Hot Wheels Ford Maverick Grabber

The Ford Maverick was a compact car manufactured from April 1969-1977 in the United States, Canada, Mexico and from 1973-1979 in Brazil — employing a rear wheel drive platform dating to the original 1960 Falcon. Originally marketed as a 2-door saloon at an initial price of USD$1,995, the Maverick was designed to be inexpensive to manufacture and maintain.

I am sure that I have got one of these before, but as I don't religiously log my Hot Wheels in the form of a catalogue, I do second guess half the time. I have touched up the headlights, so that it gives the model a little more quality. Never the easiest thing to do, but then again this is not going on display at anytime, so it is purely for my satisfaction.

Hot Wheels VW Brasilia

I do like the randoms that Hot Wheels produce. Not that I want them on display or stuff like that, just that they are different and non-standard. Everyone on the MCCH wants to see cars of yesteryear within the line-up or their wish list of Americana current or past.

Apart from Tomica producing all sorts of Japanese production vehicles, Hot Wheels - for some reason - also offer the obscure.

The Volkswagen Brasilia was a compact car made in Brazil between 1973 and 1982.
The Brasilia (named after Brazil's capital city) looked like a smaller version of the Volkswagen 412 Variant, but was in fact based on the Volkswagen Beetle. It was developed by Volkswagen do Brasil (Volkswagen of Brazil), which had at the time a unique and somewhat exotic line of cars, which spawned such rarities as the SP2. The Brasilia was equipped with the Volkswagen air cooled engine from the Beetle.

It is not a normal model, but I am very glad that the decision was made to produce it and it is welcome within the garage.

MB73 - Volkswagen Saveiro Cross (1-75 - 2011)

Born in Brazil, I was fairly pleased that for the 2011 range, MB were embracing models from all around the world, like they did back in the day of Lesney. This is what helped me learn about cars from a very early age.

OK, I only picked this up the other week, as the final batches of models for 2011 enters 2012 (go figure - Mattel have no idea about distribution).

I think that there could have been a little more detailing that would have gone on here, esp. with the front end. Just detracts from the model somewhat....which is a bit of a shame.

However, this is a good inclusion rather than the constant demands of Americana from certain members of the collecting community.