Every now and then I’m amazed where the hobby of collecting diecast cars has taken me. I’ve had the opportunity to travel to some great places and meet some of the coolest people in the hobby. One of the folks I’ve been fortunate enough to be-friend over the course of the last few years is the talented and very down-to-earth Eric Tscherne. If you aren’t familiar with Eric or any of his many accomplishments in the diecast industry, then I suggest you check out the Saturday Nitro interview we did last year. Its a great listen and will definitely get you up to speed.

Diecast designers come up with a tremendous number of designs that unfortunately are never selected to become real castings. Its been many years since Eric moved on from his design position with Mattel and the Hot Wheels brand, yet one of his original designs has seemingly come back to life as part of the 2010 Hot Wheels line-up. Eric recently sent me his account of how this design has come full circle and is now becoming a reality. I’m sure you’ll agree, its a really interesting read. Enjoy!

The new Dodge Charger Drift Car that Hot Wheels is producing as a 2010 New Model is actually one of my designs! I originally designed the car at Mopar’s request. BJ Birtwell, then with Chrysler as a youth marketing person, called me up on behalf of Shaun Carlson and NewFormz to design their new drift car. This was in 2005. The guys, including driver Samuel Hubinette, wanted to do something with the Charger to make it more aggressive and unique. Originally they had asked for a wide body design which you can see in my drawings. Through that process however I kept coming back to the SRT-8 body and especially the hood. The 2005 show car was before the release of the SRT-8 so things like the hood were unavailable for the 2005 build.

The NuFormz team eventually migrated over to an SRT-8 body but the paint scheme remained. Shaun Carlson had raced for Mopar for years dating back to his Dodge Neon front wheel drive dragster (a Hot Wheels car I worked on while at Mattel). He had recently been running Pro-Stock for Mopar for Don Schumacher’s team with legends like Allen Johnson. Shaun had expressed bringing over the cool Colored camo designs of the Pro-Stock cars asking for something a bit different and in Mopar Blue. I designed a camo that had Mopar script and "M" icons interlaces with a traditional camo print.

At the time when I was designing the show car, I was also working on the Foose diecast line. At toy fair I was with Chip and we were talking about various projects and I found out that Chip was going to do the wheels on the Charger show car. It was mind blowing to me that we had both been working on the car but unaware of the other’s involvement even though we had been working on the diecast line for months! Some of the build of the show car was captured in a documentary, Drift The Sideways Craze that aired on Discovery’s HD Theater and TLC.

At the Super Convention Phil Riehlman and I got to talking and he told me Jun Imai had handled the Charger project for Hot Wheels. Jun is super talented and it shows in his work. The Charger came out beautiful. It is really cool to see my design end up in the Hot Wheels line some 5 to 6 years after I left. I now know how it must feel for other artists, designers, customizers and race car drivers to see their design turn up on a toy store shelf when it wasn’t the original intent. It’s a honor and a privilege.

- Eric Tscherne

Here are the next case code cars you should be seeing now in stores. They are case code ‘D’ out now and ‘E’ being stocked by end of January into February.

Basic releases:

’09 New Models: Fast Gassin’ in red/chrome.

’10 New Models:

’67 Chevelle SS 396 in red (pic’d) – ’67 Pontiac Firebird 400 in green (pic’d) – ’08 Dodge Charger Drift in blue (pic’d) – Tooligan in gold; Sting Rod II in yellow (pic’d) – ’09 Caddy CTS-V in black (pic’d) – VW Beetle in DK.red; Scorcher in red – Snow Ride in orange (pic’d) – ’08 Viper SRT-!) ACR in white – Fangula in purple (pic’d) – ’09 Corvette Stingray Concept in yellow – Backslider in green – Ghostbusters Ecto-1 (pic’d)

’10 HW Performance: Pass’n Gasser in red – ’41 Willy’s in yellow

HW Racing: Mustang Funny car in blue/purple – F-1 Racer in blue

Hot Action: Ford Thunderbolt in white – Bugatti Veyron in blue

HW City Works: Hummer H2 SUT in yellow

Heat Fleet: Custom VW Beetle in red w/flames – Jeep Scrambler in brown

Mystery cars: Hyundai Spyder in black w/flames – Nissan 350Z in purple – Duel Fueler in silver – Jaded in orange

Track Stars: Drift King in army green – Twin Mill III in green – Dieselboy in blue

Muscle Mania: ’70 Ply. Superbird in greens – ’67 Dodge Charger in blue – ’70 Buick GSX in blue – ’69 Pontiac Firebird T/A in black.

All Stars: Lamborghini Gallardo in black

HW Hot Rods: Bone Shaker in blue

HW Garage: La Fasta in silver

Race World: Cave- Evil Twin; Swoopy Do – Volcano- ’64 Lincoln Continental – Earth- Paradigm Shift (pic’d); Stockcar (pic’d)’ Speedway- Cadillac LMP; Saleen S7

Treasure Hunts: Classic Packard (pic’d) – Old # 5.5 w/wht. tires (pic’d) – 69 Talladega (pic’d)

Walmart special colors: ’40 Woodie in yellow – Ferrari 430 Scuderia in red – Ford Mustang 2+2 Fastback – FTE in yellow

Other series:

2010 Delivery series (Code “D, E, F,” all expected in Jan/Feb):

GMC Motor Home – ’55 Chevy Panel – ’56 Flashsider – Custom ’62 Chevy – ’59 Caddy Funnycar – ’83 Silverado – 50’s Chevy Truck (pic’d) – ’34 Ford – Combat Medic – Dairy Delivery – Anglia Panel – Cool One – VW DLX Station Wagon (pic’d) – Super Van – Hiway Hauler – Baja Breaker – ’69 Chevy Pickup – ’32 Sedan Delivery

HW Garage series 2010 (Code “D”):
Larry Wood: Custom ’66 GTO Wagon (pic’d) – Phil Riehlman: ’70 Chevelle SS – Wayne Scott: Chevelle Wagon (pic’d) – Neet Streeter (pic’d) – ’57 Chevy (pic’d) – Other cars: Fish’d & Dipp’d (pic’d) – Buick Le Sabre Concept (pic’d) – Ferrari 288 GTP (pic’d) – ’41 Pro-Mod Willy’s (pic’d)

Store Only Garage series Promo’s:

Walmart: Tail Dragger – VW Drag Truck – ’58 Ford Edsel

Target: Custom ’56 Ford Truck – ’64 Custom Galaxie – ’65 VW Fast Back

TRU: ’69 Pontiac GTO – Rat Bomb – ’70 Roadrunner

Speed Machines (Case ‘B’): Bugatti Veyron – Enzo Ferrari – Ford GTX-1 – Ferrari 575 GTC – Porche Carrera GT – ’07 Shelby GT 500 – Gallardo LP 560-4

* – Please note that this list was compiled based on information gathered by collectors from online research and personal finds at retail locations. The ability to find select pieces will vary based on geographic location and the frequency that your local retailer refreshes their stock.

The “In the Stores” column is brought to you courtesy of the Connecticut Valley Diecast Club

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.

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.