Cars, Coffee and California...

[oldgrayleather]

As some of you diecast nuts know, HotWheels has now finally released their Mariner blue NA with roundels. Regardless of the fact that many local friends are convinced otherwise, and that the HotWheels design center is down the road from me, I have no belief that Benny was the inspiration for this build. The design timing would have been around Benny 2.0 (no flares) and despite the offset California plate, KGW-esque spoiler, roll bar, etc. Still not convinced. Now having seen one, the fact it’s a ’91 and has an NA8 dash I am certain it’s not my car. Haha. Regardless I was ecstatic they made a modded Mariner NA with roundels and couldn’t wait to find one. Once I learned of their distribution strategy, the fact you need to understand case lot numbers and figure out when they arrived at the local WalMart or Target or wherever I realized I was too impatient and paid the premium on ebay to get a few!



That was really cool. Such a crazy bridge between my childhood and the cars I loved. The car I love that I’ve had so much fun working on and realizing the link between the two. I owned a car that looked like a flippin HotWheels car. So much crazy. And then? And then! A carepackage came from RevLimiter. Well, from Sharka specifically. Inside was a couple HotWheels including another Mariner (I don’t think its possible I could ever have too many.. and also know too many people I want to share them with). Sharka penned a sweet little note to Benny which meant so much given what an inspiration Sharka has and continues to be.


And then!!!! I looked closer. I blinked a couple times because I thought I was seeing things. But then, no. This Mariner had been further modified. I still can’t believe it. This Mariner has its own set of StarSharks!!!! To coin a dear friend. Wow. Just Wow. So much perfect…