ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- For the past 8 years, Lionel has been the sole produce of Nascar Diecast. However, the diecast market is in deep trouble, with problems like the DNP list, quality issues, and excessive cost cutting. It's time for me to tell you my biggest problems with them today.
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👏 beautifully produced video. I stopped collecting diecasts a few years ago and you nailed all the reasons why. Higher prices = lower quality? The math ain't mathing.
yo wassup elly
higher prices and lower quality probably comes from the fact that each scheme is one of as many as 20 schemes a team might run that year. its harder to mass produce a bunch of every scheme when each team runs so many every year. most schemes in the 90s and early 2000s would be the same every race for years at a time with some small subtle changes and the sport was at peak popularity. now nascar isn't as popular and most of the cars are irrelevant after a few races. theres probably other factors like this. all of this with NO competition because lionel has exclusive rights. the math probably maths if you don't over simplify things.
@@HughWanztino If you'd actually watched the video, you'd know that 90% of those schemes don't even end up getting produced.
Hey elly
.....that was his point @@EllyProductions49
Saying a NASCAR diecast is “just a toy” is like saying a football jersey is “just a shirt”.
In fact, one advantage over football and other sports is that you can collect race cars and run a race with them as a kid. Nascar is a visible medium. You have to get all the drivers.
1/64 is literally sold in the toy department
@@Sallyam my point is 1/64 cars are toys and people act like they aren't
@@JWC924maybe they are, it’s still nascar memorabilia and the most profitable form of nascar merchandise.
@@gswizzy17 still toys at the end of the day. I don't think people play with football jerseys.
The resellers are genuinely the worst type of people. They dont even want the cars they just want money.
and they always overprice them to like $50 a piece. Not to mention the horrible shipping
@NASCARRebirth Dude yes!! I saw a Aj Allmendinger gain chase piece and he had it for 75$ as if I couldn't get the regular 1/24 for that price. It pisses me off so much
and if people stopped buying from resellers they would be sitting on inventory they couldn't sell........
Exclusivity contracts are bad for NASCAR fans. We saw it with video games, we're now seeing it with diecasts.
This is why monopolys arnt allowed in business it kills the consumer and creats very shady tactics against said consumers like forcing you to pre order a car qnd then sending a fucked up box of parts instead 😂
NASCAR hasn't cared about its fans in decades.
To be fair it's bad for any sport with exclusive gaming rights not just NASCAR yet you are not wrong about NASCAR games and NASCAR die-casts
@@TheRedAssassin1A great example of that was IndyCar. When they were on iRacing and Forza I'm sure it wasn't hurting their brand. They were even in one of the GRID games (Autosport). Once they went exclusive to try to produce their own game they did nothing but hurt their numbers and offend their fanbase. And in the end, the project was dropped anyway smh. Thankfully, the amateur online series have picked back up. 🤙🏾
Lionel needs to lose their exclusive license. The factories in China don't care about us, based off of their quality, and MOQ limit, so why should we keep supporting them? Great video as always NasHawk!
I'd like to see Mini GT, Spark, & the others getting NASCAR license
@@ArnoldTriyudhomini gt nascar diecast would be crazy
@@7ine With more qualities & cheaper than Lionel 🤣🤣
@@ArnoldTriyudho greenlight getting the license would be divine
@@ArnoldTriyudho Mini GT charge $80 for a 1/43 car. No doubt a Mini GT NASCAR model would be high quality, but you're dreaming if you think they'd be cheaper than Lionel.
That's the problem with exclusivity deals. Without competition from another brand they have no reason to constantly improve quality...
I feel like the "it's just a toy" argument is half valid in normal circumstances like say HotWheels or mid tier stuff like Matchbox moving parts but in this case where they hold the exclusive license for NASCAR meaning that a collector literally can't go anywhere else where the model isn't "just a toy" and is on a more collector level.
In this case the models have to have a minimum quality where a collector can enjoy it but it's cheap enough for a 5 year old to destroy it in a year and that doest seem like that's what they're chasing.
Hotwheels did something pretty neat in this regard by making many of their fantasy models that adults and collectors weren't excited for have engines under the bodies or other little pieces that a kid wouldn't care about but customizers could still use meaning they didn't have this problem of people not buying enough cars.
"they're for kids" f those kids then I guess, I kinda think kids shouldn't get ripped off either.
This is why I'm collecting more older diecast.
Same plus I just hate the next gen especially the awful forward numbers, why pay $15 for cars I don't really like!?
@@PaperBanjo64 truth, gen 4 and gen 3 is where the good stuff is at. That's what I collect here in Argentina
@@Toxic2T are they hard to find there or do you use eBay? Here in the states old diecasts are extremely easy to find if you have a peddlers mall, and cheap too.
@@PaperBanjo64 extremely hard also kinda expensive. the only way to buy them here is from ppl that went to the US, bought them there and brought them back on their luggage. I'm still looking for a Dale Earnhardt Sr car lol
@@Toxic2T I could imagine...F1 cars used to be hard to find, now sometimes Walmart gets them, but they usually just have Sergio Perez Red Bull
Lionel should stop the MOQ bullcrap.
There's a reason no one else wants this license.
It's the same model that has been successful in their train line for years. I get it. Why produce what people don't want. It costs them money to put the time in of graphical, packaging and prepping a car to go to production. And if they sell 25 that doesn't recoup their investment, where atleast when it gets cancelled it was only a render image. I agree it is not the glory days where they were abundant. But also from back in the day there aren't mass amounts of diecast just warming shelves.
I understand MOQ and I don't think it's going to change. The biggest thing for me is I just started re-collecting a few years ago after having hundreds as a kid.
I started re-collecting by just buying Authentics and then Gold Series cars I saw on Ebay or something. I had no idea most of those relied on other people preordering them so they hit a MOQ.
I just started preordering a year or two ago and keeping tabs on cars available for preorder.
I know a friend that just started collecting and I know he has no idea he has to preorder it. I know he just thinks he can order it when it's available to ship.
They need to do more to promote and be transparent about the need to preorder I guess or change up that process somehow.
I seriously don't understand how people don't know this, but MOQ is NOT A LIONEL REQUIREMENT... MOQ has always been a thing with diecasts and it comes from the factories that actually make the diecasts. If it was up to Lionel they would absolutely be fine with zero MOQ and having the occasional super small run of diecasts because either way, they would be making money from selling them. MOQ does not help them in any legitimate way.
If they want to produce more diecast and put the stupid DNP stuff in the past. Make 2500 1 64 Scale diecast and 500 1 24 Scale diecast
The store I previously got diecasts, Kroger, doesn’t sell anything NASCAR which is fucking baffling considering they’re the primary sponsor for Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Target didn't carry diecasts of Target Ganassi NASCAR or Indy car when it sponsored the team.
Damn, Nashawk has dropped another banger and I wasn’t expecting this!
I’ve been collecting Motorsports Diecasts from NASCAR to IndyCar to Motorsports Hot Wheels to NHRA to F1 to Trans-Am (and so on) for over a decade.
It is just unfortunate to see the current state of NASCAR Diecasts the way it is.
Amazing video NasHawk. Thanks for mentioning me in one of the images lol.
PS. I think adding a segment of custom diecast and Lionel stamping them out with the paint resistent stuff from the Authentics would’ve been a great addition
Well said
Exactly. He said it perfect.
Few things here, the MOQ stuff is bullshit too because personally if I wanna buy a car I want it now, I’m not trying to wait until next fucking April to get a diecast that I want now. They wouldn’t cut costs if they sold actual good quality diecasts because more people might actually buy them. And lastly the long waits and pegwarmers have always been a problem with these guys. I had a 2016 Jimmie Johnson Superman diecast on my local Walmart shelf up until a few years ago… and my Walmart is still on 2023 diecasts and it’s halfway through 2024.
0:37 - 0:57: This person said..
Me: What you mean they looked really good?!?! They're looked awful!!
Lionel need to stop getting dnp so many good cars that people really wants
I have a Kyle Larson 2023 diecast, And the black decal on the bottom is tilted, And it aggravates the crap out of me. So yeah, They look *terrible*
@@BraydenBunch58Oh ok and agree Lionel did extremely worst to making diecast and dnp's so many good car
@@BraydenBunch58 wow.
@@RolandoArreola6337 I've got Bayley Currey's 2021 Mike Harmon Racing #74 Chevrolet Camaro Xfinity diecast, and you know how there should be a front number underneath the headlight? Well, it was missing, Lionel legit missed putting a decal on my diecast.💀
I really wish Lionel could do better, Back in the 2000’s diecasts were REALLY good! They were accurate to the car, And the decal quality was the best. And back when the 1/64 adult collectibles were *HIGH QUALITY* and not just the regular cars with a beer logo. Now it’s just a shell of their former selves. And that’s probably cause of competition, Same with the EA Sports games. But we can do better, They can do better. We can still have hope for the best, But only time will tell….
I agree with Nashawk. I think Lionel can bounce back just like Kurt Busch did.
Diecasts also help NASCAR as a sport...In the same way that the video games can be great intros to the sport for kids, so can diescasts!
Wake up babe nashawk's talking about lionel diecasts
Was that supposed to be funny
@@Jon_FL no im waking up my wife to tell her some important news
Do you even have a wife?@@etatboi
@@SADlikeDAD yes
@@etatboi ngl you would look like you'd have a wife
All the Tricon trucks getting DNP makes me very upset yet in 2022 we got like 6 Chase Elliott Diecasts with the side sponsor different
That was because his official store bought the runs
This is the type of content I was waiting for, well said Nashawk!👏🏻
Don't forget the fact that you can't find any 23XI cars in the NASCAR authentics. Which means they're missing out on a huge opportunity with the McDonald's cars.
that's not Lionel's fault, Michael Jordan refuses to let products with his name on it be in stores like Walmart
@lilicewall4343 the first year of 23XI they did...I think Michael Jordan saw some of the early gen 7 authentics with blurry decals or PTC molds and said no to it...they made Bubba's 2021 Dr Pepper car with his face on it on a PTC mold...I'm guessing Jordan saw that and wasn't impressed!
And what's stupider is that the mcdonalds cars are now on bases
I was really worried this would just be someone raging and screaming about Lionel's QC issues while being super pessimistic, but I'm glad you did the opposite. Good video, Nashawk.
Ugh, such a shame that the PTC mold ruined the look of the Next Gen cars in the Authentics line alongside the grainy decals.
No wonder why the 1:64 models looks weird compared to the real cars
Good news is that the PTC Factory is history. Lionel was reusing the bodies as cost cutting measure until they switched to the J Factory and now it’s a new factory that we will learn about soon
Wasn't just ptc sucking. Remember 2014 wls mold? By far the worst. The el although better still has problems. Blurry decals etc and of course chips
@@packisbetter90I'd honestly rather have a PTC mold than EL molds with blurry decals...I've never seen a PTC with bad decals, they just feel weird.
Imo the only good PTC/J mold is the mustang since it looks accurate to the real body
Everything else is a dumpster fire
NASCAR needs to move on from Lionel and get a different company to make their diecast so tired of Lionel’s price hikes and quality decreasing or if nascar could have Lionel make the bodies which they’ve always done great at that but have another company do the paint and decals
Just goes to show that Lionel should stick to making trains and let Hot Wheels have the rights to make Nascar diecasts again. The Hot Wheels nascar diecasts were really good and Mattel still has some of the casting molds on hand, such as the 2005-2007 gen 4 Dodge Charger.
While I agree. No one should have exclusive rights over all of it. We see the same problem with EA video games. With multiple able to pick and choose sets everyone up for competition.
@@brandencurtin4210 fair enough
Even Lionel's model trains suck and suffer from quality issues.
@@MilesModelWorks Have you seen their Vision Line models?
@@dracoarton94 Not yet
The DNP business model works for the trains. It doesn't work for the diecast
Yeah, we need new producers in the Diecast market. Like a company to make all the DNP cars from Lionel.
"We can offer you a license to produce all the things with less than 500 units of demand" is not a good pitch.
We always have custom diecast makers
@@bw-leftturnracing7779 yeah but those are always so expensive I’d rather just make it myself
The longer we keep buying, the longer the problem continues...change only happens with change...
Nascar diecast should be sold in Canada tbh.
The old companie was just better.
All the old companies were
Acton/Acton racing collectibles
True
This video was great and was very well put together. It's honestly sad that we get poor quality diecast and then on top of that all the DNPs.
They canceled the Ty Dillon truck, I will never forgive them
I hate being a Ty Dillon fan. I even pre-ordered around 10 of them to help it make MOQ😭
Almost gave off EmpLemon vibes. Great job!
Grew up with Action/Revell & Team Caliber being my go to brands with very few quality control issues. I knew Lionel had the exclusivity rights now, but I had no idea they were this heinous. It's amateur hour there 24/7.......and anyone buying their crap now is an idiot.
Ever since I got a few NASCAR Authentics in 2012 as a gift from my cousin I liked buying most cars however after 2021 I didn't really collect as much anymore and really only opt to collect Xfinity and Trucks or paint schemes that catch my eye and its sad too bc if your driver is in Xfinity and Trucks they have a slim chance of making MOQ I mean 1/24 is the lowest MOQ so that's why a diecast is more likely to dnp in 1/64 but get produced in 1/24.
How I would revamp the preorder system is release every driver and their primary paint scheme possible but extra paint schemes for said driver are the ones that you need to preorder bc it could possibly entice people to get more diecast because they already have the initial cars and they would want to add more but I'd lower the number to around 500 for 1/64 bc let's be real 2500 people probably don't all have the money to preorder I'd try to preorder too but I don't really have the money to.
NASCAR Authentics are decent most times but waves like Wave 7 from last year and Wave 2 need to go or just be separate from the main line bc it's just a waste of resources and takes opportunities away from more Truck, Xfinity, and DNPs to get in. I'd just do away with the pegwarmer waves and at least put an Xfinity and Truck diecast along with a DNP in every wave bc Trucks and Xfinity don't get enough produced and often DNP so it gives collectors a chance to get them more.
The same thing happened to cars diecast back in 2018, they started making cars in Thailand, the quality got TERRIBLE. But, thankfully Thailand got better and now the cars look great again. Hopefully the same happens for nascar diecast
You know this is also another issue that I have is that for some reason NASCAR diecasts are not worldwide for some reason they're only portable in like North America and guess what I'm one of those people that really want diecast but they're not in my country and and you have to buy somewhere like MercadoLibre let me say that it sucks
Like really because of the toy that means that kids play with them? Dude NASCAR diecasts are not toys they're also considered as collectibles and guess what the only thing I actually have from Nascar merchandise it's a jamie McMurray 1/24 scale and guess what when I was a little kid I mistreated out of that 1/24 scale but now I just have it in the box because again it's a collectible and sensors not a ton of NASCAR diecast in my country I have enough box so it doesn't get damaged and again because it's a collectible that doesn't mean it's a toy
Interesting timing to drop this right after that diecast mini-doc was made.
This really reminds me of an Elly Productions video
My Walmart still has 2023 Wave 1 cars
Which those are cars from 2022
@@wolfgamingnetwork3542 I know 😭😭😭
@@chasebriscoefan14of the 3 Walmarts that are near me 2 have wave 10 11 Darlington 8 5
2023 Wave 6 + 7
My Walmart still has a bunch of blaneys from 2023 wave 2
This is why I collect IndyCar and dirt racing diecast. Quality is still high and I love the cars put out by Greenlight and ACME.
I love collecting diecasts, however it’s hard for me to collect due to me living in a different country. It also doesn’t help that the quality has been getting g worse over the years
NASCAR has to stop signing these Exculsive deals... It's bad for business...
I started collecting NASCAR diecasts at the beginning of last year after I went to the spring Phoenix race and got super into NASCAR. I figured out pretty quickly into my collecting that not all the cars in Target and Walmart are made equal. The PTC mold is the absolute worst quality, and I will specifically avoid it in those stores because of the horrible quality. For any other collectors who stroll through the toy aisle every once in a while in search of good diecast, I have found that the PTC mold cars have a black interior/window net, while the higher quality ones have a light gray interior/window net. It makes it very easy to tell them apart. Hopefully enough collectors also stop purchasing these lower quality PTC diecasts, Lionel realizes that they are not selling, and stops producing them.
May be an unpopular opinion, but NASCAR diecast (especially the 1:64s) have been on the downhill since around 2010.
In 2010 they stopped making Hood Opening cars, they stopped making them before the year ended as a lot of the hood opening cars cars from 2010 are primary paint schemes ie Jeff Gordon Dupont, Kyle Busch M&M's etc...
I also think Elite 1/64 cars stopped in 2008 or 2009.
The cars were ok until about 2014, I remember watching videos in 2014 with the new diecasts and the biggest change that I noticed was the interior changing to a black and its gone down hill since.
I miss the action motorsports authentics drivers select 1/64s so bad
This answered so many questions I had, nicely done my guy 👌
"Exclusive Rights" always f*ck things up, i.e. 21 Ignition
13:20 Yes Spin Master is making die casts at the same time they’re working on Paw Patrol, and the spin master cars look way better from what I’ve seen in your older vids nashawk.
Edit: 15:27 the biggest issue that both me and my mom (who used to work at Walmart) would have with collecting diecats, and it’s worse because I live in a part of Indiana that’s close to Lake Michigan, and on the rare occasion I go to Target, no Winners Circle (edit: I had to go to Chicago to find some winners circle cars bc I was looking for Ryan Truex. I was visiting family anyway) They also missed the Chevy grille on my Larson 1:64 car, and I preordered Kamui Kobayashi 1:64, and DNP
I've been into diecast racing for 10 years thanks to the Ghostjerker channel and got interested in NASCAR through this channel. No one in France knew about NASCAR. It's understandable since it's a national sport, not an international one. I quickly became a die-hard NASCAR fan and indeed noticed the decline in the quality of Lionel's products.
I started by buying lots of Racing Champions on eBay, Road Champs, brands like that. Then I quickly moved on to buying Lionel Racing or NASCAR Authentics. I’ve often been disappointed that the stickers or paint schemes were poorly executed, crooked, or sometimes even nonexistent. Plus, for example, Road Champs vehicles run on Hot Wheels tracks almost as well as Hot Wheels, but Lionel, they're just awful. The wheel axles are often misaligned, poorly assembled, and when they are well-assembled, they still don’t roll well. We're very far from the quality of Hot Wheels, for instance.
I pay exorbitant prices for everything. I see you complain about prices in the States, but here in France, you add about $60 to $70 for shipping and deposits. So a wave of 9 vehicles costs about €130 ($125). So when you receive the cars after sometimes 1 to 2 months of waiting and see that only 2 out of the 9 cars roll decently, and that the paint schemes have been somewhat well reproduced, you're just disgusted.
Thanks to the internet, more and more people around the world are getting interested in NASCAR. Last year, there was even a NASCAR car at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. I sincerely hope that Mattel will buy the rights and release real cars like they did in the 90s. Cars that accurately reproduce the paint schemes and run well on Hot Wheels tracks. And especially that could be found internationally.
But maybe I'm dreaming a little too much. Anyway, I subscribed to your TH-cam channel and enjoyed your video where you share your passion for diecast.
See you soon, I’ll check out your upcoming videos (I watched your unboxing of the calendar because the videos I saw at Christmas were nonsense… people were opening all the boxes in one video… it seems they didn’t understand the advent calendar concept! I couldn’t get it because there was no delivery to France on the Lionel site, and on eBay, it cost more than €250, plus shipping! So I didn't get the chance to have it!).
I had a whole side of one of my Matt dibedidetto come off paint wise
Nascar fans be like: “Lionel Racing only matters Chase Elliott and Hendrick Motorsports because Chase is the MPD and also the team are celebrating 40 years." 🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓
Well said buddy, unfortunately many people have complained on social media especially on Twitter about the poor quality, terrible production, PTC molds from authentics and high prices of this poor company. Of which it has been by a preorder system which fans should understand, for example: how looks Kyle weatherman diecast in 1/64?
Lionel: looks short so far
Me: looks short??
A few days later: Kyle Weatherman diecast has been cancelled in both escales.
Everyone: the only hope for Kyle weatherman diecast will be produced by Nascar authentics.
(Just an example guys) I hope Lionel Racing loses the license to produce Nascar diecast
Facts, well for some, but when I tried to get a david ragan #60, but it got canceled and I was fuming.
tbf to lionel, it was probably a lot easier to make diecasts back 20 years ago when teams ran 1 scheme all year with a few "special" schemes.
it's much easier to mass produce a car that's going to hold relevance longer.
the min 2500 for `:64 is too high now. this would help the dnp by lowering it
I miss Action - the quality especially in their elite series was recognizable. While I appreciate Lionel trying to keep the diecasts collectable market alive unfortunately the models today just don't compare. The prices are too high for the product the consumer receives. The wait is awful sometimes its almost a year before receiving a preorder. Its what happens when a company is granted exclusive rights - the urge to compete goes out the window and the overall quality of the product goes down.
And Team Caliber , there basic diecast was the equivalent of Actions elites . Man I miss those brands .
@@kharnthebetrayer1575 Team Caliber Owners were much better than an elite, especially the TC First Choice versions, the best detailed quality going in circles diecast ever made.
@@noidnomis only have 1 Team caliber in my collection, and nice never saw their “elite “ line . Being a Smoke fan all his cars where Action .
@@kharnthebetrayer1575 The "First Choice' line of diecast are a site to see, you should get yourself a chevy, it will not disappoint.
It's too bad that he never had one done by Team Caliber, but long before the forced merchandising agreement that nastycar made the teams agree to, it was the teams that had individual merch programs with what ever company they agreed to work with.
Taking with ex-Roush/Team Caliber merch managers, there are all sorts of actual die-cast that was done to try and sell them to the teams, if you can find one. There was a recent #24 from 2000 on the fee-bay. There are also dei #1 and #11's out there as well. A #1 was just on fee-bay a couple weeks back.
This video is extremely underated even for just being posted 4 hours ago. Many things are relatable in this and some being: I personally didn’t know that Lionel needed a certain amount of people to preorder diecast, I just thought it would be wiser to buy it when it was actually on the shelf’s. Great vid btw
i hope this video blows up so lionel can actually see this and attempt to fix these problems
This video made me cry TBH
I’m a kid but the excuse that it’s just a toy is so dumb I’m a collector and I care about how the cars look I don’t want to pay $5.00 for some tall bulky crap I want a nice looking $5.00 car
as a Todd Gilliland fan, Lionel hurts me.
in 3 years of him in the cup series we have only got TWO 1:64 scales, the 2022 Boot Barn, and First Phase
along with the two cars in authentics, Gener8tor and A&W, which were both on the PTC mold.
all the cars this year have dnp'd including his gorgeous Gener8tor throwback
and i know he's gotten a fair amount in the 1:24 scale. but i just dont have the money to buy 1:24 scales that are like 80 dollars each. i got his Gener8tor 1:24 autograph, i cherish it, but i just cant keep buying them.
looks like you picked the wrong driver
@@JWC924 doesn't justify that nonsense.
I'm glad someone is talking about it, I hate Lionel a lot right now and as a Diecast Collector myself, I see myself buying older ones because the quality was so much better and I can find stuff I've never seen before like my Brad Coleman 1/24 I've got.
Ones from races are better quality
Awesome video, NasHawk BOI
What need's to happen more diecast producer's so lionel has competition otherwise it will never get any better only worse!!!!
Stick to trains, Lionel.
Haha, lionel doesn't even do that right
there no way my picture of the 24 Gordon error made it into this video. thats incredible! also this video in general is S Tier. awesome work
This is what Lionel does for their trains too. It's called Built to order, and it fucking sucks...
Just a kids thing is such a tired excuse. That's the same cope pokemon fans use for the newer games.
Lionel pulled this a little bit with the model trains they produce
-
As someone who collects lionels latest model trains, some things that have changed in the last 10 years are:
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No specific crew talk: Engines used to have road specific dialogue (the crew talk would mention the number of the locomotive you had bought and road name, stuff like that) that is COMPLETELY gone unless you buy the vision line engines, 90% of collectors don't have those funds.
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OLD TOOLING: some of the stuff lionel produces is the EXACT same locomotive produced 10 years ago but with a 40% cost increase, it sucks.
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AND FINALLY: LIONEL BOUGHT MTH TOOLING AND USED IT WITHOUT REMOVING THE MTH BRAND MARK LMFAO
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I still buy lionel locomotives, theyre by far the biggest producer of locomotives and theyre still fantastic engines, but it does suck to see some obvious cost cutting while everything gets more expensive
I love diecast cars, I mostly collect Hotwheels, but have Matchbox, Johnny Lightning, Tomica, Siku, ect. I only seek out NASCAR vehicles if I'm looking for a tire swap-the yellow Goodyear looks great on street cars. I don't collect NASCAR because there is only 3 real car manufacturers, and only 3 car bodies. It's boring!! I would definitely buy cars if they did the historic vehicles of NASCAR, 57 chevys Chrysler 300's Ford Fairlanes, and so on up until the late 90's when real cars all became the same bubble with wheels, and even worse now! Taurus, Lumina, and then Dodge giving up. I'd also like to see more trucks obviously that's a far newer class than original days of NASCAR, so nothing classic-but imo, it would be cool to see an old F100 and Power Wagon, Or Chevy in team colors....could be the tow vehicle or crew truck.
NEVER be excited about exclusivity, it’s a lesson in hindsight we all have to learn. Great video sir!
Don't worry, Lionel's screwing up the train side of the business with these sorts of shenanigans too.
The root problem is Lionel was bought by a private investment group, and their primary goal is making as much money as they can and invest as little of it as they can back into the business.
When you have that in mind, all of what they do makes sense. Cutting corners and sloppy workmanship, no quality control, and exorbitant prices.
Great video, interesting and very well done. Although I’ve never been a NASCAR diecast collector, I was heavily involved in the plastic model building community from the 1980s to the early 2000s. One significant cause of the problems that you’ve identified that I haven’t really seen addressed in the comments is just the sheer number of different paint schemes in NASCAR these days.
Back in the day, a team would run a single paint scheme for the entire season, with maybe a special paint scheme for the all-star race. Thus, a maximum of 50 or so different die-casts would be sufficient to cover the entire Winston Cup season. In the plastic kit world, the major manufacturers (Monogram, AMT) would produce a few different T-Birds, Monte Carlos, Regals, etc. of the bigger drivers, and the after-market decal producers would fill in the rest of the field (usually with higher quality decals than the kit makers would produce).
I get it that it’s all economics, today a major sponsor can’t (or won’t) commit to an entire season and teams are forced to rely on onesies and twosies to get them through the season. But for me (and many other old-timers I imagine), the huge numbers of different paint schemes per car has seriously diminished my interest in the sport. Back in the day, my buddies and I would arrange our Sundays around watching the races on TV. Nowadays, we hardly bother, usually catching the 10 minute highlights package on TH-cam is enough (if even that). Used to be that you could watch the race on TV with the sound turned down and no on-screen position tracker and still have no problem following what was going on. Dale was in the black 3, Gordon was in the blue & red Dupont, Gant was in the green & white Skoal Bandit, DW was in the orange Tide ride, etc. Definitely not the case today. Hey, who’s that in the yellow car? Oh, it’s Truex. Wait, wasn’t he in a blue car last week? And a red car the week before? And a green car the week before that? And so on...
Doesn’t help either that today’s drivers are all bland, generic and interchangeable, no real big “alpha” personalities like a Yarborough, an Earnhardt or an Allison etc. Honestly, I can’t differentiate a Bell from a Bowman or a Blaney, probably wouldn’t even recognize them if I bumped into them on the street.
I can still remember a conversation with my model-building buddies back in the early 90s. That season, the 29 team was sponsored by The Cartoon Network and there were four (four!!!) different decal sheets that year for different paint schemes, that was insane! Somebody said, hey imagine someday a car will have a different paint scheme for every single race and we all got a big laugh out of that. Well, here we are lol.
Action racing elite series and team caliber owners series were peak diecast. Lionel has gotten very lazy I actually emailed them regarding retro cars because that is a huge market they just aren't doing and they emailed me back said we only make cars for the molds we have and aren't planning on making new ones unless it's a new generation car....didn't they buy out or absorb action racing....wouldn't they have all those high quality molds of the old cars....idk maybe it's a fever dream.
Action elites and Owners Series were the best 1/24s ever. Remember how insanely detailed the interiors of TC Owners Series was?
This is what happens when NASCAR, or any sport, has exclusive licensing! Lets look at the model train side of Lionel mentioned at the beginning of the video, the reason they have nice looking locomotives and rolling stock in O scale, is because they are competing against the likes of Bachmann, Atlas, and MTH (and with the two recently teaming up on certain projects its making the competition even tougher), not to mention various brass manufacturers, they have to put out a quality product or they get left in the dust! The competition gets even tougher as you drop down into S and especially HO scale (although, with HO, Lionel tends to lean more towards sets and cheaper more affordable rolling stock with some specialty rolling stock mixed in), where you're going up against the likes of Atlas, Bachmann, Scaletrains, Athearn, Rapido, Walthers and now new comers Aurora Miniatures, Tangent, and Class One Modelworks. The point is, when it comes to NASCAR diecasts and NASCAR's exclusive licensing program, Lionel has 0 competition here, unlike the model train market where there's constantly at least 4 or 5 other manufacturers breathing down their neck and trying to get customers! But this is just as much a NASCAR problem as it is with Lionel because it seems they (NASCAR) don't seem to care about the quality of the diecasts either! Like you said, when Lionel brings their A game, they're amazing!
I just wish lionel would also branch out their diecasts to grocery stores like what racing champions did
Make them cheaper because its not worth $5 for a car with barely any detail, and crap quality control
As a lionel locomotive fan and NASCAR fan, nothing bothers me more than preorders. I can't tell you how many awesome locos we've lost to the dreaded preorder requirement.
I agree 100% when I was a kid in the 90s I could go to any department store and get NASCAR diecast cars. I live in Canada and I can't find any store in my area including Toys R Us that sells any NASCAR diecast anywhere. I have to drive across the border or shop online to get one. I miss the racing championship cars I collected.
Do you wanna know what nascar authentics diecasts I see in the Portland metro area?
None. They haven't shipped the authentics out here since 2020.
Great points, solid video. Only thing is, it comes off a bit contradictory to say you "love Lionel" and "love their products" and "want to see them succeed" in a calm, caring tone after spending nearly 18 minutes dramatically and heavily criticizing not only their company, but also your fellow die-cast collectors who took a chance on standing up for the company. I get why you did but...dang.
That’s why I just go buy older versions from antique malls or eBay. Why spend 200 on a new poorly made model when I can buy a couple older nicer quality ones for the same price
I agree with all of this Lionel should
Only give cars that get DNP to the people who pre ordered it. They truly don’t car anymore about its customers
The Simon Malls near me actually have small stores that sell classic and modern Diecasts. It’s not a big selection, but it works occasionally.
Ngl we should of got a 2022 cody ware car but i believe it didn't pass by like only 10 or less people what a shame
Also. HI
I loved the Team caliber/Action era. I haven’t collected seriously in years. I have a handful of Lionel diecasts. Quality is great on the ones I have. But I have seen the quality of what others have received
I have hundreds of dreams of a store of only nascar diecast from all of time such a dream it was
Greenlight does really good with the Indycar diecast, it would be cool to see them try something with Nascar, I feel like they would be similar to the Team Caliber diecast
Unfortunately, Greenlight is in trouble sadly. They’re shifting stuff around and discontinuing certain stuff. Everything is being restructured basically…
Nascar actual gen lost the personality, this car is not a Nascar car, numbers out of the door is very ugly. Drivers in teams for nepotism, confused system of points. Rip nascar.
The point about the liquid color chases is so true, the vast majority of collectors may never see one in stores, because all the scalpers grab them.
I feel pretty fortunate that I was actually able to find one, that being the 2023 Wave 01 Kevin Harvick Hunt Brothers Pizza Liquid Color chase. It's pretty odd, though, since when I found it, it was literally sitting on the shelf beneath the pegs, and there was not a single non-chase version on the pegs.
So, I bought it, and funny enough, the next time I went there, there were three of the non-chase versions on the pegs, and I was able to truly confirm that I got the Liquid Color version, because of how pale the red on the non-chase version was, and how deep and shiny the one I bought is.
I'll probably never find another one in-store, so it's a pretty prized possession of mine.
I've never seen one, ever
Big issue that you didn’t address regarding the DNP list: in the 90s and early 00s, most teams had one major sponsor, and would run a few special paint schemes per year, so any given team would have MAYBE 4 schemes per season. Nowadays it’s not uncommon for a team to have a dozen or more different looks throughout the season. That’s a LOT of unique schemes for a company to create and produce, especially if nobody is going to buy most of them.
It must be a pain now to do diecast honestly. With every car having a different sponsor every week it’s not like the old days when the 2 car was miller with a special scheme a couple times a year.
Fun fact the 2011/2012 spin master cars were based on the actual car bodies while Lionel used a generic mold (all the same) during those two years when they first took over.
Brother, the spinmaster molds were AWFUL
Ikr
At least the Lionel ones looked decent
The ptc mold body is out of this world good but they cheaped out on the decals which is what makes it suck
Greatest video of the year!🎉
They’re honestly too expensive now. Like for the price of 1 Lionel Diecast, I could buy 3-4 basic Hot Wheels. And I’d be fine with it if the quality was consistent, but you get paint chips, decals that are wrinkled or chipped, and on one occasion an axle that’s only flattened on one side (leaving one of wheels free). Unfortunately this is something going on with most big name diecast companies, but spending $10 for quality at or below a $1.25 Hot Wheels is just not worth the money. For $10, I’d expect painted tampos and a layer of clear coat to protect the paint from damage.
What’s is the case you have them displayed in at the beginning of the video!? Looking for a good way to store my collection of almost 1500
I was amazed at how many 1 64 scale diecast lionel cancelled days ago. I saw in an Instagram post that 33 1 64 scale diecast got cancelled and it straight up blew my mind