Just over a year ago, the DiecastSpace Magical Weekend of Cars rolled into the Swan and Dolphin Hotel at DisneyWorld in Orlando, Florida, and we were fortunate to have Jake and the crew from Tail Fins and Chrome at the event to capture some of the atmosphere and personalities at the convention.

The episode aired on RTV and TUFF TV on May 1st, but the Tail Fins crew has made the full episode available for those who missed it! Segments from the convention include interviews with me, die-cast author Mike Zarnock, die-cast designer Eric Tscherne, DCS Staffer Jason Bennett and female collector, Katerina. As an added bonus, the episode includes a great segment from the Hot Wheels room at the Peterson Automotive Museum.

The convention segments are sprinkled between some cool footage of a pretty impressive police car (1:1 scale!) collection, so make sure you watch the whole episode to see everything from the Magical Weekend!

Be sure to check out the Tail Fins and Chrome website to catch more full length episodes or to see if the show is available on cable TV in your area.

The next Magical Weekend of Cars will be rolling into Anaheim, CA in the Summer of 2012, but there are plenty of great events to attend in the meantime. Check out ToyCarConventions.com for a complete listing of all the DiecastSpace events nationwide.

Its time for another road trip! This time the Diecast Ratpack is gathering in Holbrook, NY for another Saturday Nitro/Car Room TV mash-up show that you won’t want to miss!

Join Jeff Glasson, Joe Kelly Jr., Mike Zarnock and Ralph Riccardi (running the tech!) on the live video stream starting at 7pm EST (4pm PST) on Saturday March, 27th over at the The Car Room TV page on TheCarRoom.com.

While the live broadcast isn’t until Saturday night, you can always catch archived recordings The Car Room TV via the link below!

Click here to jump over to The Car Room TV page

The Car Room Magazine’s Joe Kelly Jr. and Hot Wheels Author Mike Zarnock join me for a special Saturday Nitro mash-up show. We’ve combined the standard live audio feed of Saturday Nitro with the video stream of The Car Room TV and topped it off by broadcasting from Mike Zarnock’s hobby room in Utica, NY.

Simulcasting the the show on both BlogTalkRadio and Livestream.com came with its share of technical hurdles, but I think things went fairly well for a first time effort. Please note that volume during the first two minutes of the audio stream on BlogTalkRadio is very low, but gets corrected soon after. We also had a few issues getting the video stream recorded properly in the beginning, so you’ll notice that the first few minutes of the show are missing when checking out the video clips below.

We really enjoyed teaming-up to try out this new format and its a sneak-peek of the direction I’ll be taking Saturday Nitro in 2010. Let me know what you think via the comments section below!

A local NBC affiliate in Utica, NY dropped by the Zarnock residence about 30 minutes before Mike Zarnock, Joe Kelly Jr. and I began the first ever live broadcast team-up between Saturday Nitro and The Car Room TV. The result of his short visit was this great segment that aired on the local news on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Joe Kelly Jr. from The Car Room Magazine got me in front of the camera to talk a little about DiecastAUDIO and the state of the hobby online.

The Diecast Hall of Fame began its formation in the summer of 2008. The idea behind the prestigious award is to recognize all of those who have impacted the diecast and automotive world together for their accomplishments. In maintaining integrity and credibility, the Hall of Fame Committe was formed and currently consists of:

Tom Zahorsky – Johnny Lightning
Katie Roland – GreenLight Collectibles
Bruce Pascal – The Beachbomb “Holy Grail” owner
Luis Tanahara – Custom Crew and Sledster Designer
Chris Walker – Customizer
Carson Lev – VP Foose Designs
Bob Parker – Hot Wheels author
Mike Zarnock – Hot Wheels author
Joe Kelly Jr. – Car Room Magazine Founder

A person has the opportunity each year from March 1 until May 21 to submit applications online for consideration. The committee also has the opportunity to make their recomendations which is then compiled and placed into an online transparent voting process. Once the data is collected and the results are in, each committee member is sent the results and they must affirm the inductees in order for it to be a recognized induction.

At the Super Convention each year, inductees are recognized in a dinner/ceremony environment where they are presented with a plaque for their accomplishments and then issued a hand crafted diamond studded Hall of Fame Custom Ring manufactured by Jostens.

The Class of 2010 will be as follows:

Automotive Legends
• Dale Earnhardt Sr. (Post Humous)
• Tom McEwen
• Don Prudhomme
• John D’Agostino

Diecast Designer
• Ira Gilford (Hot Wheels Designer)
• Phil Riehlman (Hot Wheels Designer)
• MiQ Willmott (Hot Wheels Graphic Designer)
• Tom Lowe (Owner, Playing Mantis/Johnny Lightning)

Diecast Customizers
• Bryan Pope (Pope Designs)
• Lee Pearlman (Liberty Promotions)

Diecast Historians
• Charlie Mack (Matchbox Author)
• Mac Ragan (Matchbox, Hot Wheels, Johnny Lightning Author)
• Fred Wagenhals (Founder of Action Racing Collectibles)

Intriguing Collectors
• Jeff Glasson (HEY – Thats me!!)
• Dan Spaulding
• Bob Rosas

Carroll Shelby Lifetime Achievement Award
• Fred Blood (1-Stop Diecast)

RAOK Award
• Jim Lombari

Here’s a video of the announcements delivered by The Car Room Magazine’s Joe Kelly Jr. who MC’d that portion of the night:

Please visit http://www.spinyourtires.com for more information about attending the 2010 Super Convention and the Diecast Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

I’m VERY excited to announce that I’m officially published in an international magazine! Joe Kelly Jr. and I have taken the interview style content you know from my live Saturday Nitro show and have extended it to the pages of The Car Room magazine. The new column is called “10 Questions” and will start by featuring guests that have been on previous episodes of Saturday Nitro. My very first “10 Questions” guest was Carson Lev and the column’s debut appears in issue #6 which is shipping now.

The Car Room magazine is now available at select Barnes & Noble and Borders locations. Both individual issues and subscriptions are also available from the official Car Room Magazine website. Here’s a digital sneak peek for DiecastAUDIO readers!

Click the images to see a larger version

My Carson Lev interview on Saturday Nitro is also available here if you haven’t had a chance to give it a listen!

[via thecarroom.com]

A recording of my interview with GMP President, Tom Long is now available on the Saturday Nitro page! Our interview covered many aspects of GMP including how Tom started the company, their close relationship with collectors, and of course lots of talk about their many fabulous die cast products.

This show also featured surprise call-in guests Doug Shore who spent many years as Director of Communications at Irwindale Speedway and Joe Kelly Jr. from The Car Room!

Jump straight to the show page here!

Last night marked the launch of DiecastSpace.com’s Saturday Nitro, the web’s first LIVE radio show focused on collecting die cast. The inaugural show was host by “yours-truly” and featured the amazing and uber-talented “Big Lou” Tanahara!

After a few technical problems were solved the show got off to a blazing start and continued on for almost a full hour and a half. Lou and I talked about how he got his start in design and the die cast industry, touched upon his years with Jada and his more recent projects at Tanahara Design and the new Custom Crew brand. Of course, we saved the best for last and revealed (almost) all the additional details about his highly anticipated Sledster. I believe one of the only details left to be discovered is what lie inside that gorgeous trailer!

The fun part of using BlogTalkRadio for the live show platform is that the listeners actually get to be a part of the show. Several collectors called into the guest line and were able to ask their questions directly to Lou himself. Collectors also gathered in the chat room and were able to ask from there that I would then pass on to Lou. Once the live show ends, listeners can continue to submit their questions through the Saturday Nitro group on DiecastSpace.com.

Each an every episode of Saturday Nitro will be recorded and made available for everyone to listen to if they can’t be part of the live show. I’ve made the show available here in this post and will also be providing access to this and all future shows via a special Saturday Nitro page here on diecastAUDIO. Of course, you can always find the shows on DiecastSpace.com and their BlogTalkRadio profile pages as well.

Future episodes of Saturday Nitro have already been scheduled and will feature special guests such as Tom Zahorsky from Johnny Lightning, Hot Wheels author Mike Zarnock, Tom Long, owner of GMP Diecast and Lee Pearlman, owner of Liberty Promotions. The hosting duties will be split up between myself and Alan Paradise from DiecastX Magazine.

We hope you enjoy(ed) the first show and we look forward to providing more excellent die cast oriented entertainment in the future!