4 appears to be a t-180, while the mach 5 isn't. then the mach 6 is... i guess maybe they created the 4 for track races and the 5 for street races/rallies (and, i guess, for rex to drive around town in)?

[anarky]

In addition to the "adult" toys I have, Anarky Jr has three of the side-flipping cars (GRX, Racer X, and the Mach 5) and one of the Shake 'N' Go cars (the Mach 5--curiously, these were Target exclusives. That makes sense.). Target has the Shake 'N' Go on sale this week, so I might get her Racer X; she loves those cars.

I didn't make the connection about the T-180 but figured it was an engine type or something. On my second viewing, it hit me why he couldn't drive the Mach 5 in the Grand Prix, even though I didn't get the T-180 thing. (That was the only detail in the movie that could've been explained better, or at all. Then again, when you've got a movie where a legitimate car part is called a "conversionator," you can't take it too seriously.)

Also, the samurai-decor Mushu car is driven by the white-haired Yakuza-looking guy in the Grand Prix. I didn't see the car, but the guy's gloves say Mushu.