What's so great about the Kool Kombi?
I've ranted about the folks that hoard cars before so I won't tread down that path again, but what's the big deal about the Kool Kombi? I've been seeing it a lot in terms of people showing off and bragging about finding a bunch. What gives?
Saw several like this one on Instagram...
I personally don't find the Kool Kombi very interesting...either as a racer or a shelf piece, and that's just my taste, I know, but is there something deeper with these? Or do a lot of people just find them a great casting?
Discussion
It's another case of idiots who think they're in limited supply and freak out over finding as many as they can because they see some scalpers selling them for too much money online. Then they end up with a case full at the end of the month scratching their heads wondering what to do with them all. (I say this because I have been the idiot and done the exact same thing before with these kinds of things, I still have cases of cars from K-Days that I have no idea what to do with :D)
Volkswagen bugs and buses are especially popular with die cast/car collectors. I think I read somewhere that the VW bugs are the most collected die cast in the world...I suppose the Kool Kombie is an interesting take on the bus.
I don't mean to beat a dead horse...okay, maybe a little...but this tale out of Lamley just bugs me. I have no good defense against it. What they're doing by asking a Target employee for cars is perfectly valid and nothing I would consider "shady" but having just been to a toy show where I see these cars tagged at $5 or more, I just bugs me.
Years ago Target had signs in the die cast aisle that said employees would not bring out anything from the back. This kept it fair so nobody got an unfair advantage. They must have changed their policy.
I met a HW collector in a local target when I first started collecting and after talking a bit he showed me a couple of open cases in another aisle. He's the one that opened them in the first place, of course grabbing anything that was good. Oh, they don't care if you go through the box. Funny though an employee sees us and puts an end to it. You can't do that, they haven't been logged into the system yet. Next thing we were almost getting kicked out by security cause this HW guy didn't know how to keep his mouth shut.
I used to see customers loading fresh cases on the pegs at KB toys in return for going through the case. Other HW collectors were always complaining about how their club president had so many connections and he'd be leaving the store before it actually opened. They'd let him in and he'd go through everything and grab the good stuff.
I don't worry about it too much anymore as I'm more into racing and only buy what I hope will be fast.
Wow...that's going pretty extreme. I wouldn't say Hot Wheels are worth getting in a scuffle over with security...or anyone else for that matter.
I'm not too worried either - if I don't get a car, I don't get a car - but for casual collectors like myself, it does suck some of the fun out of it. It's like you either have to be hardcore door warmer or be happy with the same 4 castings on the pegs.
Was in a Rural King store last month and they let us rifle through 2 unopened cases as long as we didn't make a scene or cause a fuss. We opened them went through them got what we wanted and put everything back in the case that we didn't want and put it back on the top shelf. No one was the wiser.
I think the picture you posted is of somebody getting a boatload of the Target Red exclusive Kombi's. I could see it as something customizers would enjoy using. I personally like it, but definitely not my favorite casting by any means.