who happened to strike up a conversation with you while you’re looking at die cast.
So here’s my story. Months ago I was at one of the Walmarts looking at the die cast aisle when a stranger came and started looking at the selections as well. Then he asked me if I’m a collector and I said yes and we started talking about what we collect and I happened to mentioned that I was looking for some JDMs as I read that M2 has already released the 3rd repaint of the Auto Japan sets more than 2months ago but have not found it yet. He then told me that he actually found some at another Walmart and bought some but left a couple of the models. I lit up and he told me which Walmart has it so I quickly drove over there and sure enough found these 2 above. Ever since they released the Hakosuka in black I really wanted to find it.
Of course I also wanted the other models as well specially the 510 but never found the rest of the set. Then months later I stumbled upon these 2 from the same set at Hobby Lobby. The Fairlady Z was not a priority as I already have plenty from previous releases including Hot Wheels but seeing it in gloss black made me want it as well. The bluebird is a no brainer as I do collect them.
Since we know that there are 2 of each of the models with different livery I was hoping to find the East African Safari rally version as well but Hobby Lobby did not have it and I wondered whether other collectors have spotted it first. After 2 - 3 weeks Hobby Lobby has new M2 merchandise and finally found the other bluebird and I now have 5 of the JPN02 release set.
And it all started out with a stranger pointing me in the right direction.