A Surprising Thrift Store Find

  So ever since thrift stores are now open again, I can enjoy looking around them again. So as usual I keep checking them every day. I lost my job due to COVID-19 and have all the time in to go to thrift stores again. So last Saturday, I went to the other thrift store, that isn't The Salvation Army. I wasn't hoping to find anything decent there but I did find something cool that I like.

My new Chevrolet Winner's Circle hat

  Ever since they expanded this thrift store, there are more rooms full of items to explore. For instance they have a room with a mannequin in the running position for sale. The mannequin takes the cake. No I didn't buy the mannequin. Seeing a mannequin for sale is just strange.
  Anyway I did my looking around and decided to check the hat rack. Usually this thrift store has a decent hat selection. The Salvation Army has been hit or miss with hats lately. While checking the hat rack, I noticed a hat on the bottom, it had the Chevrolet bow tie logo and Winner's Circle on the back. Could it be an authentic Chevrolet Winner's Circle hat like the race car drivers wear? If so I had to have it. I picked up the hat and indeed it was an authentic Winner's Circle hat. Best part was it was $0.99 and appeared to be unworn. So this was one of those shut up and take my money situations. I have a ton of hats in my collection. a good majority of them I don't wear.

The back of my new Chevrolet Winner's Circle hat.

  I already had a Chevrolet Winner's Circle hat that my coworker gave me when he was cleaning out his NASCAR collection. However that hat was an unstructured hat. It was a mesh hat which was a positive thing. On the other side it is an unstructured hat. I don't really care for unstructured hats. Although I do have a few in my collection.
  This new Chevrolet Winner's Circle hat has the textured Chevrolet Bow Tie logo. My other 2 Chevrolet hats don't have the textured bow tie. This one gives it the new modern look. I'm shocked that the thrift store didn't charge more for this hat because of how nice it was. Heck for $0.99 I'll take it regardless. I've beaten the eBay prices for it. Not that I was in the market to buy one on eBay. I wasn't. I do look up victory lane hats on eBay from time to time to see what's out there.

I Officially Lost my Job Today

  Earlier in April I got laid off from my job as a maintenance person at a car dealership due to the whole COVID 19 pandemic. However in my few months of working there since June 24th of 2019, I learned today that I am not going to be called back at all.
  Looking back at those few months of working at the car dealership, I had a lot of fun working there. The pay wasn't exactly great but I was grateful working there for the time I did. I did manage to snag some awesome free hats, and some other oddities from the dealership. So I'm definitely grateful for all of the stuff I got from my job.
  In my few months that I worked there I managed to get a framed poster of a Ford Windstar. It was in the attic. Yes, oddly enough the dealership had an attic where they stored old parts and service manuals, and files. As one person who worked there called it the dinosaur room. That framed Windstar picture now proudly hangs in the wall in my attic. Ironically I despise minivans but I have a framed Ford Windstar poster on my attic wall.
  During my months there I also shredded tons of old documents. Some of these documents were auction files from cars that were sent to the auction. In some of those auction files were car keys. This baffled me because how can sets of keys be left behind from a car that was sent to the auction. I acquired a lot of old car keys for my collection.
  I was able to acquire car emblems from the body shop that were being discarded. I accumulated a little collection of emblems. They are all in a shoe box in my collection room. I looked forward to finding a badge from a car company I didn't have. I never did get a hood ornament from there though.
  I managed to get a promotional Shelby GT500/GT350 coffee mug, which is my favorite coffee mug to use. I also got a hood shaped business card holder as well. Although I don't have any business cards to call my own, the ones I accumulate go in to the holder.
  I also found an old clipboard from Midas that was in the attic. How that got at a Ford Dealership is beyond me. It's a neat clipboard too. It is designed to look like a form and shows you how to fill out the form. It's a very odd piece for my collection.
  Then there was the Tool trucks that came to the shop. I loved going on the Snap-on truck ever since I went on one with my dad to get the magnetic hex shank warrantied. My dad used to buy Snap-on Tools and I kinda went on the truck to pay tribute to my late father. I did buy a few bits for my ratcheting screwdriver and bought 2 mini tip Phillips screwdrivers. I also got one of my Dad's old wrenches warrantied. I also acquired a ton of Snap-on Hats including a 100th anniversary hat.
 I also acquired hats from other companies that we did business with. I got 2 hats from a tire distributor, and 2 from another. I also got a Motorcraft hat and a AC Delco hat.
  It was a fun couple of months working there. Am I going to miss working there? Absolutely. I'll move on and find another job somewhere else. I'll wait a few weeks to get my unemployment and start looking for something elsewhere. Thanks for the memories and being able to meet great people.

Hot Wheels 2020 Entertainment Ecto-1

The Greatest Hot Wheels Ecto-1 Ever.

  I recently acquired a new Hot Wheels Ecto-1 from the Entertainment series. Now I already own an Ecto-1, but it's the first edition from 2010. The premium one from the 2020 Entertainment Series is a major improvement over the previous Hot Wheels Ecto-1's they have made. What exactly makes the 2020 one better? Well for starters, it has a clear coat over the paint unlike previous versions. Having a clear coat over the paint, prevents the tampo's from rubbing off. I love how the newer premium cars have a clear coat now. You don't have to worry about the tampo's rubbing off anymore. You can hold it all you want without worrying about the graphics coming off.
  The Ecto-1 from 2010 doesn't have a detailed painted roof rack. It's just plain black. All of the premium Ecto-1's have a painted roof. Speaking of painted details, the premium ones also have the Ghostbusters logo on the back door of the Ecto-1 whereas the first edition lacks the rear Ghostbusters Logo. The headlights and taillights are also painted which gives the Ecto-1 extra detail. Also there's 2 license plates on the casting that says Ecto-1. Since it is a premium car, it has a metal base and real rider tires.
  I totally recommend this car to any Ghostbusters fan and or Hot Wheels collector.

I Miss Thrift Store Shopping

  With this COVID-19 Pandemic going on, there's one thing that I miss doing. Since non life sustaining businesses are closed, that means thrift stores have to be closed. This sucks big time. I now can buy stuff from thrift stores again but I can't. Wait a second, if I can now buy stuff at thrift stores again, but now I can't, that doesn't make sense since they are all closed right?
  Well on Ash Wednesday which is the beginning of Lent, I went to The Salvation Army to take a look around, I didn't buy anything that day. However it gave me an idea of what to give up for Lent. By not buying anything that day, I decided to not buy anything from thrift stores for lent. So when the governor shut down all of the non essential businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I kinda got to fulfill my Lenten promise. I'm not going to get religious here. But I made a sacrifice and actually succeeded with my promise of not buying anything from a thrift store for Lent. However it was partially successful due to the shutdown of non essential businesses. Before the shutdown I would still pop into thrift stores to test myself.
  There were times I would go in and see a bunch of stuff that I liked and wanted to buy. One day I was in the other thrift store and saw a bunch of hats that I loved and wanted to buy. One of those hats was a Jeep hat. However I stuck to my promise and refused to buy the hats. I'm kinda glad I was able to stick to my plan of not buying anything. My wallet felt fatter.
  However since Lent is now over, I want to start shopping at thrift stores again. I'm absolutely positively 100% ready to start buying stuff from thrift stores. Just before the order to shut down the non essential businesses I remember the 25% off color tag that was for the week. There was one item that was that color tag. So next week that 25% off color tag would have been 50% off. I don't know how I remember the color tags before the shutdown but somehow I did. Weird right?
  I just want this Coronavirus to go the Hell away already. We are all sick of being cooped up in our houses. I seriously can't wait for this pandemic to end so I can go thrift store shopping again. 

One of my best vintage Hot Wheels finds.

  I collect Hot Wheels cars. I have a huge collection of them. So many, that I'm running out of room to store my loose cars. Every once in a while I go to the local farmers market where a few sellers sell Hot Wheels cars, both MOC and loose. Some sellers don't know what the value of some of these vintage cars are, and some do know the value of them. This is one of those stories.
  Lately I haven't been blogging a lot lately since I have been busy being cooped up in my house with the Coronavirus Pandemic and being laid off from work as a result. So I thought I would start blogging about random Hot Wheels cars and the stories behind them. This is the story of the 40s Ford Two Door from 1983.
  On June 12, 2019, I went to the farmers market. I spotted a vendor who was selling a variety of vintage items, some of which were various vintage Hot Wheels cars. While looking though the box of cars I spotted a couple of vintage cars that I liked. I saw a 31 Doozie redline blackwall that was in excellent condition. I asked him how much it was and he said $5 since it's a redline blackwall. I wasn't going to drop $5 on a car from the 80s. I just can't pull the trigger on that. However he did have some other interesting cars for sale for $1. I spotted a Classic Packard with Whitewall blackwall tires, for $1 and a Tomica Rolls-Royce Phantom VI both for $1. However there was one more car that caught my eye that was also $1. That car was a 40s Ford 2 Door from the 1983 Real Riders Series.
  This seller wanted $5 for a vintage redline blackwall but wanted $1 for a vintage Real Rider. His pricing strategy didn't make any sense charging $1 for the Real Rider. I couldn't pass up paying $1 for a vintage Real Rider. You can't argue with paying $1 for one. The 40s Ford Two Door was in really nice shape for it's age. It had very few paint flaws and 2 out of the 4 tires still had Goodyear on them.   For a car from 1983, I certainly made out good paying $1 for it. I'm not a flipper, I'm a collector. So I have no plan on reselling it. It's one of the stand out pieces in my collection. In fact it's the only vintage Real Rider that I own. There's still many vintage Hot Wheels cars I need to track down eventually. Just not now because of this pandemic. Once the pandemic is over, I can start going to the farmers market to look for vintage cars again.

My Newest Tomica Purchase

  I recently had received a $25 Visa gift card from my Aunt and Uncle for my birthday. I decided to use it on eBay for something. Recently I have been eyeing up a few diecasts to add to my collection. I love Tomica diecast. Although you can now buy them in the USA again at Walmart, there are still some models you cannot get here. The one I purchased is a good example of that.

Boxed

  I had been eyeing up, the Tomica JSDF High Mobility Vehicle for some time ever since I bought the Tomica JSDF LAV last year. I really needed the High Mobility Vehicle to go alongside my LAV. You see I am a huge Godzilla buff. I like the vehicles the JSDF has to try and stop Godzilla. So I like to have some JSDF vehicles to have in my collection.

  As you may have guessed I did buy the Tomica JSDF High Mobility Vehicle on eBay. I paid $6.99 for it. It was the last one the seller had. This vehicle is so cool. Unlike most Tomica cars, the JSDF High Mobility Vehicle lacks any opening doors. It does have a removable rear top, that unveils the bench seats for the troops. There are 2 variants of this High Mobility Vehicle. One has the removable top and the other doesn't. The one without the top, has little soldiers sitting down in the back. I bought the one with the removable top.

Unboxed

  Anyway the JSDF High Mobility Vehicle features the usual suspension that Tomica vehicles have. For this being a military vehicle the suspension is similar to the Komatsu LAV's. The olive drab paint is a tad bit different than the Komatsu's shade of olive drab. It's a bit darker on the High Mobility Vehicle.

The LAV Next to the High Mobility Vehicle

Stop Showing Pan and Scan Movies on Network TV

  You really want to know what grinds my gears? It's when TV channels broadcast a movie in pan and scan. It's 2019 already. There's no reason why we can't be showing movies on cable TV in their original theatrical aspect ratio. Nobody really owns a CRT TV anymore. Well classic gamers might own one to play their old systems on. Seriously practically everyone owns a 16x9 HDTV anymore.
  So if everyone pretty much owns a 16x9 HDTV, why are cable networks still showing pan and scan versions of movies? This is really unnecessary to show pan and scan movies when everyone now owns an HDTV. My best guess is that they have these shitty pan and scan edited for TV movies sitting in their library. This is mind boggling to say the least.
  Maybe these cable networks are too cheap and lazy to reinvest in a whole new tape library for their broadcasting. That's my theory, they have all of these movies stockpiled up in their libraries, which date back to whenever pan and scan movies first came in to play. I find it ironic that 99.999% of cable networks broadcast in 16x9 1080P HDTV anymore. Very few stations still broadcast in a 4:3 picture format. The networks who don't broadcast in HDTV can't afford to upgrade their picture format.
  Another reason I think they still show pan and scan versions of movies on network TV, is that they don't want to show any of the black bars that may be seen in a widescreen movie. They probably think people don't want to see black bars on their TV screen. Here's a news flash for the cable networks, people don't give a red hot minute about black bars on their TV screens anymore. This isn't 2001 when most people still had analog CRT TV's and they began to transition from VHS to DVD. Back then DVD first came out, most DVD's were introduced in widescreen. Some were anamorphic and some were in non anamorphic widescreen. Heck there were even widescreen editions of VHS tapes as well as Laserdisc. They were a niche market item in the 90s. The widescreen Laserdisc and VHS copies of movies were also non anamorphic. So when DVD's first came on the market, most of them were widescreen. So some people who first started buying DVDs when they first came out, didn't like the black bars on their screen. These people probably weren't serious movie buffs who cared about technical specifications. Actually the black bars mean there isn't anything there to display, you are still getting the whole picture between the black bars.
  Anyway, TV stations have been showing pan and scan versions of movies for decades now. It's become a bad habit of showing pan and scan movies. Heck there are some TV channels that do show movies in their original theatrical aspect ratios, such as Turner Classic Movies or Fox Movie Network.
  Network TV stations need to stop showing pan and scan versions of movies. It's not the 90s anymore, we can take seeing black bars on our TV screens. Throw away your library of pan and scan ,movies and upgrade to their original aspect ratios. For the love of GOD please do this.