Lesney #19d-Lotus Racing Car Restoration

Evening everyone.. Here is a Lotus Racing Car restoration I recently completed. It came out well, even though it was recently brought to my attention that the front tires are the wrong size.. Potato potahto haha. Here's what I started with..

Certainly in better shape than my usual restorations, but I've been wanting to do one of these up for a while, so under the knife it went..

I decided to recreate the fairly rare orange version. The driver came from a big lot of beater Lesneys I recently purchased. Was very surprised to find an intact driver. It was dirty but in great shape!

Lesney #05e-Lotus Europa Bulgarian Restoration

Hey everyone, here's my latest custom. A rare Bulgarian casting, it's a Lotus Europa. It was sent to me by a friend on a forum, looking pretty sorry for itself. But the potential was there for sure! These Bulgarian castings are pretty valuable these days, and this is the only one I have in my collection.

I decided to go back to the original metallic blue that they came in on their debut in the Lesney lineup. 

"Postflight Briefing" - Finds for the Week January 31st 2015

Hey hey everybody. It's been a pretty good week for diecast finds, much better than last week. So let's dive right in..

First up, a couple of 75 Challenge cars I picked up on ebay for cheap..

Next, two new finds from Walmart, a mainline Lambo and Retro Entertainment Lotus

Another 75 Challenge vehicle that arrived today. 

The latest batch of Hot Wheels from Walmart

And last but not least, a lot I won on ebay for a mere $4 shipped. Definitely the best deal of the week!

"Postflight Briefing" - Finds for the Week January 10th, 2015

Pretty slim pickins this week... Nothing new to be found in stores whatsoever. Even Walmart, who religiously stocks new Hot Wheels, and seemingly nothing else, has been lacking. Three stores I visited had the new Star Wars cars, but nothing grabbed me. So all my finds this week are from the Internet...

First up, is a lot of 2 Lesneys I picked up on ebay for a very reasonable price. About $5 shipped!  

I've been after a disc wheel Ferrari for ages. Not that they're particularly hard to find, it's really a common variation. I just always seem to come a minute late and a dollar short... It's not in the best shape, but I'm glad to finally have one! Still looking for a nicer example though.

Next, is a car from a series I've been slowly collecting for a few years now, the 1997 Gold Series 75 Challenge. I only have 10 or 12 of the 75 cars, but I don't buy them all that often. They're easy to find, only a few rare ones. However, people tend to want very large amount of money for them, so I only buy them online when I can get them for $4 to $5 shipped, which isn't easy.  

This one is the Ford Ambulance, which is a very nice casting, from a great era of Matchbox. I love the mid to late 1990s models, they were just so well done and realistic. Maybe I am wearing my rose tinted glasses when it comes to them, it was my childhood after all...

Thirdly, I picked up these two from one of the various diecast groups on Facebook (which you should click on this link and like LA's Diecast). 

These were Zamac models, exclusive to Toys R Us back in 2004. Very similar to the Walmart-exclusive models we have today, they're identical to the regular mainline cars, just without paint. I was a fairly young collector in '04, but I remember these being much harder to find than the new Zamacs are now. I never found one in the store. But these are two castings that I have a nice collection of, and I had to jump on them when they were listed for the reasonable price of 2 for $5. 

And lastly, we come to a model that regular readers of this blog will probably recognize very well, the Lesney Ferrari Berlinetta. I'm genuinely addicted to this casting, and can't resist bidding when I see a cheap one on ebay. I was the only bidder on this very nice example, and it came in at around $4 shipped. Not bad!!

That's all I found this week. Check back next Saturday evening to see if the week brings any more interesting finds!

Lesney #05e-Lotus Europa Restoration

Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers. Hopefully you have a great day filled with turkey, pecan pie, and family!

Here's a restoration I finished not too long ago. I got it on ebay for cheap, it advertised that it had a "new paint job" haha. You be the judge of that...

It was kind of a weird purplish gray color, and needed to go!!!

With this cool old Lotus, I decided to break out my airbrush for the first time in ages. It could definitely be better, but I'm happy with how the paint has come out. It's a Tamiya copper color. Gorgeous color!! A little chrome detailing on the wheels and it's done..

Might do an extra bit of detailing at some point. What do you think?

Hot Wheels Lotus Esprit S1 Custom

Well this awesome new Lotus has only been out a couple of months, but I just found one and decided to give it the LA custom treatment!! All Lotus cars look good in the old F1 black and gold livery, and this one is no different.. What do you think?