The e-sheet madness continues with all four of the pieces that Chris Walker is producing for the 2009 Hotlanta Collector Experience in June. You certainly can’t go wrong with casting like these and I think you’ll are that they’re looking great!

Each car will be part of a designated event/ticket at the convention. Here’s the breakdown:

• Bingo / Boneshaker
• Convention Ticket / VW Drag Truck
• DiecastSpace Party / ’67 Camaro
• Nightstalker Experience / VW Drag Bus

[via diecastspace.com]

Here’s a selection of shots from the autograph sessions at the 2009 Hot Wheels Collectors Nationals in Reston, VA. The designers at the sessions included Larry Wood, Phil Riehlman, Howard Rees, Wayne Scott and Mike McClone.

Here is a quick slideshow of the souvenir area of the registration room and the small Mattel display room at the 2009 Hot Wheels Collectors Nationals in Reston, VA. While the Mattel display room was pretty small, it did happen to feature a few unique Hot Wheels t-shirt designs – even some for the ladies!

Being the first year for the Super Convention, the majority of convention cars offered were Code 3′s created by various customizers. Limited runs and great quality will keep these selection in the “highly sought-after” category.

The two Johnny Lightning pieces at the beginning of the set were part of the general admission ticket. The black Shelby was the standard offering while the red Mustang was the chase piece. Please note that this set does not contain pictures of every car offered. I will add additional pictures as I go through the cars I was able to bring home.

I also include several shots of the many Jimmy “The Boxman” Chavez pieces that were available at the Diehard-Diecast booth. Enjoy!

Special thanks to my sponsor, DiecastSpace.com for making my trip to the convention possible!

The 2009 Diecast Super Convention has seen tremendous interest and growth since its inception. While originally scheduled to be held at the Hooters Hotel and Casino, the convention has quickly grown to the point where more space will be a necessity! As a result, DiecastSpace.com has announced that the convention is moving to the Circus Circus Las Vegas Hotel. Not only will convention goers find the newly renovated accommodations more spacious, but they’ll enjoy a nice drop in price as well!

If you’ve already booked your room at Hooters, then you’ll need to cancel your reservation at Hooters, and contact Circus Circus ASAP to reserve your room. Many convention-goers have done this already and have reported that the process is very easy. If you still have yet to book a room, then be sure to call 1-800-634-3450 and mention “Group Code B02DCS.” The new room rate is just $76 per night (plus tax) which is a considerable savings from their normal rate of $199! Room reservations from the convention will be available until February 15th.

If the new fabulous accommodations weren’t enough, collectors will be thrilled to know that Mattel and the Hot Wheels brand will be joining the festivities in February! So far you can look forward to Mattel hosting their very won FREE party to include food and live music as well as sponsoring the Hot Wing eating contest. They will also be sponsoring the Customs Contest Awards ceremony which will now include cash prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place! Word on the street is that Mattel might also be bringing a few other surprises and you can be sure that I’ll be letting you know as soon as they can be confirmed.

Be sure to visit www.spinyourtires.com for more information on the 2009 Super Convention!

[via www.spinyourtires.com]

Earlier this month Mattel posted an official announcement about their upcoming 2009 Connect Cars line that has been creating quite a buzz among the Hot Wheels collecting community. Fifty cars from the basic line have been selected and specially designed with tampos containing characteristics of each state in the USA. Each car will come in a special case, and the cases will be able to connect to one and other to form an American flag.

Fred Bloods from 1 Stop Diecast recently posted a complete list on JoesDiecastShack.com of all 50 castings along with pictures of a few.

Attendees of the 2008 Hot Wheels Convention in California where treated to an early look at the line during a special presentation. Mark from RaceGrooves.com captured a short clip of it which you can see here:

Matchbox collectors will compare Connect Cars to the license plate themed set from a few years back. Releases like this are truly geared towards the “completist” collector, and it should be interesting to see if all 50 castings are released in even quantities across the country. In addition, it should be interesting to see if any variations appear to extend the collectibility beyond the fifty.

These casts will begin to arrive in stores before the end of this month (December 2008). Multi-packs of three cars will also be released. All 50 cars will be available by the end of summer 2009.

What do you think of this new series? Is it a winner or just another re-hash of an old idea? Share your thoughts via the comment form below.

Collector Diecast Lover shared these first twenty shots of entries into the customs contest from the 2008 Hot Wheels Collector’s Convention in Los Angeles California. With plenty more customs than these first entered into the contest, we can expect to see additional picture posts in the upcoming weeks.

[via diecastspace.com]

Each time an official Hot Wheels Convention comes around, collectors who can’t actually make it to the event in person are treated to the ability of purchasing at least one of the convention’s souvenir vehicles online. Since this week marks the start of the 22nd Annual Hot Wheels Collectors Convention in Los Angeles, Mattel is putting a quantity of the all new Real Riders SS Express Chevelle up for sale!

This is the first time the “spoilers” style Chevelle has been used since it came out in the Since ’68 series earlier this year. It will be available to Red Line Club members for the standard 24-hour priority window starting on 09/30/2008 at 9:00 AM PST, and any remaining quantities will be available to all HWC members on 10/01/2008. This beauty of a piece is priced at $19.99 plus S&H, and there is a purchase limit of two cars per membership.

Be sure to visit the official announcement on HotWheelsCollectors.com for more details about the sale and additional pictures of the car itself.

[via hotwheelscollectors.com]

Ok, I promise…this will be the only corny pun in this post…but, Hot Wheels Summer Smash 2008 was a “SMASHING” success! An amazing crowd of die cast collectors and enthusiasts took over the two floors and two ballrooms at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick Rhode Island for what was simply the best die cast event New England has seen in years.

Attendees were introduced to non-stop die cast fun right after leaving the registration table where each ticket holder got to spin the Liberty Promotion wheel of chance to walk away with one of over 12 different limited edition die cast pieces including the occasional Drag Bus! In-room trading got off to an early start on Friday afternoon and convention-goers continued to offer up a wide variety of both old and new collectibles from their rooms through-out the weekend.

Saturday offered up a wide variety of events for both kids and adults. Kids downhill and Sizzlers racing kicked off the morning and rolled straight into a visit from the Oscar Meyer WienerMobile as well as Batman and the Batmobile! An additional cast of characters including Spiderman, Shrek and many others joined the mix. One of the highlights for the kids was the opportunity to participate in Batman training school where Batman taught the kids some basic moves, and they were able to help Batman ward off an evil ninja.

The adults enjoyed a variety of racing in addition to the custom contest and the “Create Your Own Custom” seminars. Of course, the highlight of the day was the Summer Smash dinner and charity auction. Despite getting off to a late start, the dinner went smoothly. Convention guests Mike Zarnock, Bob Parker, Lee Pearlman, George Soulakis and David Chang all made brief speeches and got things rolling right into the auction which ran all the way to midnight! Needless to say, the auction attendees didn’t get much in-room trading done on Saturday night – not that the auction left them with any money left to buy!

Sunday’s toy show capped off a great weekend by bringing in fresh faces from the public as well as a few new vendors who weren’t part of the convention. By the time 2pm rolled around, the glazed look on the staff’s eyes indicated it was time to pack up and go. Jim Lombari and his staff deserve a standing ovation for the incredible amount of hard work they put into turning the one day Rhode Island Hot Wheels Club Expo into the full weekend Hot Wheels Summer Smash! I can’t wait to do it all again next year!

For those who might not have followed along with my photo posts throughout the weekend, you can still go check out all the slideshows on the Summer Smash page. Be sure to click on the “Shows” tab at the top of the widget to see all the sets of photos that can be viewed.

diecastAUDIO Bus Update
I’m also proud to report that all 20 of the Pope Designs diecastAUDIO Drag Buses have been sold. 9 of the 10 that went on sale on eBay went in under 2 minutes with the 10th holding out for 44 minutes. During the live sale, 8 of the 10 were sold right away and the remaining 2 went later that night. Thanks again to Bryan Pope for all the hard work in making the diecastAUDIO bus a reality!

David Chang Charity EVO Update
For those who might not have followed the David Chang Pre-Production EVO charity auction on eBay, the winning bid came in at a whopping $1005.00! You can see the auction results here.