Thanks for the info Eddie, I've got a BBB, a BBO, a playboy pink, a 68, a pearl white in 1/18th, and a 'dragon lady', and BBG in 1/64, plus a red
from Italy. Working on something to save for my granddaughters' dowry.
Harold there are a few "mistakes" out there that will be a lot more collectible (and pricey) as time goes on. The ERTL red aMX painted with bumpers was a mistake. A Johnny Lightning AMX was like that,a factory defect also. some of you probably saw those i was selling on ebay, it is a green AMX with blue stripes. In a conversation with Dave Metzler, who was director of diecasts for Playing Mantis, he told me that 'the Chinese screwed it up' as the stripes were supposed to be black. But somehow wires got crossed and the photos, and protos, ended up being green with blue stripes. There were 20,000 of those made, and although ugly, pick them up when you see them, I was selling them for $6 each on ebay, rarely do they hit $10. They will as time goes on.
This is something I emphasize with people. You go to a Hobby Lobby, Toys R Us, Ames, Wal Mart and other stores that might carry these. Pick some up for yourself. And pick some up for 3-10 years down the road for resell. The little 72 AMXs shown here were common for $2.99 at many stores 4 years ago. Long off the shelves, they command $5-$10 each now. The Collectors Editon 'black' ones command more. Yes, sometimes you see one or two on ebay for $1-$3, but please, always check shipping, as some folks will smack your ass with $5 shipping when it only costs $3.95 Priority Mail to send one. You had four Series of the 72 AMX; Series 1 was silver, #2 purple, #3 green, #4 red.
The SS/AMXs here had six series, this is series #4. Again, off the shelves since the late 1990s. The most collectible ones are Series #1, and those outside the series like the Service Merchandise SS/AMXs too here, those were $5 each when new and sell for $13-$25 each now; only 4800 made, and all numbered. The little 'Classic Plastic AMX' (blue in photo) are all over the shelves right now, as are the 68-69 Javelins by JL. You can also pick up the Monopoly Hornet hatchback, Christmas Ornament Hornets (if you are lucky!) and James Bond Hornets. All collectible in their own right and will bne worth more than the purchase price you paid one day, but that will depend on how long you wish to hold onto one.
The Hot Wheels AMX is a unusual bird. The easiest one to find is the Big Bad Orange. Hardest is the Big Bad Blue. And the onyl way you can get a Big Bad Green is buy the set of two cars which includes a blue Hemi GTX,a nd those little boxed sets were not available anywheres except Macy's in the late 1990s. About $12 then. The individual AMX by Hot Wheels shown can be had for usually under $10 on ebay, and they sold new for $7, they max at $15 however. The detail on them is awesome, they are a lot more detailed than the JL's, under hood or body, the lines are crisp, just extremely great detail for such a tiny toy.
Chances are no one here has ever seen a Ed Shaver Hot wheels AMX. They command about $4000. Yes, Four thousand dollars. A holy grail of AMC miniatures as far as I'm concerned. And before everyone freaks out about what these Hot Wheels sell for, as I have mentioned before, a Volkswagen beach Bomb sold for $72,000 a few years ago.
There are some high dollar collectors out there, whether it is the real cars or toys. I have limits on what I'll pay myself! Happy Collecting,
Eddie Stakes'
Planet Houston AMX
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2004 1:34 PM
Subject: Re: [BaadAssGremlins] Re: AMC Toys (was: Rare AMX toy!)
Eddie,
Did you see the 69 AMX that Ertle painted like a red"Big Bad" ?
Eddie Stakes <eddiestakes@xxxx> wrote:
Hi Doc, not solar powered Matadors, those are actual gasoline powered
Matadors by COX toy company. They sell in the same price range as these
AMXs. I have a NOS and used version of the Matador stock car, which is a
four door Matty body 74-78. The one I don't have and usually is harder to
find is the Adam 12 version of same. Really neat things to have and run on
pump gas, they are over a foot long too. These are probably out of a number
of people's price ranges. However, if you are a rabid AMC toy collector and
remember some of these from 30-40 years ago, they are really worth having in
your collection! For what a toy costs, someone could buy a real 'toy' my 74
Hornet Sportabout wagon on ebay for instance, no bids, $300, complete car
that runs. Again though, that is apples and oranges. While neither the toy,
or the car, will ever be made ag! ain,
the toys are 100-1 much rarer than the
real cars.
I recently scored a monster coup on a Javelin trans Am game. These are also
in my top ten of ultra rare toys with aMCs from the 1960s. And it was
complete. I was alerted to the auction by a fellow AMC fan who knows I
collect stuff like this. I still have my ORIGINAl Trans Am Javelin race game
my dad brought hom two sets in 1969, and yes, I drew on the track little
stop signs, arrows, railroad tracks and whatnot, and also glued finkys and
rat finks on the board as spectators, had to have someone watch the races!
Here is the one on ebay I won, I told the fellow who alerted me thanks and
then bid on it, and also noted these sell for about $300 when they pop up in
this condition, and you only see maybe one pop up every 2-5 years!!!
But my high bid withstood a blistering assualt, and well, I won it and am
estatic to have another set like this in my collection!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3667473977&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOAB:US:6
Again, you never look at stuff like this in terms or price. Always look at
it in terms of years and condition. These were made 30+ years ago and well,
kids had them and tore them up like kids do. I'm surprised some of my stuff
is still here like original Hot wheels. we used to put bottle rockets in
them and make a really long track, sometimes 30 yards long, and light the
fuse and send them down the track, always thought that bottle rocket was
good for a nitrous like boost 1/2 way down the track. Some of these cars
windshields and tires would blow off, we would put more tires on them and go
again. Sometimes at the end of the track we would have a pail of water for
the cars to land in, sort of a poor boy's Evel Knievel, just to make surethat
bottl rocket WAs really out! But no, there is a lot of toys and
antiques I pass on ebay and don't bid due to out of my own price range.
Problem is, I know if I don't bid or win it now, next time one pops up it
will be 2X-5X more due to age!
And so it goes. Happy collecting, whatever your budget, as I tell people,
today's Johnny Lightnings and ERTL models are tomorrows collectibles!
To see where many of the Johnny Lightning AMXs, Hornets, Rebels and other
miniatures are near you, go to www.playingmantis.com and click on 'where to
buy' for a selection of stores.
Eddi estakes
www.planethoustonamx.com
----- Original Message -----
From: <AMC74HORNET@xxxx>
To: <BaadAssGremlins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2004 4:33 AM
Subject: Re: [BaadAssGremlins] Rare AMX toy!
That may be a rare toy and for a good price but it is way out of my
price range. Wasen't there a couple of different versions ! of a
Matador
sedan flashlight steered sold a few years later in the early to mid
70's? I seem to remember a police car and a stockcar version.
"Doc"
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> ATTACHMENT part 2 image/jpeg name=dragonlady.jpg
> ATTACHMENT part 3 image/jpeg name=jl 72 javelin.jpg
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