It’s been a long, long time since I put together a Chasing Diecast Cars article. Many of you may not have even been around the last time I assembled one. Yet with all the new authors, quality posts, and a bit of blog news it is definitely time to revive LaLD’s quasi-best of series.
First up, some huge news: The LaLD Instagram account soared past 4000 followers this week! Thank you for all the incredible images that have allowed us to thrive at the rate of over 500(!) new followers every month since its introduction.
There’s been quite a bit of behind the scenes blog work this week. More than I can honestly remember. Here’s a few updates we’ve made:
One of Kinja’s greatest short-comings in my opinion is the lack of a PM option. Well, we’re trying to bridge that a little with direct e-mail addresses for all the admins. I hope you are prepared because I am going to reveal the actual first names of your admins...
Philip
Ryan (Frosted)
Scott (SN210)
BJ (MCNR87)
Uly
To shoot any of them an e-mail, simply type their name followed by @liveandletdiecast.com (ex: Scott at liveandletdiecast.com). As always you can reach me at jeff@liveandletdiecast.com
Live and Let Diecast! is, obviously, an awesome name (I wish I’d come up with it) but some of you may have noticed it is quite a lot of characters for a web address. Of course this is why we’re constantly referring to it as LaLD. So this week I took on a new mission. The objective? Create the shortest URL to get you here possible. The result, I believe, is a URL with the least amount of characters to get you here as quickly as is humanly achievable! Instead of typing in liveandletdiecast.kinja.com or liveandletdiecast.com (both of which still work, btw) you now only have to enter lald.co in the address bar to reach the blog. Please note: even the usual “m” at the end of a URL has been lopped off for more efficient speed. Go ahead and try it right now! We’ll wait.
As to our user content, it has been off the charts fantastic. The last few editions of Chasing gave mentions to the top 5 stellar posts. This week that simply is not possible!
Here we go:
BOXER_4 has been running a great series on vintage Hot Wheels castings. You should definitely check out all of them. My favorite, naturally, was this one on the venerable Twin Mill
FORGERYFADE had a fascinating history of who actually did much of the design work on the Nissan Fairlady (Z)
EDU-PETROLHEAD managed to get us mentioned in the Brazilian press again! Check it out here.
JUST1BEFOREIDIE introduced himself in an aptly titled post. He volunteers at the Twin City Model Railroad Museum in St. Paul, MN. Check out a few of his awesome pics of their displays.
BLUE2010SRT completed his very first HWEP with CAMSHAFT CHRIS. Besides being his first trade, it also crossed the Canadian border, making it an iHWEP too!
Customs have been going crazy lately. We have the upcoming Live and Let Drift! competition in collaboration with TYO Toys, and on top of that Uly introduced a hybrid-centric race series
Ever wonder what a Martini liveried Prius would look like? MINICA has it covered
LaLD (now reachable via lald.co) has a large air-cooled VW following, including myself. R32RENNSPORT did an amazing photo shoot post with a pair of Jada 1:24 models.
Speaking of vintage VWs, check out TINFOIL’s vintage MBX Superfast Type 3 Fastback. I personally really like the “glorious purpley grapey hue” :)
Finally AMITB returned after a brief absence with one of the coolest models I’ve ever seen. Apparently he acquired it from our resident user with an endless supply of French cars, JOBJORIS. This 1972 BMW Turbo concept was manufactured by Marushin. It has all the tricks of a James Bond vehicle with button-activated pop-up headlights, opening gullwing doors (also operated via a button) and a decent view of the engine for an early 70s 1/43 scale model. Just look at the box it came in!
There’s ton more that caught my attention this week: including a counterfeit LaLDatsun by SN210 (ok, I’ll call it an homage), a Rally Citroen presented by NET, a promising first post by new user IHEARTMY350KHONDA, and STEVE BRANDON broke out a well loved vintage Mercedes-Benz 300 TE by Majorette.
I want to welcome our newest members coming not just from Jalopnik/Oppo but the IG Account and countless other sites. We have members on every continent and I am extremely proud of the community we’ve established.
Next week there will be more blog news, more contest info, some of our favorite manufactures giving LaLD a preview of their upcoming offerings, and I’m sure many more outstanding posts.
Let me know if I missed anything you particularly enjoyed in the comments!
¡Viva!