Greenlight Photos from Open House 9-21-18

[Sirentoys]

Here are a few shots from the Greenlight event last week.


The Durangos look pretty good. But they are no Tahoe.

[Sirentoys]

Stripe is definitely off on the Border Patrol. Why should they get that right? I mean it's not like they have done any other BP cars previously.

[Sirentoys]

Color looks a little off on the NV Lemans. But I am not sure the exact color for that year. But I thought the roof was more silver and the blue darker. But it could have also been the lighting and location of the car.
In person the wagons looked really good. But in the photo the hood looks a bit long.

[Sirentoys]

The work trucks are hobby exclusive. I thought they said they were for a dealer in Wisconsin(?). But I know Outback has a version or 2 exclusive to them. I see the potential for LA County squads.

[Sirentoys]

Lastly, they had infon on the 1/18 scale Cadillac ambulance. I don't follow this scale so I don;t know if this is old news. They had a raw model there that was supposed to be part of their ebay auctions. But I couldn't find it or their store. Does anyone know what their store is?

There were a few other items around but nothing of note to us here. The event's main attraction is a warehouse sale. But I didn't really get too much of consequence. Some beaters for parts and a few for some other collectors. Many there were buying case lots. Price were not a lot better than online but there isn't any shipping.

[JoeO]

Thanks for being the reporter in the field!

[Sirentoys]

Glad to help. I got lucky and was in Indy for work and was able to stop by for a few minutes.

I just noticed the Durangos have closed hoods. And the one SRT has holes on the roof for light bars. That and I messed up the watermark.

[Rich]

A touchy subject with the loyal, Greenlight is mostly a toy (Sandbox) company. There is no need to listen to collectors, they buy sub standard crap anyway. Look at what they are doing with the FRR tooling. There is no real pride there, just a product for the mass market. For years, collectors have wanted a decent Tahoe in 1:64 scale. But they got Bigfoot, and a Durango. I think it is still going to take some time before we see either a new player in the diecast game, or someone at an existing company that gets it. Or maybe not.

[Sirentoys]

Rich,

I complete get and agree with your point. The sandbox toys fit a part of my modeling mindset. It is my modeling roots but they are also enjoyable to do.

What I don;t see in Greenlight that I see and have seen in every other manufacturer is a real passion for the product. Be it Tom Lowe, Scott Schellhase Arnie Rubin, Dennis Deal or many of the Mattel guys, they all had a passion of making a great product their customer not only wanted but felt they needed to have. I just don't get that feeling from Greenlight. The last several people I spoke to don't seem to be engaged or want to talk about the models, good or bad.

Your example of the CHP Tahoe is an excellent one. $20 for a model that inaccurate is tough. Especially when there are Welly models out there for $5 each. Another example is the Border Patrol markings on the new Durango, many have told them the colors are wrong. But yet they move forward with it. The price point on the GL models is high enough they should be more accurate than the lesser sandbox toys or items from Welly, Motormax, etc.

I know I am much more selective in what i buy from them. Especially with new or announced models I wait until I see it before going crazy. I also worry how they will fare with the loss of the Toys R Us stores. Can they survive on the hobby market alone. It would be interesting to see if AutoWorld jumped into the fray how they would do.

[Rich]

It is the people like us, who take these collectibles, and transform them from mere sandbox toys, in to more of a true collectible. In many cases, a work of art. Many, many of us buy these pieces, a dozen or more at a time. Yet we have the same voice at Greenlight, that mom does when she buys one for her little boy to play in the sandbox with. We fix the short comings when we can, add our personal touches, make new parts, add new graphics, all because we want just a little more. Not like we (emergency model collectors) ever asked for a lot. A company that shows they care, such as what we had with Code 3, FRR, Gearbox to some extent, reaps the rewards of loyalty. Like I mentioned in a post elsewhere, there could very well be a company sitting back watching.