Video Review and Discussion of Diecast Authority Custom Cases
Welcome to the first edition of Tizmanian Live!
I kept one of the cases from the great folks at Die-Cast Authority which was provided to us for review. I wanted to take a much closer look at their construction and I came away even more impressed than I was initially but you be the judge. So, without further ado, here is our first video review and informational discussion of Die-Cast Authority custom cases:
If you have questions for the guys at Die-Cast Authority, go ahead and post them in the comment section for this post. We will provide them to Die-Cast Authority so that they can respond back to you in more detail in a follow up post.
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tizmanian
18 August 2009
CARS, collecting, Contests, Design, Disney Pixar, Mattel Disney Pixar CARS
62 Comments
Just received my 1/24 Scale (looks more like 1/18 Scale) Matty Exclusive Lightning McQueen with Synthetic Rubber Tires. LOVE the CAR! However, I was very disappointed that it did not include an acrylic top to cover the vehicle. MET, TIZ, you think DIE CAST AUTHORITIY can design one exclusively for this one? Maybe add some Disney/Pixar Cars logo etchings if posible? If so you can put me down for 10. Don’t know how many from TFAD ordered it as well and would like one Acrylic Cover as well. If we can get a special order going for TFAD members maybe we can get a special volume rate. Anyone else with me on this? Let’s see if we can make it happen.
Carney Plastics has allready been notified
Well hopefully they can make it happen. However, will those be plastic or acrylic? I think Carney Plastics handles well…plastics..whereas Die Cast Authority handles acrylic. I would prefer acrylic.
Carney Plastics DOES handle all types of plastics etc etc etc if you visit the website.
http://www.carneyplastics.com/policies.htm#aboutus
Carney Plastics Inc. has been a full line plastics supplier and custom fabricator since 1986, and is a distributor of most plastic materials, including sheet, rod, tube, and more.
We have a wide range of fabrication capabilities, from one piece prototyping, to large quantity production,
including… the custom fabrication of display and point of purchase fixtures for the retail industry, machine parts and guards for heavy industry, and display cases for individual collectors.
Well hopefully like you say, “they can step up to the plate” and create these for us. They can put me down for 10. Hopefully more members will show interest to the point where they can make it happen. Carney Plastics or Die Cast Authority, it does not matter to me so long as they come through. Both are new sponsors of TFAD and it will be cool if we can give them some business.
I will make sure to notify both Carney and DCA about interest in the ‘top’. This was one project we have suggested to be made here on TFAD for some time now so I would not be surprised to see one of the vendors take a shot at creating one.
I will see what level of interest there is and report back…
Thanks Tiz!
Hey Tiz,
Great post and very entertaining! Looking at the above posts,this would definitely be for someone with boo coo bucks. Maybe a couple of your favorites or “retired” cars (shah….right)
For the more frugal collector, I went with the 24 x 24 acrylic display case from clearwater displays (pixar D11). The cost was a little less than a franklin including shipping and they hold between 65 to 85 cars – Holds most everything – even Red (but not the showgirls) – great people to work with too.
I’m with HTB – OPEN EM ALL!!!!!!!!!!
Stay tuned for another announced of a new advertiser, Mr. T. They offer display cases for large and medium collections that I think you’ll like as well…:)
Yikes.
Browns cap definitely the best part of the video. Don’t see those too often. Go Dog Pound.
The securing devices on the bottom of the CARS are called rivets.
You actually bought that Speed Racer stuff? I agree the movie was horrible and as a result had zero interest in the products.
The Pound is going to need a lot of cheering this year as I think they are picked to come in dead last by SI. Oy. Indians are back to their .500 days and the only light in sports in Cleveland is LeBron and Shaq which will either by really amazing or like a train wreck…both will send your blood pressure rising…welcome to Cleveland sports!
I couldn’t come up with the term rivets from the depths of my brain pan during that shoot which I did twice and didn’t want to do again nor did I want to edit the thing for fear of people wondering what was cut (which is why I left that long sequence in at the end of me choking and taking a drink). No scripts here folks.
Yes, the ONLY stuff I bought were the diecast cars from Speed Racer it has a firm place in my memory when I used to run home from grade school as a kid to catch the 4:00 pm showing of it on tv back in the late 60’s. It was followed by an episode of Dark Shadows which was campy and creepy at the same time. Almost like watching a tv channel from another planet due to the video production, cheap sets, and yes, in black and white.
I have a tin type replica of Racer X on my wall as well as a 1/24 scale version of the Mach 5 that Playing Mantis made years ago. Amazing quality at $20. I would love the matching car for Racer X if anyone has one… 🙂
Dark Shadows……..
I am a fan
sold my Speedracer collection months ago
it is only a matter of time before LeBron brings a championship to Cleveland..imho.
I have all of the Johnny Lightning 1/64th Speed Racer stuff because it’s good quality and based on the old show. Also a few Tomica pieces.
Thanks Tiz-dude!!!
That was awesome!
You are welcome and thank you, Buckland!
hello i enjoyed the video and will say thanks. seems like some want to hate and some enjoyed i think for a couple of my cars i would like theses where can i buy some at? and how much r they i think it would be cool to have a clear plastic case for the 1/24 2006 box mater/lightning or for the sdcc mater box i think those whould make some money also. i have been thinking about how i want to display my cars. (differently) latly looking at cases/shevling for these couple of item mentioned tho it would be an extra plus in my eyes. think about it have a nice day, hope to see a new post soon
thx
flop
Thank you! You have asked some good questions that we will roll into a Q&A with them to answer all at once. Interesting idea about the 1/24 LMQ…we discussed that a bit already since they come with only that floppy plastic pkging. Stay tuned!
BTW – you can go directly to the Diecast Authority website here:
http://www.cgagrading.com/OnlineStore/Catalog.aspx?CategoryId=41
to order some cases. Base pricing is $14.99 with some discounts offered for buying more I think.
This is a great idea which is long overdue. We should all have this ability to grade and save these little works of art. As for the cost, if you can afford it, GREAT! If you cannot, then don’t. At least this company has taken the time to develop these cases for us and is supporting TFAD. Thank you.
BTW these posts should have a limit on the number of characters allowed!
Thanks, MackDaddy. That pretty much sums it all up imo as well!
Then you’d get 6 posts with “continued” at the end and at the start of each.
😆 So true!
The first problem with a grading service is finding a collectible worthy of grading. With Cars it is necessary to grade the actual casting and then the cardstock. I have yet to see a standard developed for grading Cars. Do you assign a numerical value to the casting and a separate numerical value to the cardstock? Has a standard been developed for the color of the casting and the cardstock? Several months ago I indicated my desert back Sarges (12 & 16) differ in shades of olive drab. One is more in line with World War color chips. The other is more in line with Viet Nam era color chips. Do each of these color variations match the federal standards for color? For those of you who may dabble in model building this is a big deal and many manufacturers market paints to those federal standards unlike the Bozo’s in China who prompted the necessity of the lead paint recall.
So, an evaluation is necessary for both components of the toy. Beautiful casting with a used ‘J’ hook- out of luck! Beautiful cardstock with a chipped casting or brush strokes (remember those early haulers with brush strokes, paint smears, misplaced decals)- out of luck.
There is the cost of the grading service and whether the vendor is or will remain an expert in the field of grading toys. Will the cost of encasing the toy plus the cost of the grading service bring a return on the investment. The cost of grading usually does not vary with the final outcome.
From a resale of the toy you may actually create a marketing issue. If the standard for Cars develops into, let say, score up to 100 for each of the cardstock and the casting, what happens if your toy grades 100/75. You may just as well toss it into the junk pile. Those perfectionists will only be willing to pay for 100/100 grades. I know resellers who have paid $50 to grade an old baseball card, receive a modest grade, and cannot sell it because it is now tainted with the low grade. To market the card it is removed from the plastic holder and left to the buyer to make the decision. Do you want a nice example for a card you need or do you want perfection?
In the serious realm of collecting you need to get a copy of any auction house catalogue for classic United States stamps or coins. The most minute increase in grade commands the many fold increase in price realization. The difference between a coin graded 70 over 68 can be staggering. This is caused by supply and demand. I personally do not believe Cars will ever be as popular a collectible as many of you profess. Just follow the auction listings for time proven toy collectibles at reputable auction houses. Yes, Disney collectibles from the early 1930’s may be impressive, but, there are extremely limited numbers of toys available. There are too many Cars produced and too many saved to have a severely limited supply of choice toys.
Then, there is the issue of time value of money. If your casting costs $4.00 today plus the plastic prison of $15.00 plus the cost of grading (lets say $25) you may have $45-$50 invested in the toy. Using the concept of time value of money it is necessary to factor in inflation/cost of living. If the cost of living increases 100% by the time you sell it for $100, you have made nothing. Actually, you will have netted less because the United States tax laws only recognize historical costs. Collectibles are not afforded the benefit of low capital gains rates. Collectibles may be taxed at the 28% marginal tax rate. So, even though you may have netted zero using the time value of money, you may be taxed at 28%. So your Desert Back 12 Sarge sold for $10,000 (wishful thinking) may net you a tax bill of $2,800.
Of course, there is a difference between a retailer/reseller and an investor. The retailer/reseller will make his profit immediately and use the earning to generate $$$ for more inventory to sell. For the reseller the key to success is to buy low, sell high as quickly as possible. Churning the inventory makes profits. The investor has to sit on it for a long time. The grading service makes money no matter what the grade of the toy may be. The marketer of the plastic case makes money.
My son could have sold some of his Starting Lineups for $50-$175 back in the day. Now, the same casting is worthless.
So buy those little Cars, enjoy them, but do not expect them to put your kids through college.
Time to take the wife to her doctor appointment, which is near Target and Wal-Mart. Maybe, something new is 100/100 grade will be on a peg?
🙂
i’m not going to disagree with you because in principle I do agree, but inflation/cost of living rising 100% seems wrong. I’m no expert but isn’t inflation normally around 3-4% and interest rates slightly higher?
And you raise a valid point, how many cars on pegs are already at a grade of 100/100? Most have the J-hooks turned up, and many have bent or folded corners and damaged edges.
And what happens to grading a car that is an error or variant? Is it graded as such? and what is the scheme that grades such errors?
Oh dang, it’s all too much to think about for me. I’m just going to keep doing what I do best, opening them to play games with them with my son.
100% increase in cost of living, etc. is real and not far fetched. The actual value of my house over thirty years has increased 600%, even with the current downturn. Minimum wage in WA state has increased from $1.25 in late 1960’s to $8.55. Look at cost of typical cars. Inflation in the Carter years was over 10%. It compounds itself. Just run a simple program. Your basic action figure of 1984 cost $1.98. Now the basic figure of 2009 is running $7.99+. That’s a 400% increase.
PS: Ran into adult buyer at TRU and turned him onto TFAD.
Steve,
I think you summed up most of the points of grading quite well, matter of fact there is nothing I disagree with, but I think you forgot one of the more critical aspects of it as well so I will dive into that end of it.
Here it goes, some of you might know this already but other collectibles, coins, baseball cards, stamps, etc., have a well established grading services, some very trusted, some not so much. In my opinion in particular with coins even some of the most trusted ones sell grades to the TV coin pushers. So this brings up a huge problem with grading especially here, to my knowledge they are the only ones grading Cars, maybe someone else is and if so which one is better? For the purpose of this argument though lets say they are the only one out there. Joe Collector sends in his Blu Ray McQueen, this grading service slaps on a grade of 98. Now I form my own grading service, you submit the exact same car to me, and when you get it back I only graded it a 93. Now who is right. Eventually, once again for simplicity sake, it gets well establised that my grading service is stricter then the first. So now what happens is your 98 graded car is now worth less then it was when they were the only game in town. Now people are going to say well Service X’s 98 is really only a 93 or maybe a 91 when graded by my service. As I said this already happens with a lot of collectibles already, for example in coins, coin x graded by PCGS is given a grade of 68, another example of coin x is graded by NGC and is given a grade of 68, now the NGC coin is actually worth less because PCGS is a stricter grader then NGC. An important thing here too, is that the 2 services I have mentioned above are far and above the most trusted and widely used services in the coin collecting realm. To make things worse coins have a standard of grading, but with most things being subjective, it is going to come down to how freely the service applys the higher grades to the items being graded.
I personally think grading is not a bad thing, but you have to have several people doing it for it to have any validity, and those services have to share the same standards. I have nothing against DCA but at this time I think it might be prudent to wait until a few companies offer the service and wait to see which ones grade actually carries more wieght with buyers. You might just find out that your perfect car is actually questionably perfect because that grading service is no where near as strict as the other service is.
As for their cases, they look very nice, I wouldn’t mind a few for some of mine. It really looks like they spent some time engineering those.
I agree.
What you are talking about or trying to explain is a Standard.
Or in some fields is called ISO.
International Standards of Operation
For those readers who believe these dialogues are loquacious, don’t bother reading the following. Stick to ‘first’ entries.
Exactly, there is no set standard yet. Although, Action Figure Authority’s standards for grading action figures is on the Internet. It has three grading scales. There modern grading scale deals with toys produced 1995 onward. Since Hasbro, et al are now selling their own products with this grading standard, AFA’s standard can easily be extended to Pixar Cars. Action figures and Cars are mounted on card stock.
My Desert Back 12 set was cherry picked from a stand alone display and with or without the “seal of approval” of AFA the toys rate a minimum of 9.5-10.0.
As to action figures in particular I cherry pick Marvel Universe figures for my son. Each one coming from a factory fresh box rates 9.5 to 10. Once the figures make it to the pegs, then degrading occurs. It’s the same with Pixar Cars. I have four lenticular Sarges cherry picked. Each rates at least a 9.5- no indentations on the card stock, no dents or scrapes on the bubble. The castings do not show any paint imperfections.
I do not believe with the number of undocumented 9.5+ Cars out there, the documented Cars will ever command the prices scene on pre 1995 toys. It is supply and demand. I have nothing against encapsulating a toy in plastic. That is a separate issue. Cost is a factor, but, cost will decrease with competition. The encapsulated exclusive action figures I receive from Hasbro are only $2 more per unit than customary retail sources.
Nice work Tiz! Fun and informative. I especially like the idea of the stackable cases.
Thank you, Matersgrlfriend!
Informative & entertaining.
::) <— Happy mutant approved.
Thanks, GotFrank! We aim to please 😉
Target will Live Long…
Profits should be even greater once they get the Final Laps!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=anytigaMz.P0
Dang, I knowed I shoulda bought Target stock in the 80’s!
CASE IS NICE BUT THE GRADING THING IS USELESS ,THIS IS OMO, BUT HAVE BEEN COLLECTING SINCE MID 1960’S , IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN YOU HAVE OFFERED YOUR SERVICE ON A FEW OTHER BOARDS AWHILE AGO? AND IT DID NOT FLY
I’m with you BBIG MIKE!
What’s life without a little fun! Glad I provided some mirth to you day, Nascarbroncosfan…even though your dang Broncos have a long history of embarrassing my Browns… 🙁
the wife is the football fan, should hear us in the house with Broncos game on one end and Nascar races on the other. One of our neighbors asked me last year if we were argueing… No, just with the tv…
@ The Scrivens: Yep. A podcast type of thing…not sure if we will do it as yet but we will see. Thx for letting us know what you think!
@ BMW: Yes, that is the rub – how to make them secure enough since they can’t really be anchored. Maybe a smaller raised base which the end user/buyer could place two sided tape? You gotta think about how to keep the cost down as much as possible without sacrificing quality which makes this a bit of a bear…
I have allready solved that problem in the cases I am developing apart from DCA.
I know that I am not a paid advertiser, but I have a few of the singles cases and no screws to hold them down. But this is a simple fix
The simple fix is to have pre-drilled holes in the bottom of the base and to provide 2 rubber bands so each end can be slipped over the front and rear wheels. I have placed many of my loose CARS in the acrylic hotwheels cases that way. No damage and you can swap out quickly! 😀
since rubber bands break with age……..
Black Velcro dots is what I use. Walmart sewing area
wire bread bag garbage bag ties, over the wheels thru the bases works too.
I have also used those bag ties. 😆 That’s thinking out of the box!
BTW the velcro dots may leave glue stuck to the bottom over time.
ronson lighter fluid or GOO Off will remove it pretty fast and not damage the plastic
Tizmanian, you make me laugh.
So, with the singles stackable cases how does the car remain stable in the case without rolling around?
You mentioned recessed bottom.
Het BMW. Long time no hear from. I sent you an Email last week I was wondering if you ever received it. Let me know thanks. Jack(John’s Dad) sijack1@aol.com
I will check again, I missed your email!
A few holes drilled into the bottom of the case, then coated wire wrapped behind the wheels and through the holes to be tied off neatly out of view underneath. The same way the CARS in multi-pack boxes are restrained.
Great video. Nice to see you 🙂 I think the cases are very cool, especially the individual ones for loose cars.
Thanks for the kinds words HTB and TarheelBill! I doubt we will ever get Metro out in front of the camera other than on a panel at SDCC but you never know.
We might try an audio series at some point with myself and Metro discussing some of the aspects of the collecting hobby.
that would be cool! like a podcast ??? hmmmm 😀
Great presentation Tizmanian. These guys make great display products. The only problem is that with the already long list of Cars getting longer by the day, the price of the cases would probably break the Cars budget…even though I really wish I could afford them for all of my two collections. They would be great for a few really special pieces though. But if you have the $$$ they are a first class product. 🙂
Ha! Most of mine are free bagging it but there are several which could benefit from being placed within their own custom ‘cozy cone’. Heh…
hello where can i get some at?
Browns hat – are you a local Clevelander like me? 🙂
let them be free from their cages!
and absolutely love the video review. a great idea!