It’s a bit slow today, so I am re-running this post. Greenlight really has been the first diecast company willing to answer our questions and I want them to get massive thanks for that. Come up with some new or follow-up questions that you’d like me to ask — or just express your gratitude in the comments please! -Jeff
Recently, the awesome folks at Greenlight took time out of their day to answer some questions members of LaLD and Jalopnik had. Greenlight Collectibles’ Josh Hollandsworth provided me with the answers.
The first question was easy, as Greenlight products are not exactly ubiquitous in many places.
LaLD: Do you have a preferred online retailer for people to go through to pre-order Greenlight products?
GL: Check out http://greenlighttoys.com/where_to_buy - that is where people can go to find retailers who carry our product. They can click on a mass retailer to find a store or on where they live on the world map to find retailers near them like hobby stores and online stores. We do not have a preferred retailer and sadly do not sell direct. If someone is having an issue finding something near them, just let them know to have the store they frequent contact us about carrying that product.
LaLD: There were also a lot of questions about other vehicles from the Breaking Bad series. I read on the Flickr page that you are working on getting a Pontiac Aztek tooling together but people basically want every vehicle that ever appeared on the show too (Jesse’s Tercel, Skylar’s Wagoneer, Saul’s Caddy, even Fring’s Volvo).
GL: Stay tuned to our social media for future releases but you can expect the following within this year:
44690-A 1:64 Hollywood Series 9 - Breaking Bad (2008-13 TV Series) - 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 (Ep. 5.04)
44690-B 1:64 Hollywood Series 9 - Breaking Bad (2008-13 TV Series) - 2012 Chrysler 300 SRT-8 (Ep. 5.04)
33021 1:64 Breaking Bad (2008-13 TV Series) - 1986 Fleetwood Bounder RV
We are currently in the process of tooling the Monte Carlo for some releases so that might come up for Jesse ;)
LaLD: One person asked if TRU will be ok selling Breaking Bad related products.
GL: We won’t be selling the Breaking Bad items at Toys ‘R Us as they have expressed concern over the show content. Although regardless of that we do expect some big chain stores to be picking this item up shortly. More news on that to follow. Stay tuned to our Facebook/Twitter/Instagram.
LaLD: (...) regarding the “First Cut” VWs as those certainly seem to be something people on LaLD would be interested in. We have quite a large vintage VW following, including myself. :)
GL: Thanks! Expect more of them. They’re going to be limited edition and part of the first releases of our new 1:64 tooling from here on out. You should be able to find out all the details for the first two releases, but the features will be the same for future releases as well.
The only difference you might see will be with the larger vehicles, like the firstcut release of the Fleetwood Bounder scheduled to come out shortly after the VWs. That 1:64 tooling is so large that we can’t fit two in the display case so it will come only as the decorated version.
LaLD: Finally, I was wondering why it seems Greenlight and other diecast companies seem to be coming out with diecasts of similar models at the same time. Besides the obvious like the Zoolander Bronco and Anchorman Van, there are models from both GL and Mattel of a Fox body Mustang Police car as well as the Escort MkI. Even M2 and Jada seem to be offering similar cars (American muscle and the VW Beetle and Bus). Is this a licensing issue?
GL: If it helps any, we look at the market demand world-wide and see has been working, what doesn’t work, what is missing and what has been done [way] too much. Right now VWs are in so you’re going to see a lot of them and there is quite a demand for the fox body Mustangs. We’ve had the fox body Mustang for YEARS now so I wouldn’t necessarily say it is relatively new – we did have a period where we didn’t put a whole lot of them on the market a couple of years ago. However, we’ve been able to rejuvenate that casting in our 1:64 Hot Pursuit because it is one of those unique and unlikely cop cars people love!
LaLD: Did the license for Zoolander suddenly come up and both you and Mattel jumped on it?
GL: Around that time we had just finished tooling the Bronco and had begun the process of coming up with other properties and product lines to associate it with – Zoolander stood out like a no-brainer! Personally, it is one of my favorite comedy movies. At the time, we didn’t know what Mattel or anyone else had up their sleeves so we didn’t go into it trying to compete with Mattel but rather just something cool we could bring to market.
Check out LaLD’s Comparison Review here.
LaLD: Will you be able to make other air-cooled VWs like the Karmann Ghia and Thing. Maybe even air-cooled Porsches? Or JDM products?
GL: We have talked about more VW items and if you have seen our new Club Vee Dub line, you should expect more variety with that. We just introduced a brand new split window Beetle which has never been done as well as the Type 2 T2. Expect more as this line evolves. I don’t expect any Porsches unless it is movie related one off projects anytime soon.
Thanks so much to Greenlight for answering these for us! This is one of the reasons GL remains my favorite diecast company! Go order and pre-order your products here!
Do you have anything you’d like to know about GL? Are you looking forward to any of these products?