If you’re a frequent visitor of LIGHTNINGLANE.COM then you might have noticed that the site is beginning to shrink. Much of the archived content that collectors counted on for verfiying information about older releases and potential White Lightnings has been removed. Hopefully this isn’t a sign that the entire site will be closing for good, but we’ll keep you posted as new information surfaces. In the meantime, be sure to visit the Lightning Lane forums and show your support with posts that express your fondness for this great source of Johnny Lightning collectible news.

[via lightninglane.com]

This past weekend Airland’s Ironbox Newswire brought collectors an exciting “triple threat” of news and rumors covering the new 1/87th scale cars, Code Cars and the Holiday Rods. He even capped things off with some excellent TH news! Here’s what he had to say:

“Lets start with this…….. There is no Treasure Hunt in the 1/87 Scale Hot Wheels Series …. Yet.
All of the first wave are showing up in Walmart Stores…. There are two cars from wave 2 that were mixed in wave 1 to add to the interest of the series early. Those would be the VW Bug in green with no white side panels and the 2005 Mustang GT in red with black stripes. Wave 2 will feature those two cars and the Purple Passion in Gray with Green Flames…. The Enzo Ferrari will show in Enamel Black and The Bone Shaker will be Dark Blue with Silver Flames … The Porsche Cayman, Ford GTX and The Ford Shelby GR1 also will get new paint jobs….. So far…. So Good on this Series…… Now some rumors… There are 8 more castings picked out to be added to the line ….. One is another Ferrari casting….. One is another Mustang casting from the Ultra Hots line…….. One was a 2006 Mystery Car…. And one is a a 2007 Code Car…………. Thats 4 to think about.
Moving on….. Speaking of Code Cars………. In 2008 there will be no Code Cars.
This is a very interesting rumor….. Someone is playing around with the idea of incorperating trading cards and blister packs…… what this may be is a segment series of mainlines where the blister card has a trading card of the casting as part of the card itself. The series would feature a unique illustration of the car in the blister that can be cut out like a collectible trading card. If this idea was approved …. we will see 24 cards in the first series.
Most of us have already seen pictures floating around the web of the Plymouth Barracuda Funny Car looking like a Holiday car…….. It is a 2007 Holiday Rod and will show up in 3 different colors……… Another Holiday Rod to get excited about will be the Mustang Mach 1…… And another rumor that I over heard was that there is a Bike in the series too.
Now heres something thats a secret and its just between us Iron Box News junkies…… There is an unmarked Treasure Hunt in the Holiday Rods this year….. and if I hear you repeat it……. I ain’t telling you next time…….. AIR”

Thanks for the update AIR! - Keep it coming!!

[via hotwheelscollectors.com]

More on the Mattel recall as seen on ENGADGET.COM:

“While Mattel has been on a roll of late with swank new toys, the firm has apparently hit a rough patch after being forced to recall ‘millions of toys including 436,000 die-cast cars.’ The wee roadsters purportedly ‘contained excessive amounts of lead,’ and now a class action lawsuit has been filed that aims to force the firm to ‘pay for the testing of children who might have gotten lead poisoning from the toys.’ Reportedly, representatives from Mattel were unavailable to comment, but the outfit’s CEO has stated that ‘the company’s more aggressive testing methods to uncover tainted toys may lead to more recalls’ in the future.”

[via engadget.com]

The Mystery Phrase Contest Continues…

diecastAUDIO has teamed up with Jada Toys to give collectors an opportunity to win free diecast! Listen to the shows, collect all three “Mystery Phrases,” and be one of the first three people to post the correct phrases to the website after the final phrase is revealed. For full details and a look at the prizes, check out the official contest announcement.

Click the “Podcast” icon to directly access the mp3/audio file or click the “Listen Now” graphic in the upper right corner of the site to launch a window containing our streaming audio player.

E-mail me if you have any questions or comments about the show or the Mystery Phrase contest.

Enjoy!

Every Jada fan’s favorite picture provider is back this past week with a hardcore series of four threads over on JOESDIECASTSHACK.COM. All of the photos he shared came from a recent diecast event and certainly show that Jada is continuing to impress with exciting and affordable large scale diecast! One picture from each thread on Joe’s is shown here:

Check out all the pictures from each thread with the following links:

What Happens there….Don’t always stay there………Part 1
What Happens there….Don’t always stay there………Part 2
What Happens there….Don’t always stay there………Part 3
What Happens there….Don’t always stay there………Part 4

[via joesdiecastshack.com]

So far, two of the five official event cars have been revealed for the 21st Annual Hot Wheels Collectors Convention which will be taking place October 3rd through the 7th in Orange County, CA. For those who need a quick “catch-up,” the first two announcements were for the Bone Shaker and the ‘57 Chevy Nomad.

Diane Strauss and the Hot Wheels Newsletter just recently announced that the convention charity car will be a special Make-A-Wish Foundation BeachBomb Too. The piece will come in Spectraflame green with black flamed tampos on the top and sides. Only 3000 were made, and they will be available in the souvenir sales room at the convention.

There will be a limit of two cars per paid ticket holder, and they will be available for a donation of $20 each.

[via the Official Convention Website]

Collector kagey3 took a recent trip to the Chicagoland area and was able to swing by for a visit with Russ and Carla at Milezone’s Toys. Here are some of the shots he brought back of Russ’s sweet retail location and posted on JOESDIECASTSHACK.COM:

[via joesdiecastshack.com]