Speed Racer Die-Casts
May 9th, 2008
When I went for a stroll at KidzStation yesterday, I stumbled myself upon racks of Speed Racer die-casts from Hot Wheels. And in the spirit of the movie’s hype, I snatched the Mach 5, Mach 6, and Racer X’s Race Car. Finding die-casts like these are not exactly easy in Indonesia, so I can consider myself lucky to be able to get the first batch of the line-up. If I don’t get them now, there may be no second chances.
From the build quality, I can say that specialty Hot Wheels die-casts’ quality is improving over the years, except for Racer X’s Race Car, where the paint and plastic still look rather hollow.
The thing that I hate the most about Indonesia is actually how they mark-up the price of die-casts like these. The Speed Racer line-up sells in the USA for about $3 a piece. Here, it’s Rp. 50,000 each, or the equivalent of $5.41. Pretty steep markup huh? That’s almost twice the original price. Corruption, baby!!