The Robb Collections: NASCAR die-cast cars. Not my thing, but I tried.......

Gentle reader,

This morning, I put my entire collection of Dodge die-cast cars on ebay. I needed the room, and I tried, I really tried to get into NASCAR on behalf of Dodge. But I just couldn't. I'm just too much of a sports car guy.

Nonetheless, I said that I'd do a post about those cars and other NASCAR types that I had in the collection in the past. So here it is. Many of the these cars were offered in Post Cereals boxes as part of their sponsorship of many Dodge teams.

First off, here is the lot of cars that are on ebay with the addition of the photos of the chassis of each car:

Above and below are the ten of them that are for sale on ebay as they were in the display.

Below is how I arranged them with the picture. It was as I was editing the image did I see that they were a little out of order.

Above and below is a 1/64th (or so) die-cast replica of their body-in-primer test car. As made by Racing Champions.

Above and below is Ryan Newman's #12. They called him "Rocket Ryan" because he was so fast in qualifying. This one is a Hot Wheels.

#22 sponsored by Caterpillar. Another Racing Champions.

#44, another Hot Wheels. No driver name I could find on the car.

Above and below, note the black windows and thus no interior and the simpler chassis and narrower body of this, Bill Elliot #9 car. No maker's name on the bottom.

Below, with no space between the photos is #45 sponsored by Sprint PCS. Sprint was the main sponsor of the top tier NASCAR series. They'd bought NEXTEL which as the sponsor after the long reign of Winston cigarettes.

#43 was Richard "The King" Petty's number for his whole career and the number was kept by his race team after he retired. No maker other than "GMI" on the bottom. Again, no interior and black windows.

Another version of #43. This one a Hot Wheels with interior and more detail than the #43 above.

Casey Kahne (sp?) was the co-team-member with Bill Eliot and thus the #19. Note the green at the bottom of the front to differentiate the two from the front. The roof number was also green. No maker's name on the bottom. Note that the exhaust comes to both sides. Better job of making the interior fit the windows.

Lastly of the lot for sale, this #92 made by Racing Champions.

Next are some 1/18th scale cars that I had and later sold, then a number of Kodak sponsored cars that were part of my late-friend's anything-related-to-cameras collection.

These, as I wrote were all 1/18th scale, thus much more detail. The improvement in die-cast production, largely led by the Chinese, has rendered plastic car model making moot. How can an individual match the quality and detail put in and for sale already done?

Below, note the exhaust coming out both sides. An aside. I moved here from Denver. My first two cars, I had "Grand National Pipes" put on. They came out right in front of each rear tire. Unfortunately, in this state (at least in the 1970's) exhaust had to come out in the stock location. So, I adapted stock dual exhaust pipes to my tube headers on my '67 Impala SS convertible. It sounded better and was quicker than with the abbreviated exhaust and "glass-pack" mufflers!

Again in 1/18th scale, the primer painted test car.

Below, as you can see, both pipes came out on the driver's side! Which was correct?

Above is a 1/24th scale one that I bought from our Schwan's dealer. Nice guy, Henry. We miss him. Below is the bigger ones in front of the boxed smaller one.