Star Trek Into Darkness

So another thing I obviously collect are Blu-Rays.

Some people think I collect Blu-Rays a lot. But in reality I buy about 4-5 a year. I only buy the movies I really like and I always try to seek out the exclusives or something extra fancy about each one.

Lately, it has been pretty dry on the "exclusives" part. Most of them are just special sleeves or extra content. I miss the days of extra's where you got a huge box, or a book. Figures. Busts. Anything cool really made it a lot nicer on my shelf.

Because of this dry spell, I've resorted to collecting a lot of Steel book / Iron Packs. These cases are great. I love how strong they are and the beautiful artwork on that shiny metal surface. I only own a few of these because before they were quite pricey.

I like how the artwork on the front and back is continuous. There's no logos, stickers or captions to get in the way of the scene. It's just a perfect still from the movie.

So I picked up Star Trek Into Darkness on release day, but have had it wrapped and in my car for a while with the anticipation of watching it. I decided to unwrap it today for you guys.

Next time you guys go pick up the newest release of a big title on Blu-Ray. I'd recommend running to future shop and grabbing the steel book. I think once you feel the nice cold case in your hands and see the great artwork, the few extra bucks will definitely add to it. It won't just be a plastic case with a few discs in it you bought from a bargain bin. It'll be a piece of art. Then you can thank me later.

Pictures:

Movies and Line ups.

Today, I got a hook up to see a pre-screening of "The Art of the Steal" (2013). It was a pretty good movie. Had some laughable moments and overall the characters were really well put together.

It was a "heist" style movie, similar to Oceans 11, 12 and 13. But without the stacked cast. When I got there, my friend who had hooked us up with the screening tickets had saved me a spot. Wow. I could not believe how happy I was to have a spot saved. It seemed like ages since that has happened.

For years, I was the "midnight" guy. The psyco guy who would like up at 10:00 to see a movie at 12:00 just to be the first person to see the movie. Iron Man 1, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Spider-Man, etc. Anything comic book related. Midnight screening? I was there. Now that I roll back and think about it. It was quite a long line up. And it was a long wait. Was it worth it? Don't know. It made the movie a lot more exciting and rewarding to watch.

But all those hours spent early just to get a good seat. Times have changed in the past few years. Because my pay scale went up after I escaped struggling student mode I always pay for UltraAVX now. I always pay an extra $3 just for the reserved seat. It saves me 2 hours of waiting or "work". I think I can justify it now. So before I was struggling and lining up hours to get my own seat. And then I was paying extra to get a reserved seat.

But a friend hooking me up with a free ticket. AND saving me a seat?

That's one of the best feels.

Hot Wheels Elite 1/18: Ferrari 360 Spider

As I promised you guys yesterday, here it is. The Hot Wheels Elite 360 Spider.

This is one of my all time favourite Ferrari's. There's just something about it that looks elegant and curvy. The car was designed for beauty. Whenever I see one drive by on the road, it always catches me. I feel that a lot of today's cars are designed in a wind tunnel and for functionality. But this car, I'm sure a lot of it is functional. But I think a lot of it was just for looking great.

I normally stick to hard top super cars. I'm not a huge fan of soft tops. But I had the privilege when I was younger of sitting inside one of these when I ran into an owner on my bike and he let me sit in it after I surprised him with how much a 13 year old could know about a Ferrari.

I remembered almost every detail inside the interior and how all the stitching leather and trimming all came together and gave you such a great clean experience. It didn't look bland or boring for 1 second. I captured all of those details. Although by today's standards it's not as exciting for interior, at the time it made a permanent imprint in my head of what an "ideal" interior was. One that was centred around the driver and made you feel like you were going fast even though you were sitting still. That it was teasing you to put down the accelerator.

For this reason, I chose to wait for the Spider version to come out, so I can look straight into the interior and remember it as the first time I saw the car in person and which was the first time I sat in it.

Now for the model review. There's nothing very exciting about the model for an Elite. They put some nicer bits on it and it looks like there's nicer paint. But other than that, it's nothing above average.

I also own the "Foundation" version of this model, which is the non elite one. It really shows that the Elite version started out as a cheaper version and nicer bits were tacked on versus my newer elite models which were built straight out as being upper end models.

Onwards to pictures:

Cop Out - Camera down.

My Camera is down. Batts are charging in the charger. I wanted to continue the Hot Wheels Elite week for you guys. 360 Spider! I also had a privilege of seeing a 360 Modena driving alongside me on 119th street today. It's amazing that a car over a decade old can still look so beautiful and futuristic.

Sorry guys. Tomorrow!

Hot Wheels Elite 1/18: Steve McQueen's Ferraro 250 GT Lusso

So I missed 2 more days of posts because I had a pretty hectic weekend...again. And next weekend will be even more. But we are getting close to 30 days and I also want to present and continue the "Hot Wheels Elite Ferrari Week"

A few days ago I brought you guys the 599 GTO and said it was the best and most detailed Elite I owned. Sorry. I totally lied straight to your guys faces. This is definitely the gem of my Elite collection. I got this 2 years ago for my birthday from the special girlfriend and it has continued to make my jaw drop when I take it out.

It is 100% detailed through and through. I can't even explain EVERY detail or it'll start to be a ramble. So I'm just gonna try to target the non-obvious details. Pictures below:

First thing is the LIQUID paint. This is the nicest piant job of any car model i own. The clear coat is absolutely liquid smooth. You can see from some angles the car is like a very very shiny smooth rock.



Another huge detailing factor are the wheels. The wheel is made out of metal wires and photo-etched pieces. The hub or barrel of the rim is also a machined or moulded piece of metal. This makes this model one of the few models I have where the wheel rim is 100% real metal. No plastic, no paint. No nothing. Just solid polishing and assembly. Absolutely stunning wheel.



Another very detailed area is the rear. You can see the exhaust pipes are extrmeely accurate. There's chrome trimming on the bumper, around the lights and also above and below the license plates the buttons and knobs are molded very accurately. The Ferrari emblem also sits very nicely on the top of the trunk.


Trunk opens up very smoothly.


This model also has some EXTREMELY thin glass. Its not even glass. It's like flexible plastic, thinner than action figure blister packages. This is to get the window as crystal clear as possible and match the true thickness of the car's windows in scale. It provides for a great view into the extraordinary interior. Also all the windows have chrome and metal trimmings around.


The grill looks great the chrome surrounding the headlamps and bumper are amazing. There's also a very special kind of mesh used for the hood scoop which brings the front end together. The photo etched metal win shield wipers are also a very nice touch.


Interior looks awesome. Only complaint is that the steering wheel isn't "woody" enough for my tastes.



The last area of this non-stop detail is the engine bay. The engine bay is one of the nicest I own. The whole engine block and valve is all moulded straight through to the underside. The air box, horns and even all the pipes and wiring is all moulded. The carb is great and uses real metal mesh.


They even got the markings and insignia's photoetched and raised. It's a 100% exact replica of the metal tags in the real car.



And the last part that blows it out of the water is the underside detail. You can see not only is the engine made all the way through, but the radiator fan is there. The transmission, drive-shaft and rear diff is all moulded. The exhaust pipes beautifully lead from the engine to the rear of the car. All in seperate pieces, detail and colors. Extraordinary.

Hot Wheels Elite 1/18: Ferrari F12 Berlinetta

So here it is. The fourth day of my "Ferrari Elite Week." As you guys can see. I like my Ferrari's red. So here it is. the F12 Berlinetta. The F12 was introduced only last year and you may have guessed, but it is the successor to the 599 GTB Fiorano / GTO (which I reviewed yesterday). Onwards to the pics and detail shots:

 

The rear looks good and accurate. The middle fog lamp in the back is replicated in metal and the exhaust pipes look like they had quite a bit of effort put into them. I really didn't like how there's no carbon on the bottom areas like my 599 GTO. Maybe they got tired of all the work that took. Lazy asses.

  

One of my favorite parts on this model are the seats. Seems a lot of die casts I've been buying lately have lacked in the seat department. They are molded shitty, have lots of mold lines and they don't bother using better paint to replicate seat surfaces. But I noticed with this model a bit of clear lacquer or something was added to give the impression of real leather. The embossed logo on the headrest is great too and they actually bothered to cleanly cut the hole out below the headrest.


The interior looks really crisp. The lines are really nice and not sloppy. I notice that a lot of car models the trim paint and two tones are normally botched a bit. But the person who did my model was able to color within the lines like a grown up.

Wow. That actually made me feel pretty shit. Chinese kids are probably painting the trim on these models...Okay. I'll cut them some slack. But they did a really good job on this one! Or...at least my chinese kid did. Chinese kid. If you are out there. You are better than you're peers.

I tried to use my newly acquired SLR focusing skills. Joking. I just pressed the silver button halfway until the auto mode focused where I wanted it. But here's the 3 planes of the interior.

First is the steering wheel, column and paddle shifters. The mold lines are crisp and the paint is very accurate.



In the far back, I have the interior door panel. You can see the trim is painted really well which allowed me to praise my highly skilled Chinese baby friend. I'm allowed to say that. You guys are not. And if you laughed you should feel terrible.



Last area here is the center console. Looks very crisp. I like how the armrest is a separate molded piece as if it could lift up or slide forward in the real car. I like this shot quite a bit because if you aren't careful you might not even be able to tell it was a car model.



Engine detail! Pretty hard for them to get the engine extremely detailed on this car because the engine bay lacks a lot of detail to replicate. This area is more Ferrari's fault instead of Hot Wheels. I could tell Hot Wheels tried to squeeze out every detail they could.

One of which is this tiny polished metal embossed cap:


Also at the very front there is once again an embossed and pressed metal logo right in the middle. The airboxes are molded very nicely and although it's plastic I can see all the intricate details they had to press into these areas. The valve cover is very nice with metal bits creating the lines and Ferrari emblems.



When you look at it from this angle, the front of the car looks great. My only complaint here are that the headlamps look extremely plasticy. They didn't bother to outline the edge of the clear covers to give you a more "realistic look". I'd take them out myself and line them, but I hate re-gluing clear parts. Always fogs up or gets smeared.