Censored NASCAR Diecast

  As you may already know or do not know, I collect many different things. One of those things is NASCAR diecast. Mainly I collect the 1:64 scale cars, however I do have some 1:24 scale cars. One of the things that makes no sense in diecast cars is the censorship of sponsors. I know what you are probably thinking. Censoring sponsors? Well they do that on certain types of cars in certain places. I'll explain.
  If a car is sponsored by an alcoholic beverage or tobacco or ED drug and they make a diecast of it that is sold in stores where kids can buy the cars, then they have to censor it. Usually the censorship is pretty humorous. I'll give some examples of the non censored and the censored versions. Lets begin here.  Uncensored will be in bold and censored will be in italics.

• Viagra, Pfizer (Mark Martin's Viagra 6 Ford.
• Coors Light, Sterling Marlin Team Sabco. Coors Light 40 Chevrolet/Dodge
• Miller Light, Rusty Wallace/Rusty
• Skoal Bandit. Would just be left blank, Harry Gant's 33 Chevrolet
• Budweiser. Ricky Craven, Dale, DEI, Various drivers including Dale Earnhardt Jr and Ricky Craven
• Timber Wolf, Purvis,, Jeff Purvis' 37 Chevrolet
• Kodiak, Stacy Compton, Melling  

Hot Wheels IZOD IndyCar Series

  Today I thought I would write about Hot Wheels cars. I haven't written a post about them in a long while. So around Christmas time last year, I was shopping in Ollie's Bargain Outlet, when I happened to come across some Hot Wheels IZOD IndyCar Series 1:64 scale cars. It bought 1 of each of the 4 different cars I could find since they were $1.99 each. Anyway it struck me that why on Earth would Mattel pick up the IndyCar license. Mattel already discontinued the Hot Wheels NASCAR diecast line in 2006. That begs the question, so why bother picking up a license that isn't nearly as popular as NASCAR?
  For instance every major big box store I have been in has never stocked the Hot Wheels IZOD IndyCar Series cars. These stores include Walmart, Target, Kmart, Toys "R" Us, pretty much any of them. However I have seen them in one major closeout store, Big Lots. Ollie's is a regional chain so I wouldn't count them as a major player, but they are expanding to new areas constantly.
  Did I mention that IndyCar isn't doing as well as NASCAR? That's pretty much a fact. I read in AutoWeek that IndyCar has a hard time maintaining a good fanbase. People just aren't attracted to it, whereas the NASCAR Fans are very loyal. Mattel picking up the IndyCar license was a huge mistake. Not only do these cases of cars end up in closeout stores, major retailers would rather carry the Spin Master NASCAR diecast instead. Well one thing is for sure I have more Hot Wheels IndyCar cars than Spin Master NASCAR cars. The ratio is 4:1. 
  So Mattel needs to dump the IndyCar license to get back the NASCAR license. At least the NASCAR diecast never ended up in closeout stores.