Rayz-HWC

May I chime in a little here on this topic..... ...couple years back I was in the same mindset as you guys, but still manage to find/buy the 'greenies' from the pegs. So far so good, but recent years there's been an influx of collectors, on top of that a lot of collectors suddenly promoted to 'sifu' LOL....wat gives? hehehe...so i myself have to change my collecting/hunting habits, You Change/Adopt not others! So I really have to say this la....'Grow Up'! so what if can't find, not the end of collecting nor THs are not the last you'll see. There's sooooo many more nicer/cooler items out there. Yes yes yes....you'll say that's the most collectible item in this Brand, this la, that la...but at the end - just have to ask ourselves - what is this hobby to us? ...anyhow due to more collectors and limited hunting grounds at each state/province/country...you guys can figure it out. Now here's the thing - this problem/trouble that you guys are voicing/complaining/whining about has a root to its cause - that is the 'person/culprit' whom approaches the employees/staff. Firstly let me clear the guys names whom in fact 'honestly' is asking for more stocks/or do you have more - this is fine, as it's a common practise, leaving your mobile#, name etc...is still acceptable...but it's to the point when this 'person' starts to offer $$$$!!!! You can't help but do nothing, except like some of you suggested - write a formal complain letter to the Management. And so what if the staff is fired, the next will come and be 'educated' by this 'person' again - it's like a cycle, never ends. NOW this is the GUY that everyone must keep a lookout for! He's the person that ruined YOUR FUN, HUNTING, HOBBY, FUEL, TOLL, TIME, PATIENCE, EVERYTHING!

$uPEr DuPEr HaUL!!! CoNGrATuLATiONs MuTT!!! ...you'll have to let us know how to get to location dude, or maybe got map better ..hehehe

Well...a little 'touch-up' has been done on it...if you waiting for a ~whisper~ ...hehehe

for those who cant find it in the newspaper its because it came out in Star Metro Section... which is only available in the klang valley... Should've known ~doHh~

Well for all collectors...just FYi...there's base variations on all colors of the EVO

Great haul!

addrick think you can fit the L size la...

Shirt roughly is RM30-35...

...Guess why different state has different Sections insertion is because of different states interests and culture, language etc etc...go figure! ..And they had a riot in Down Town KL cos the Govt. tried to improve education by implementing English to Science and Maths class - while these ppl go illegal gathering to say No!! I'm like thinking - WTH...you elderly guys don't wanna improve, what makes them the decision maker for the future masses...right! sheesh... *ooopppsss sorry got carried away..LOL

SHOW ME! SHOW ME! SHOW ME!

Got la rikmun....but i can't post it. Can I mail ya and you post the pic here?

Lots of the new 3packs in 7e are same waves as those in Jusco, not sure about C4 as they the 1st to get them so i assume they have 1st wave while Jusco and 7e are having the next wave. rikmun...just FYi la....in Ipoh also got Father & Son team you can do it...cover ALL Ipoh 7e in one night, just which and when, before the 'tag team' or...

Happy Birthday on behalf of HWCM!

"...... i have to covers their identity...... by not showing faces!..." Aiyo...on purpose saja mau bongkar ..WTH! ...look at that 'sweat' patch on ******** LOL hahaha

Base variation on the Co-mold Boneshaker in 5packs??? NOooooo...

Topic subject changed!

Not joining...just wanna keep them for keepsakes!! LOL...and also maybe can pull some up, in case (if no one sponsor or contribute) in future HWCM activities can let the kids draw & colour ma...so guys if you see these forms, just tear off like 1/3 the book and keep first. In future I'll contact you guys to bring em all together for HWCM activities. Thanks Hey Impavido...I hope you WIN this!!! GooD LuCK!

But isn't Wangan just purely Highway racing to the max MPH! So not so much skills needed I guess on the Arcade...but cool storyline la the Anime, but not as exciting nor fun and thrilling as Initial D

WOW!!! I'M GONNA HOARD ALL THE FORMS I want to color toooooooooo hehehehe

More coming its way buddy

Have good, clean fun

Man...i so far only have 2 - the Spector and XS-ive....anyone can help?

Ya lo...so hokuan share me your camera...let me take pics hehehe

HWC Gary: As someone who’s been doing this for forty years, what do you think is -- or what do you want to be -- your legacy? Larry Wood: Just that I took Hot Wheels from basically nothing, and was here the whole time till it became a major line. A lot of people get into the job, and then leave the job, and they really didn’t make an impact on it. If nothing else, I kept the line surviving for many years -- mostly the 15 years I was there by myself when Hot Wheels was basically down and out. I was in plenty of meetings where Hot Wheels were gone. They would say, “We’re not making enough money. We can’t afford to do the tooling. Let’s get rid of this line.” One of the meetings I was in was when we lost the Redline wheels. I was just a kid, so I couldn’t very well say, “You big shots ought to keep the Redlines.” In the ’70s, they got rid of Spectraflame colors to save money, they got rid of the Redlines… It was just a matter of surviving. The big turnaround was when fathers, when they went to the store to buy a toy for their kid, finally realized they had so much fun with Hot Wheels, they would go out and buy Hot Wheels (for themselves). And then, of course, the design department got bigger, and the whole of Mattel realized that we had something going here, and it took off on its own. But that’s really the big turnaround from just sitting there doing a car that wasn’t going to be a big deal, to -- all of a sudden, wow! -- we gotta do a lot of cars. HWC Gary: 20 years. The kids who loved them have become the adults who buy them… Larry Wood: Exactly. Bought ‘em for their kids. The same thing happened to Barbie. Barbie had a huge spike 20 years after her start, because now it was time for the mothers to go to the store for their two- or three-year-old, and they’d pick up a Barbie. The same thing happened to both Hot Wheels and Barbie… which means we did a good job for the kids. They remember it, and it was a good value for their money. It still is. It’s hard to believe that we’ve managed to make a dollar car for forty years. I mean, there’s nothing else out there that has the exact same price on it. You’ve got to give the people that have made the vehicles through the years credit for doing that. HWC Gary: You must feel very fortunate to have had this career that you just loved. Larry Wood: When I give talks to schools and stuff, I always tell them it’s the little things in life… The little things like when you decide “I think I’ll go to college to be a car designer.” Although that is a big thing at the time, where is that going to lead me? Or you go to a party, and you meet somebody, and they work at a certain place like Mattel. You know the Howard Rees story. We almost didn’t go to that party. It was a foggy night, and it was down in Torrance; we lived in the Valley. It was cold and wet… it was the fall. Almost didn’t go. I’d still be out stealing hubcaps or something. You’d be surprised, the older you get, how the little things in life make a big difference. Keep your eyes open and think, “Is this an opportunity that will change my life?” Sometimes it will be, even though you don’t realize it. You never know. My rule is that if you get up on Monday morning, and you feel like going to work, rather than “Oh, no -- I have to go to work,” that would be the ultimate. And most of my life has been that way. Sure, there’s been years where I was just paying the bills, or making sure the house didn’t fall down around me or something. But most of my life has been pure luck. My wife and I occasionally say to each other, “How lucky can we get?” For a guy who just likes to draw and mess with cars… Here I am past my mid-sixties, and I still feel like I’m 16 years old. I look in the mirror and realize I’m not, of course. Or I bend over to get a part, and I realize I’m not. But what if you still got this desire? I still get up early in the morning, and I’m ready to go. I feel good. I don’t feel like I’m gonna sit down. I’m gonna start a little design studio in the house and do a little drawing and stuff, so maybe that will get me off the couch. But if you’ve got the desire to do things, you’ll keep going. I’ve had the honor and the pleasure to work with Larry Wood several times over the last few years. He is a true inspiration, and a genuine American classic. Best of luck, Larry! -- HWC Gary ~End of Article~

HWC Gary: Do you have any low points during your forty years there? Larry Wood: Oh, yeah. Obviously, when Mattel was in trouble in the (early) ’70s, that was pretty bad. Basically, 80 percent of the people were gone, and I was there by myself. Hot Wheels went down pretty low, and I thought that was the end of it. That was one of the few times I went out and did some interviews, looking for another job. And there were a few bosses through the years that I didn’t get along with -- but that’s part of the job. That’s one thing about Mattel -- you wait long enough, and things are going to change. HWC Gary: We’ve seen a lot of changes in the working world over forty years… Larry Wood: If somebody wanted to talk to you, there was no answering machine, there was no e-mail… And, of course, I didn’t have a secretary, so if somebody wanted to talk to me, they actually had to come over to my office and walk in and talk to me. (We had) no computers, no faxes, no cell phones, no regular phones, no answering machine. It’s a little different now… You get the e-mails, you get the phone messages, you get the secretary notes… HWC Gary: And you did everything by hand… Larry Wood: Everything was done by hand. The models were hand-carved in the model shop. When I first got there, I could actually walk to the factory and back and see the cars being built. That was only for a few months, then they went to Hong Kong. It’s funny because, at the time, it didn’t mean anything to me. I just went back, and there were toys being made; I’d go up to my office, and that was it. Now I wish I could have gone back there and just looked at all these Redlines coming off the assembly line… where were they gonna end up someday? You know the stories of those guys finding the buses (the original Beach Bomb)… They were owned by janitors and executives… The rear-loader didn’t go into production, so it ended up in a desk. The guys found them from janitors and people like that who weren’t supposed to have them, but nobody cared about them. “This isn’t gonna go into production -- do you want one of ‘em?” The stuff was just laying around. I remember during the ’70s -- when I was basically the only guy there -- I set a track up that went all the way around the offices, and I put Super Chargers all the way around. A car would disappear for like 10 minutes… you could hear it hitting the Super Chargers as the car went around. You could be in your office, and the car would go by -- no big deal. When (Bob) Lovejoy and (Paul) Tam were working there, our offices were together. We had a track along our offices, and we would send stuff back and forth. We had a little train that we would send back and forth. Some days, you’d load it with water and it would go and crash into a guy’s office, and another day… One day, Bob Lovejoy sent it into my office, and it was on fire! He’d poured lighter fluid on it. So I’m in my office with this train on fire, pouring a water bucket on it to try to put the fire out. That was the real fun part back then. There were things flying or running around, and guys playing practical jokes every day. It was probably the most fun time at the company. But again, Hot Wheels was not a major part of the company. We were just a small division; Barbie was the big thing. HWC Gary: Sounds like a great environment for creativity. Larry Wood: Oh, it was unbelievable. It was not a profit-making company -- it was a fun company. We made money, but it was never “How much did that car cost?” or “How much did that set cost?” It was always “Hey, that’s a great set -- let’s do it!” It was a completely different time. HWC Gary: So maybe now you can finally answer this question: What is your favorite from your original car designs? What do you think really represents you, your style, and your interests? Larry Wood: Copying a Camaro or copying another car… that was fun. You had to change the wheel size, you got to do a Super Charger sticker through the hood and everything… But the fun part for me was doing the original designs. Then you come back to my Passion, and you come back to the Bone Shaker. In between, there were dozens and dozens of cars -- some of them not great -- but still, it was an original design that was fun to do at the time. So those were probably the best ones. But I think my pride and joy of Mattel is probably the Legend To Life Snake. I had to make sure it was accurate, I had to get the announcer, I had to make the car work, I had to go out and photograph the real car… and of course, it was a 200-and-some dollar car, so it had to be a really nice car. Doing the whole thing. And when it was done, the way it worked… The way the Christmas tree counted down and the car did a wheelie… That was probably the pride and joy of the whole time I was there. It was so much more involved than just making another die-cast car. It had the mechanism, it had to be accurate the way it worked, the background, the scenery… everything was real accurate. That was not a toy; that was something for a real car guy. People would shake their heads and say, “Oh, man… I didn’t know Hot Wheels could do that!” That was the best. HWC Gary: We talked about cars you liked… what about cars you weren’t happy with? Larry Wood: Everybody kids me about the Bubble Gunner. I kinda like that it was a bubble gum machine… it had a theme to it. But now when you look at it, you go, “What the hell was I thinking?” I think one of the things I missed the most on was that ’34 Sedan Delivery. I missed on the width a little bit; it’s a little too thin. It bugs me every time I see it. And yet, back then, we didn’t have the digital stuff where you would look at it and be able to say I made it too thin, make it a little wider. Now -- with the digital -- in a day, you get a sample in your hand, you say, “Oh, it’s a little too wide or a little too narrow. I’ve got to change this or that.” It really makes a big difference. You can really get the car down to the right proportions without making any mistakes. And they’re fairly fast. I don’t do the digital work; I give them the sketches and the guys do the digital stuff in the model shop or overseas. In a week, they can give me a rough model of the size and shape and go from there. ~End of Part 2~