Guilty Pleasures #3: The 2015 Hot Wheels '08 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X...

This one didn't go down well...I should explain now that not all of my Guilty Pleasures posts will be on castings, but that some will also be on an individual version of a casting. This is the first of those, and we don't have to step too far back in time. The '08 Mitsubishi Evolution X has been a firm favourite with collectors since its introduction in (surprise surprise) 2008, especially with JDM fans. It has seen many releases, and when it was revealed to be the Super Treasure Hunt of 2015 Batch H it was a welcome return. Now I must admit, $THs really don't bother me at all, as I live in the UK, a country where we scarcely get any Supers. I don't own a single one, and of course I don't think this is fair, but I manage. However, in this case many collectors hated this version of what is a very good casting, as the deco is apparently too 'busy' and the wheels chosen for the Super were abysmal. I agree totally with the latter and a little with the former, but this post is about the mainline version - the one I actually have.

In my opinion the deco is great, and as it sits on blue J5s (possibly the best mainline HW wheel variation overall, let alone just for this model) you can see why I'm a fan, and I don't think it deserved the amount of hate it received. For that reason, it earns its place in this series, and hopefully you the reader will agree that these photos compliment it, even when alongside a 2008 First Edition version.

Guilty Pleasures continues every Friday...

Castings I wish I had more of: The Hot Wheels '09 Corvette ZR1

This isn't a rare casting. Rare castings are desired for how difficult they are to procure or how little the number of versions made is. Take the Maserati MC12 for example - pops up in the 2005 First Editions, reappears in the 2007 Mystery Models and then never again. Another Maserati, the Quattroporte. appeared in the 2004 First Editions and then famously was also never to be seen again. But this? This is of course the 2009 Corvette ZR1, which debuted in 2008 and has been released again literally dozens of times since. And yet I have only three.

The first is a lime 2009 FTE release, bought for me at the time by my Dad and thankfully has been pretty well kept. It has both headlight and taillight printing, and looks wonderfully stock. The second is from 5 years later, in 2014, and is a multipack exclusive. The approach of conservative printing is evident, but overall this dark blue version (a recolour of the 2013 version, which was red) is great sitting on white 10 spokes, and I guess I can confidently say that it is one of the rarer versions of the casting. The third and final version is 2015's release, in a stunning Gulf Racing livery, which is practically faultless (yes taillight printing would be nice, but that is a little too hopeful for the mainline these days).

I have searched and searched for the white recolour of the Gulf version, but to no avail. That's not the point of this post though. The point is, if I had to pick three of all the versions released of this casting (excluding the $TH of course), I would probably still be sitting here with these three...