My Fave 5 - Pop Culture Hot Wheels Vehicles

Aside from wrestling figures, the only other collection I actively maintain are Hot Wheels, more specifically the cars from all parts of pop culture, which can be difficult to find due to collectors and sellers and their price point of $1 each.

For the past 4 years, Hot Wheels has been incorporating more and more iconic recognizable cars we know and love from movies and television.  Of what I currently have, these are my top 5 favorite releases (in no particular order):

DeLorean Time Machine (Back to the Future Trilogy) - It's hard to believe only 3 years ago Hot Wheels made one of the most iconic and well-known cars to ever grace the big screen: Doc Brown's time-traveling DeLorean from the Back to the Future trilogy.  It was only a matter of time as prior to this release, the regular '81 DeLorean was released in the main line to be followed by the version of the car people tend to remember more than the original manufactured automobile.  With the original film being one of my all-time favorite movies, there is no doubt the car from the film is also one of my all-time favorite Hot Wheels.  Everything you could ask for in an screen accurate die cast car is here and the detail is incredible, right down to the "OUTATIME" license plate.

The Mystery Machine (Scooby Doo) - What would wind up being the first of quite a few Hanna Barbera cartoon cars to appear in the Hot Wheels main line is also one of my all-time favorites: The Mystery Machine.  When thinking of the mystery solving great dane himself, who can forget the van that him and the gang went everywhere in?  Their car was practically as recognizable as Scooby & Mystery Inc.  Again, Hot Wheels' attention to detail here is second to none.  The Mystery Machine as we all remember is recreated with 100% accuracy as a die cast vehicle.

Need For Speed (The Movie) Review

Its been awhile since I have gotten the time to go to the movie theater and see a movie.  After a few months of not being able to do so, I broke that trend last week when I finally got out to see the Need For Speed movie, based on EA's popular racing video game series.  I am not a huge car buff, but these games are among the best I have played.  It is a series I enjoy a lot thanks to the constant adrenaline rush of trying to outrun the cops as an illegal street racer or trying to bust them as the newest cop to join the police force.

For some odd reason, films based on video games have a terrible track record with the critics, where they tend to be instantly labeled garbage.  And while I agree these movies are by no means award winners, it does not mean they are as awful as they are made out to be.

Going into this movie, I was wondering how they could take a game with a bare bones plot (the aforementioned play as an illegal street racer running from cops or play as a cop busting the racers is essentially all there is) and turn it into a decent movie.  I was surprised with the results.  The film is headlined by Aaron Paul (known for playing Jesse in the critically acclaimed AMC show, Breaking Bad).  The only other actor I recognized was Michael Keaton, who played the man responsible for organizing the Hot Pursuit races the game series is known for (more on those later).  I thought Michael Keaton was the standout performer in this movie and it was a shame he was reduced to secondary character status for the film (Side Note: I would love to see him reprise this role in a future Need For Speed game.).  Speaking of secondary characters, for being in that role a lot, Aaron Paul did a good job of being a leading character.  It's just he was out-shined easily by Michael Keaton in every scene he was in, or at least I thought so.