New Changes For the 2013 Hot Wheels Mainline

  Every New Years Day, I have a Hot Wheels tradition that started in 2005 and continues to the present day. Around Fall, Hot Wheels begins to release next years new models along with the remainder of the current years cars. Every year I buy up all of next years new models excluding repaints and won't open them until New Years Day. I open them at midnight. So when I was at Walmart today they added a ton of new cars to the dump bin of Hot Wheels cars. There were plenty of 2013's cars there.
  So that begs the question what are the changes I am talking about? Well the changes are mind boggling. There is no longer a yellow striped New Models series. Any new models are going to be mixed in with segment series like Hot Wheels sister brand Matchbox does. The new models are marked with a yellow circle that says New For 2012, kind of like how Mattel states new WWE figures with the red First Time in the Line sticker.

Here are some New for 2013 cars., Batman Live Batmobile, 2012 Mini Countryman, and 1970 Toyota Celica

   If you see a ton of green striped cars, don't get too excited because they aren't Treasure Hunts. They are a segment series called HW Imagination. One new for 2013 HW Imagination car is the Batman Live Batmobile.

My Day Has Just Been Ruined

  Well Yesterday I almost went crazy without an internet connection. I have missed kind of a lot, but not much. So how does this add up to my day being ruined? Well I have found out today that WWE Diva Kelly Kelly had been released yesterday. Wow. I felt so terrible hearing this today. Thankfully I have her Mattel figure. A day without the internet seems like an eternity doesn't it. In addition to this terrible news, I find out that another person who I admire, Bob Newton who was the co-founder of Hoosier Racing Tire, a company that makes the best racing tires out there. I never knew the guy but I always liked his tires. I even own a Hoosier Racing Tire trucker hat which I'll be wearing all next week in his honor, well not to work because I have a job that is very hard labor and wearing a good hat+ sweat= ruined hat. I'll be wearing the hat after I come home from my half day of work.

I Finally Found It

You Are Mine Now! You Belong To Me!

  After months of searching and trouble sleeping and worrying I finally found it. Well maybe not trouble sleeping over it but worrying yes. I finally found the Hot Wheels Chevrolet SS number 20 out of 50 2012 New Models. Where did I find this car at? The same place I bought my WWE Elite Scale Ring at, Big Lots. I actually went in Big Lots today to see if they had any Mattel WWE Legends series 3 figures in there because they have been reported showing up there. Alas there were no Legends figures. Thankfully I saw a end shelf display of Hot Wheels cars and sure enough the hard to find Chevrolet SS was there. There were 2 of them and I bought both. One to open and one to leave in the box. Actually this is not an American Chevrolet. It is a Brazilian Chevrolet called the Opala which debuted in 1969 and sold until 1992. I like how Mattel is making Brazilian Cars such as the VW SP2 and Brasilia.

Volunteers of America Thrift Store Review

  Today I had to go to a doctor appointment after my 8:00 class ended. So after my doctor appointment I had some time to kill before I could go home so I decided to check out this out of town thrift store. I never heard of Volunteers of America Thrift Stores before until today. I have to admit it was one of the worst thrift stores I have ever been in.
  Firstly the store had broken and ugly merchandise. I looked at some of the books and one that caught my eye looked like it was in excellent condition but upon further inspection the pages were falling out. Not a very good first impression is it? The books were located next to the toys which were a complete joke. All of the toys that were in the store were broken and or missing parts. in the toy section there was a bunch of elbow/knee pads and bicycle helmets that were in ratty condition. Not to mention there were about 3 scummy used hard hats. How's that for a turn off. I then proceeded to check out the media section which had tons of obsolete media formats, 8 track tapes, VHS and some crappy 12 inch vinyls which technically isn't an obsolete format. Now I checked the vinyls looking for bad album art and came across one that I believe was in Polish. I laughed and walked away. I then go looking for the hats. They did have hats but they were in somewhat ratty and the selection was lacking compared to others I have been in.
  Finally I went to look at the CDs which for some odd reason were in the front of the store. I think this had to do with theft prevention. The CDs were mixed in with computer games. Not very organized are they? I wasn't surprised that about 25% of the jewel cases were missing the front piece. One CD caught my eye. It was a score soundtrack for Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone by John Williams. I checked the CD for any scratches on it and what do you know, there were scratches on it. I put it back.
  This is one Thrift Store I won't come back to again.

Mattel Elite Scale Ring

  One of the greatest things I have ever bought was the Mattel WWE Elite Scale Ring or ESR for short. Now this is one of the most sought after WWE products Mattel has made. Sadly they no longer make it due to what Mattel said was poor sales. I find it hard to believe that this wasn't a big seller because there is currently a high demand for it.
  I bought mine at Big Lots around the 2011 Holiday season for a fraction of what it cost at other retailers. I paid $30 and when it came out it was around $60 when Toys R Us had it. Now the ESR blows the basic rings out of the water because it is more accurate to the real WWE ring. For instance the Elite Scale ring is way bigger and it is true to scale with the Mattel WWE figures. Whereas a basic style ring is smaller and hard to fit 30 figures in. 
   One of the main differences between the basic ring and the ESR is that the ESR has a cloth ringskirt. Earlier versions of the ESR had two ringskirts included, one for RAW and the other for Smackdown. In addition to ringskirts, earlier versions had two different colored sets of ropes one for each of the shows. Unfortunately my ESR was the one that contained only the RAW ringskirt and ropes.
  The ESR is more of a challenge to assemble. You have to hook the pretied ropes to the turnbuckles which can take a few minutes to do. Then you attach the ropes and turnbuckles to the ring posts. Then put on the removable turnbuckle pads which don't require stickers. The base for the ring folds up and underneath you put small pillars into the holes to hoist it up. Also there is a cloth ringmat as well which you clamp down to the sides of the ring.  There is also a removable ring steps.

Released Superstars gang up on Vince McMahon

Alternate view. of how big it is

A full glimpse of the shelving unit it sits on.

That is how big it is. True to scale Tommy Dreamer is selling Chairs

   One of the most challenging things about an ESR is where do you put it once it is assembled. Well it is too big to fit on a standard dresser. A big metal card table works fine. I used two halves of plastic shelving units to fit my ESR on.

The Real Scariest Picture on the Internet

  Today I thought I would blog about a forgotten meme. This meme even has it's own Flash animation on Here. This meme is of a girl named Paula Oliveria who I believe was celebrating her 15th birthday who in every picture doesn't change facial expressions. Really She doesn't. These pictures first appeared on tudsvip.com in 2005. Sadly due to the popularity of the photos, they have since been taken down off the site.

Who opened the Ark of the Covenant?

See the pattern here?

Yep she's not changing her expression

Don't fake that smile

Same face

Robert Pattinson is that you?

The girl in black isn't dressed for the occasion

Another one with braces

Yep the same expression

The girl in Pink has more emotion

Mark Zuckerberg is that you?

Vanessa Hudgens is that you?

Scary Ain't It?

Weren't you in Home Alone?

Braces Again?

Oh look it's The Miz

Hey look it's Chumlee

Everybody Step Back or THE CAKE GETS IT!

It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake

Get that camera out of my face

Ok Paula Oliveria isn't in this picture

Here is a picture of her back

Group Photo: Say Awkward

Act Natural honey you're embarrassing us.

Another picture of her back, dancing with Jerry Sandusky?

Nope he looks like Steve Martin

Oh An alternate back shot of Steve Martin

 Now this begs the question, Why does she have 2 different dresses? If you didn't notice she had 2 different dresses, a pink one and a silver one. I guess I'll never know.