God Bless!

That wraps up today, see you soon.

Have Fun,
Fred Blood

Singles and Items on The Toy Peddler
Some cool harder to find stuff on ebay (check out listings here)

9/1/10
We found the rest of the  Matchbox  Lesney Edition J Cases as the pallet came in today so the world is back to normal. Also on the Pallet was the new

Hot Wheels MONSTER JAM Releases R

Man these TRUCKS ARE COOL!

We worked on getting caught up and double checking inventory so we will be ready to hit it hard on Tuesday. We will "Officially" be closed Friday and Monday for the holiday but if I am in the office I will answer the phones.

Ok here is the latest info from Mattel: Next week we will see the Delivery Release P and Hot Wheels Basic Cars P cases. The word on Delivery Q, Garage N, and Drag Strip Demons E cases are that they are on Marketing Hold, which is something they do every once in awhile to let things settle down after a big release of product and allow the pipeline to get cleared out a bit. So while we will see a delay in getting the rest of the Delivery Q cases, it will not be long and there are good things coming.

I have opened up the pre-orders again on the Garage N Cases These are the cases with the first 21 Window Drag Bus. The Garage Q case is not due until the end of September so there will be a few weeks when the N case is the only way to get the Bus.

8/31/10
We have the best FedEx drivers! These guys are great, they watch out for our stuff, they always help get the containers here early, they really do work with us in a big way. There are two main guys that bring trucks and pallets to us and the on going joke is if its a small order they bring a truck with a lift gate and if its a huge order then the trailer never has a lift gate and we have to unload the pallets our selves.

I didn't think we had anything coming so when I got a text that a trailer was coming I could not figure out what was on its way. Then one of the drivers walks in and says "Man where are you going to put all this?"

Now everyone here today was beat, you know the beat when you have had a massive project for the last few weeks and you get it done and then your body just says Hey I am Thrashed. I could see it in everyone's eyes this morning and I let a few go home with the day off. Now I have a Truck out side and the Driver tells me this?

OK I am ready to see what we got and I walk out with him to get the crew ready. First no Lift Gate, Fine it is only 85 degrees today we will handle it. I look out at the lot and the truck is not backed into the slot so I think what is this, walk down and he opens the door and WOW! REALLY!

Yes Really there is a pallet with two small Matchbox Lesney Cases on it! TWO BOXES! The best part they are two different dash codes! Our driver laughed his butt of for the next few seconds as we jumped in and got OUR TWO Boxes signed the paperwork and off he went. Our best guess is these are two boxes that got separated from the shipment coming and he got them on his truck. It just proves you never know what your getting until you unload the containers.

So we got in one box of the Matchbox  Lesney Edition J Cases

We will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings. I tried to get an update on the Delivery P and Q cases today but so many people are on vacation this week it is slow going on the information trail.

8/30/10
Here is something we have not been able to say for a while, We are all caught up and shipped for the US orders placed from the huge shipments we received over the last two weeks. We will start tomorrow to deal with the orders that need special attention and the Credit Card Declines. We will send out emails in the morning for declines, we also have a fairly large amount of credit cards that have expired and we need new information to process those orders.

If you know you need to update your credit card info you can do it by clicking here.

We will start to process the orders for items in stock from the last week and also the orders from over the weekend (WOW THANK YOU ALL AGAIN!) first thing tomorrow and should be all caught up and start to process the international orders on Wednesday.

Apparently when Mattel told me we would not have any shipments this week they were referring to allocated product as I got a all today and we should have a Matchbox delivery tomorrow, so any non-allocated product that is on Auto-Ship may still find it's way to us this week. So we may still have a surprise or two this week.

M2 sent over the Auto Drag Release 4 information today and I have added it to the website for Pre-orders, at this time they are only available in the Clam Shells so we will offer them this way for now.

I can't wait to show you guys Release 5 very soon as you going to dig one of the Vintage Sponsors!

I am sure there is more but we are just beat, off to get some rest before a day in front of the computer and trying to find out just what color the top of my desk is tomorrow.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR AMAZING SUPPORT!

One last thing and I promise I won't do this much but we have listed an EXTREMELY RARE Muscle Machines Jessie James F#%@(*^itupagain Car on ebay (check out listings here) there were only 144 of these made and they were to be given out only by Jessie himself. When Action owned MM they did not want this car to be released in the package so before they were given to anyone they were ripped out of the packages and given out loose. The one listed is one of only a hand full that made it out packaged as samples and the only one I have ever had.

8/27/10
We made some serious ground today and we will be all caught up by the end of day on Monday with the U.S. order, and on Tuesday will start with the International orders and start getting in touch with all the declined Credit Cards and such.

I spoke with Mattel today and it looks like we are all going to get a break next week as they are not going to ship any hobby accounts their usual weekly shipments due to the upcoming holiday. I am working on getting the rest of the  Delivery Release P and Delivery Release Q  in here ASAP but we may have to wait a few 7-10 days for Mattel to open up the warehouse and shipping again. At this point everything still looks good just a bit of house cleaning by the Big M as they get settled into their new warehouse.

What that does mean is that most likely right after the Holiday we will get slammed again with a few releases all at once, There is Drag Strip Demons E cases Ready to ship and someone found a Bone Shaker on a 21 Window bus card, that means the Cards are printed and I would guess the Garage N cases are just about to be ready to ship, So expect the first / mid part of September to be CRAZY!

I will come in on Sunday and down load the weekend orders as we are very close on the Delivery Release P ,Delivery Release Q  and Garage M Cases  availability. We are just about where I feel comfortable on the Garage N, and T Cases so they may have to be turned off for Pre-orders until we get the product in house.

I know I promised some Sneak Peak photos but I was told I can not post them until 9/2/10 so we will have to wait a bit, sorry.

I wanted to THANK YOU all for your support in the photo contest I had posted here a few weeks ago. Yesterday I found out that I won an Honorable Mention in the judged portion of the contest and my photo is published in the new edition of Outdoor Photographer Magazine! The cool part is I found out from one of you who got the magazine and emailed me to let me know!

8/26/10
Our last truck of the MONSTER LOAD arrived today, and it was all SHIPPING, SHIPPING, SHIPPING all day long. We made some great headway today and tomorrow will see us very close to all caught up. It is always nice when the UPS driver is impressed with what you got out.

I have spoken to a few of you over the last week or so about our Facebook page. It has been up for a little over a year now and we are updating it each night with basically a version of this blog, The nice thing about the Facebook Page is you can ask questions and make comments on it so if your a Facebooker check us out, It is a proper Business page so you don't have to be accepted you just have to click like it and you're in!

M2 announced the Drivers Release 9 ( today and we have added it to the website for Pre-Orders, This is the first set that will be box in 6 car sealed cases and Master Cases of 48 with a guaranteed Chase Car. We will offer these only in the Non Acrylic display Window Boxes.

(package photo, car is not in Release 9)

I got a late email from a good source at Mattel tonight that I may have a few Sneak Peak photos for you Tomorrow so check back.

8/25/10
It may rain here tonight. I know this seems like no big deal for most of you, but for us it means a ton, we are in the desert and if it rains 5-7 times a year that's a lot, but the monsoon weather is passing by and it may just get us wet tonight.

So what does that have to do with anything? Well usually for me it means really cool clouds in southern Utah and I should be heading out to shoot photos as the Monsoons start to hit, but I digress.

What it means today is we had to find a lot of places that didn't exist to put a few things, Like the 100 bags of peanuts and the 5 pallets of boxes that came this morning! That all goes along with the PALLETS from Mattel today and we had to have room for the one and I think Final truck for the week tomorrow.

Now it is all up to the crew! Today we received the:

Garage M Cases

Delivery Release N

More Danica Patrick NASCAR Cases

and some Batman 1/50th Scale along with the Hot Wheels Basic Cars 9987 (N) cases

Tomorrow we will get the last of the Garage Release L we need.

The remaining Delivery Release P and Delivery Release Q cases we need to fill orders (I got some more ordered at Mattel today, THIS IS THE END OF THEM, We have about 30 cases still available) will ship from Mattel on Monday and we will have them on or before Wednesday next week, at this point we should cover all orders no problem.

I will know late tomorrow or Friday Morning what Mattel has released for next week but the rumor today was Drag Strip Demons E cases.

We will start shipping at 4:00am tomorrow morning and will ship until UPS picks up the feeder and the same on Friday. If we are not caught up and shipped out we will ship over the weekend to get everyone's boxes out on Monday. We are back to the old system and boxes are flying out the door, I am sorry for the length of time it took this last shipment to get every thing out the door, We are confident we have addressed the problems and are back on track. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORT!

8/23/10
THANK YOU! I almost don't know where to start! BUT A HUGE THANK YOU! You guys and gals just went CRAZY with the orders over the weekend! I checked last night before I went to bed just to see and MAN YOU GUYS AND GALS ROCKED! So I got up this morning at 4:00 am and started the down load of the weekends orders to make sure we had you all covered. As soon as the Big M opened in New York I was on the phone and here is where we stand. Delivery Release P are sold out at Mattel, What we get Tomorrow is it, so we may be out sometime tonight. I ordered a full pallet of Delivery Release Q and as of right now we have just about 50 cases left for this shipment, my feeling is this will be the end of what is available from Mattel.

We have a truck coming either tomorrow or Wednesday with a ton of product and the Garage M Cases and Hot Wheels Basic Cars 9987 (N replacement) cases.

Saturday we had a big part of the crew here and the ripped out the new UPS system and we reverted back to the old (faster) system and then shipped all day Saturday and most of Sunday, The crew was in at the crack of dawn today and worked their magic as fast as they could. We ran out of large boxes so they picked through the orders and shipped as much as possible. We are still just over 200 orders away from caught up just before the new truck hits. We should be all caught up tomorrow if the peanut and box delivery gets here in the morning like it should. We started to interview for more shippers today and we will set up more shipping stations by the end of the week as we get ready for the BIG CASES later this year like Hot Wheels Garage Releases N, Q, and T ,   Delivery Release V, and Y and Drag Strip Demons Release G

We also received some cool new info from M2 with the Detroit Muscle Release 12 Announcement. THIS WILL BE THE FIRST RELEASE WE WILL ONLY SHIP IN THE ACRYLIC DISPLAY BOXES AS M2 MOVES AWAY FROM THE CLAM SHELL PACKAGING.

One last THANK YOU for the MANY of you who emailed and called today about the singles up on Toy Peddler and ebay! WOW over 100 cars sold over the weekend! THANK YOU, after 23 years you all still surprise me and we will be listing many more items over the next few weeks and will for sure add singles from damaged cases in good blistercards and loose when the cards are really bad. THANK YOU again for all the input and ideas, we are listening and will incorporate some as we get ready for 2011.

8/20/10
10:37 on a Friday night and I am at the office, It has been a Crazy week and next week looks to be more of the same. No one here is really happy about how the shipping went this week. We started this new program that was supposed to be MUCH faster, where the credit cards were charged in a batch like always but the invoices were printed at each shipping station as they were ready to be shipped. Sounds good on paper but to be honest our crew is faster than the system when we are shipping a ton of boxes of the same product. So tomorrow morning the girls are coming in and they will print the remaining invoices for the items that are here in the warehouse and we have almost a full crew coming in both Saturday and Sunday to ship as much as we can get out the door ready for Monday. UPS dropped off a feeder rig so we are ready to get caught up.

We have 3 trucks for Monday or Tuesday (I wont know until the Mattel systems reboots on Monday Morning) and those trucks have more of what we got (THANK YOU FOR THE AMAZING ORDERS STILL COMING IN) plus Garage M Cases and Hot Wheels Basic Cars 9987 (N replacement) cases.

I finally got to shoot some pictures of the cases we got in and have updated the website now:

Here are some highlights with all the others cars posted in their sections (Just click on any of the photos and they will take you to the releases)

Delivery Release N

Delivery Release P

Delivery Release Q

Garage Release L

MONSTER JAM Releases Q

I am hopeful that going back to the old system will speed things up and will get us caught up. I am very sorry for the length of time it too us to get these orders out, We will make it faster for the rest of the year and we are looking at more help to make sure that happens.

One more thing, our daughter is back in school and has taken on a massive major (she is just like her mom) so she asked if there was any part time work for her. Well I let her loose in the storage containers and then worked out a deal for her to break down the damaged cases we get that we wont ship out and when she has time she will list older items and new singles on ebay and the toy peddler.

So she has some cool harder to find stuff on ebay (check out her listings here) and as we were breaking down pallets today guess who rolls on in, yep she dug out about 15 damaged cases of Delivery and put them up on The Toy Peddler along with a bunch of older Muscle Machines she is digging out of storage. I have to say she took a few of the really bad blisters and opened the cars to sell loose and she needed to take photos of them, well about 2 months ago we finished the photo studio here that we built to do big cars and other stuff in (it usually is filled with product these days) and she takes the cars in there ( I have not shot one thing in there yet!) flips on the lights and grabs my back up camera and starts shooting. I may have to hire her to shot for the website! A few tips and she will be rockin!

To check out her Delivery Listings Click

LOOSE DELIVERY CARS
CARDED DELIVERY SINGLES
Check out her Muscle Machines listings here.

OK I have to get some sleep before the weekend of madness starts with our daughters 21st birthday bar-b-q and the crew shipping.

8/19/10
We still have a few of the crew registering for college so today we were a bt short handed. We shipped all day and only had one truck in so we did get a fair amount of stuff out.

Tomorrow we have two trucks in and are fully staffed so we should make some progress on getting the orders out. Sorry for the delays we were surprised by the amount of product but are getting caught up. We also tried a new way of invoicing and it just didn't work as well so tomorrow we will go back to the old system and we have a full crew coming in over the weekend as we need to get these out! Monday we have three more trucks from Mattel from CA and TX with Basic Cars as well as the rest of the Delivery and Garage cases, so we will stay busy all next week as well.

I did get some cool info from the Basic Car guys with the next 3 releases of the Speed Machines Releases H, J, and K

Here are a few Sneak Peak photos that I don't think have ever been seen before

That is it tonight, We are making progress and next week when the crew have the schedules worked out we will bring in some more help to make things faster.

8/17/10
Flat out and totally crazy was the way today went. From the first seconds we got here today and it is still going on. We have so much product coming in that we have been moving stuff around all day long trying to fins it a home.

Tomorrow we have 3 trucks scheduled and it doesn't look like it will settle down until Friday at the earliest as Mattel may have more ready to release on Thursday. I will keep you all updated as soon as we know.

The girls spent the day getting invoices ready and lining up the shipping stations and tomorrow we will ship full bore in between the trucks hitting the docks. Give us a few days and we will have it all sorted and shipping hang in there it is coming.

I spent a few hours in between the madness to get the rest of the Delivery Releases, R, V, W, and Y , Hot Wheels Garage Releases R, S, T, and U, and Drag Strip Demons Releases E, F, G, and H (lots of changes here and TONS of new cars that show up in 1 case AND GONE!) on the website. 

PLEASE TAKE A LOOK NOW AND PRE-ORDER THE CASES YOU WANT, THERE ARE SOME HEAVY HITTERS IN THERE! Cases with 2 Highway Haulers! Cases with 3 Different Drag Buses! Could the Garage T case be the best case from Mattel in the last 10 years?

I started pushing today to get some 2011 info so we can get the Subscriptions and pre-Orders going as we will start to see some 2011 product in October.

It is crazy and we still have at least 2 hours here before we shut the doors so I am going to leave you with some "snap Shots" of the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.

8/16/10
So Friday was supposed to be a nice easy drive to Monterey for the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, up at 3:00 am and packed and on the road.

We had scheduled the Hot Wheels Basic Cars 9987 (N replacement) cases and really not much was to go on for about two weeks. HOLD ON!

I get to a spot where we get a phone signal and there is a message from Mattel call me ASAP, I pull off the highway and give a call. WELL GET READY BECAUSE THE QUITE TIME IS OVER! I sat on the side of the road for the next 1 1/2 hours going between the girls here and our FANTASTIC customer service guy at the big M getting a TON of product moving towards us. We have product coming from just about every place it can come from and MAN IS IT GREAT STUFF!

Delivery N Cases (coming from Texas should be here in the next 7 days), Delivery P cases (is due here tomorrow ALL RE-ORDERS WILL BE FILLED), Delivery Q Cases (is due here tomorrow ALL RE-ORDERS WILL BE FILLED, we will have cases available starting tomorrow afternoon), Garage L cases (1/2 should be here tomorrow the rest coming from Texas should be here in the next 7 days), Garage M Cases (coming from Texas should be here in the next 7 days).

Also the Basic Car cases are pushed back a week so we get a little fresher release and further separation from the M cases,

Over the weekend you guys and gals went CRAZY for the Danica Patrick NASCAR cases and we have some that came in today, some more due tomorrow and I orders a bunch more that will come in next week and we will cover all orders placed!

Monster Truck Q cases will be here tomorrow along with the remaining Speed Machines G cases!

We also have Johnny Lighting on it's way, M2 has finished moving so we have a truck going to pick up our back orders on Wed, and Green light is shipping some back orders this week. The product flow for fourth quarter is coming so hang on tight there is a TON of stuff coming before the mid October time period where we will see Delivery, Garage, and Drag Strip Demons finish up for 2010 and we will get ready to start shipping the 2011 product. IT IS GOING TO BE A BUSY REST OF 2010!

Now some not so good news, As you all know the Delivery L cases were totally allocated, they are officially gone now so we have canceled all orders in house that have not been shipped. Classics Series 5 is Officially done for 2010. I sat in many many meetings and pushed this as far up the pole as I could and just could not get it done with the castings now spread in to many factories and being used for other lines. If it is at all possible to get finished it will happen in 2011 and we will take orders at that time. We have canceled all pre-orders in our system and have started to refund all paypal payments for this line.

All the Hobby Cases for Delivery have been canceled and this is a good thing as there was nothing special in them and we have canceled the pre-orders, THIS WILL NOT EFFECT ANY OF THE REGULAR RELEASES. The remaining Hobby / Chase Cases for garage have been canceled as they proved to be a bit of over kill and we have canceled all pre-orders in our system. I have not been able to get a final answer on the third colors of the Mass / Hobby Exclusive castings for Garage yet.

Today was just crammed full with getting the paper work and truck delivery times ect for the HUGE HUGE shipments hitting from the morning all through the week and cleaning out our systems of the not going to be made cases, so more updates will be coming tomorrow I hope.

I didn't have any time to even look at my photos from the races so that will be later this week as well. I figure with all the good news and product coming you may forgive me.

I leave you with a few photos I took on the way home.

8/12/10
OK LETS SEE... If you are reading this then you saw the front of the website and you know the phones have been out most of the day. Our building sits next to a great 5 acre park and it is always nice there, well today they started to dig it up for some "Improvements"  and that was nice. But someone on a back hoe ripped apart an entire under ground phone line trunk! Guess whose line go through it? Surprise! So after about 2 hours they managed to reroute one of our line the 951-780-2889 number which is our sister company Vintage Drag Club. We then had the 1 Stop Diecast phone numbers forwarded to the VDC number so we can get calls now but the message will be for VDC. They say it will be fixed before 6:00PM tomorrow? Monday should be back to "normal".

I know I promised a few more 2011 cars tonight but it seems like no everyone was on board with the release dates so we will have to wait a few more days to show you the rest, sorry but this way we will get to show you all of it. Looks like we will have one or two days a month with some sneaks!

I also know I promised a newsletter for last Monday. Well not everything goes as planned. Over the last week I have been going over a TON of information for the remainder of 2010 and there are a few questions I am getting answers to so we only have to release the info once and it is right. There are MAJOR changes in the Drag Strip Demo cases! And THEY ARE KILLER for the rest of the year! When I get back in the office on Monday, updating the releases and getting the newsletter out is job 1!

OK I am off to the Rolex Monterey Historic Reunion now and will be back on Monday, so no blog until then.

Basic Car N Case were not manufactured, they were REPLACED by a 9978 dash code (this is the case we will give away the two 2011 cars with) and they will be here next week. There are rumors going around that these cases have the Wal-Mart exclusive Key Chains, THEY DO NOT! They have the same cars and they DO HAVE the GAME PIECES but no key chains.

We have a truck on Monday or Tuesday and I know the Danica Patrick cars are on it and not sure what else,

8/11/10
If I seem a bit giddy I am sorry. It has been a very long time since a meeting went as well as the one at Mattel did today! Lunch with the guys from the Hot Wheels Basic Car group was one of the best meetings in a long time. These guys are truly going to be good for the hobby in the long run. Open minds and thoughts, guys that take information disseminate it and come back with questions, ANSWERS, and ideas. A constant flow both ways of information and a common goal of how to service the HARD CORE Collector, Casual Collector and the not forgotten Kid element of the product line.

There is a ton of work to do to get the information and excitement that is there conveyed in both directions from the collector to Mattel and from Mattel to the collectors, Today started that flow in AMAZING TERMS!

If we can keep our communication up (you know I will hound them to death) you are going to see first hand information right here that will help us all collect the cars we love! I have promised to pass on every bit of information that I get so you will see info on items that we will offer, and items that will be exclusives in other places as well. We will give you what you need to collect the Basic Car line completely.

Over the next week or so we will show you a few exclusive that you most certainly will be in hot pursuit of But today I am proud to show you all the first look at the 2011 Basic Hot Wheels Packaging and 2 of the first 2011 cars that will be released. I have not put our name all over the photos or even a little logo. I want you to see what is coming, use the photos fairly put them where you like, lets build this hobby we love. All I ask is that if you use them say where you got them from or even have a link to us. This is just the start of what we discussed today and there were some cool ideas flowing around the lunch table that would CHANGE a lot of minds about Basic Cars!

So here you go... the 2011 Hot Wheels Basic Car packaging is

Tomorrow I will show you 2 more cars and then next week one of the Wal-Mart Holiday Cars, A special "New Years" Chase car (can you say V* D*** Tr**#) I knew you could, and a TRU Free with Purchase coming in October.

I can't tell you how long ago it was that we got stuff like this to show you and tell you about in Basic Cars! Oh and by the way I have this stuff in my office AND WE ARE GOING TO GIVE IT AWAY! THE 2 CARS SHOWN NOW WILL BE GIVEN TO SOME ONE NEXT WEEK! We will pick a name from those that order the Basic Car N Case and we will ship them these 2 cars free in their order.

More tomorrow.