Dips in the economy aside, its a really good time to be a diecast collector. There have never been more options to attend a live event and connect with fellow collectors for some fun in this hobby that we all know and love. This year features large events that will definitely peak your interest no matter what brand or scale you collect. Here’s a quick rundown of each in order of occurrence including links out to their respective sites to get more information:

The Nashville Collector Experience – June 16-19, 2011 – Nashville, TN

Diecastspace returns to their “Collector Experience” style convention that will include special presentations from sponsoring manufacturers as well as your favorite standard events like the Legends Dinner, Camaro Bingo, the RAOK Party, Diecast UNO, In-Room Trading,  Charity Auction, the Customs Contest, Downhill Racing, in-room trading and much more. This convention also marks the debut of the Diecastspace Vending machine which will be packed full of amazing diecast surprises.

Special Guests for Nashville include Hot Wheels Designers Larry Wood, Wayne Scott and Eric Tscherne, Hot Wheels Author Mike Zarnock, Tom Zahorsky from Johnny Lightning and Ben “Cooter” Jones from the Dukes of Hazzard TV Show.

The Canada Convention – July 13-17, 2011 – Toronto, Canada

The Canadian Diecast Convention returns for its second year at an all new location in Toronto. Mattel will be in attendance with the Hot Wheels Live Tour Trailer featuring awesome Hot Wheels displays and exclusive Hot Wheel merchandise that will only be available on the tour. The Official Hot Wheels Vending Machine will also be on hand which is always a blast. Other events will include the Legends dinner, RAOK party, downhill racing, Diecast UNO, Diecast Bingo, the customs contest, a Redlines seminar, in-room trading and much more. Sears will also be sponsoring a special event thats not to be missed!

The Special Guests for this event are still to be announced.

Lightning Fest - July 15-16, 2011 – Dyersville, IA

Lightning Fest is the main event to attend for the die-hard Johnny Lightning collector. Held each year at the RC@ Outlet store in Dyersville, Iowa, this FREE two day event is packed full of great family-friendly activities. Such activites include Gravity Racing, a customs contest, daily raffles, a Design forum, Diecast Bingo, charity auctions, a full-scale car show and in-room trading. The Diecastspace vending machine will laso be on hnad and stocked with lot s of great JL products and surprises.

A yet to be announced special celebrity guest from the Dukes of Hazzard TV show is also planned for the event.

KustomKon – August 4-7, 2011 – Dallas, TX

The Diecastspace KustomKon returns to Dallas this summer and features activities for diecast customizers and regular collectors alike. The focus of the conference will be a series of seminars for those who have never customized before all the way up through the advanced customizer. Regular collectors will enjoy in-room trading, the Legends Dinner, the RAOK Swap, limited edition convention cars and the Sunday toy show. All of your favorite professional diecast customizers are set to attend.

Special celebrity guests George Barris and Little Daddy Dennis Roth will be in attendance as well.

Hot Wheels Summer Smash – August 25-28, Warwick, RI

The Summer Smash returns for its fourth year and is New England’s ONLY diecast convention for 2011. All of your favorite activities are scheduled including a Customs Show for kids & adults, the Sunday Toy Show, Sizzler Racing, the Bob Parker trivia contest, the Liberty Promotions Treasure Quest, a Charity Auction and Dinner, Room to Room Trading, a Saturday Car Cruise, Down Hill Racing for kids & adults, an Interactive Customs Seminar by East Coast Real Riders and more. The Diecastspace vending machine is also scheduled to be on hand.

Special guests schedule to attend include Hot Wheels Designer Larry Wood,  Jimmy “The Box Man” Chavez, Tom Zahorsky from Johnny Lightning, Hot Wheels Author  Mike Zarnock, Hot Wheels and Matchbox Author Bob Parker,  Lee Pearlman from Liberty Promotions,  Chris Walker “Night Stalker”, Vince  V-Man Mosely, and Dave Chang

There’s just about a week to go, until the start of the 2010 Magical Weekend of Cars in Orlando, Florida and things are ramping up to bring this event to a whole new level. This time around collectors will get to interact with whole new set of vendors like The Franklin Mint, BBR Models, Spark, Minichamps, LeMans Miniatures and Kyosho – and these new vendors are all in addition the traditional brands that sponsor and attend each DiecastSpace convention.

In addition to the new vendors, Hot Wheels Designer Wayne Scott has been added to the guest lineup which already includes the likes of Big Daddy Don Gartlits, Phil Rhielman, Eric Tscherne, Mike Zarnock, Lee Pearlman, Chris Walker and Bryan Pope. Eric Tscherne recently posted this little teaser of the artwork that he’s preparing for the show that features renditions of himself and Chip Foose done up Pixar Cars Movie style!

The general admission has also been expanded to 30,000 square feet to accommodate upwards of 18 full scale hot rods. Rumor has it that two of those cars will be creations from the popular TV show Overhaulin’.

While most add-on events have sold out, there are still tickets available for the Liberty Promotions Drag Bus Breakfast. General Admission tickets for $60 (with a convention car) or $25 (without a car) are still available until Friday, June 18th. Additional rooms have also been added to the convention room block and are available of a first-come first-served basis. Please visit the official convention page on ToyCarConventions.com for more details.

Despite the 1 hour delay due to technical difficulties (ala crazy hotel internet) we managed to bang out the first ever Saturday Nitro with a live studio audience! It definitely added a little extra excitement to the show that brought things to a whole new level. We also tried live streaming some video, but had some difficulties with the sound. Thats what you get for trying to add bonus features in the zero hour!

This show features special guests like Chris Walker, Lou Tanahara, Jim Lombari, Mike Zarnock, Lee Pearlman, Joe Kelly Jr and more!

Listen to the recorded show from the audio widget on this page or check out the catalog of previous shows on the Saturday Nitro page.

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 had the fortunate opportunity to host the Ridemakerz Designer Round-Table Luncheon during at the 2009 DiecastSpace.com Super Convention. The event consisted of a panel that included Larry Wood, Carson Lev, George Barris, Luis Tanahara, Larry Andreini from Ridemakerz, Robert Russell from Shelby Collectibles, HWC Ryan from Mattel, Sean Taylor from M2, Chris Walker, Lee Pearlman from Liberty Promotions, as well as Jeff Nelson and Katie Roland from GreenLight.

The large panel only allowed for the opportunity to ask a small handful of questions since it took a decent amount of time to get through guests answers. At one point during the discussion I glanced over to see Larry Wood, “Big Lou” Tanahara and Carson Lev all doodling on their noted pads! At the end of the discussion I was lucky enough to snag two of the three drawings.

Click either image to see them up close

You’ll notice that Larry’s piece (pictured on the left) has “Door Knob Grille” written on it. He drew that part while George Barris was telling the story of how he and his brother “kustomized” their first car by putting their mother’s kitchen cabinet door knobs on the grille of their 1928 Buick – too cool!

I’m not sure who was lucky enough to grab Carson’s drawing, but I’ve heard it was an equally cool piece. Needless to say, these one-of-a-kind souvenirs will be framed and added to my collection as a perfect reminder of why I love this hobby so much! This round-table event was a dream to be a part of and I’m sure it will become a tradition at Super Conventions in the future.

A recording of my interview with Liberty Promotions President, Lee Pearlman is now available on the Saturday Nitro page! We covered a variety of topics including some background on the company and how they got started with promotional diecast and collector drag buses, the Liberty Legion Collector’s Club, Lee’s personal diecast collection and some of the fun things Liberty has in store for collector’s moving into 2009!

As a reminder, these shows are done LIVE on Saturday nights which means that you can participate by calling in and asking questions directly to our special guests! Be sure to check the official schedule on the Saturday Nitro site for a list of upcoming shows.

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!

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.