👏 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.
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.
@@EllyProductions49All because of the MOQ crap. I don’t understand why Lionel can’t spend money to make actual good quality cars, but again that further supports the point that Lionel is ruining diecasts, and more people stop collecting them.
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.
@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
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 😂
@@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!
@@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.
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.
@@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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
@@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.💀
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.
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 UA-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.
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.
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.
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
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….
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
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.
@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!
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
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
Like Nashawk, I also, have come to appreciate the older diecast from the 90s/2000s because it has many iconic schemes/drivers from that era. Something that the sport needs today. Great video!
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 UA-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 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
Great vid, the last nascar die cast I ever bought was a Action COT Dale Jr Mountain Dew car and I quit keeping up with nascar shortly after that. When I did start coming back I saw this whole Lionel thing and wondered where Action had went and wondered where the hell Lionel came from. This vid clears up so much.
9:22 I have that same Ty Dillon car. The front sticker was placed so off that there's just a black line on the front of the car, and the whole front looks skewed
...I don't know how I got here...youtube seeing the word Lionel and going 'TRAINS?!' Which is funny because I model HO (1:87) Not O (1:48). But you've clearly got a huge amount of passion for the subject. It is amazing to see how a company good (ish) at one thing can be so horrible at another. Of course the prices certainly scream Lionel....Thinking about it, this is a lot like all the times Lionel tried getting into HO scale! often weird, misshapen locomotives that barely function for an unreasonable price tag...except with better high notes than "This one isn't so bad." But uh- A very well produced video! You don't hang on a subject too long or go on a tangent that doesn't lead anywhere. (Also your icon requires a soft gentle boop.)
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.
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.
The craziest thing that's happened to me was being sent the WRONG car. And when I say wrong, I pre-ordered Michael McDowell's raced win Indy 1:64 scale for $12. I got the right scheme alright. Instead they sent me an Elite 1:24 scale that costs like $130. That's the only time I will ever be happy with "quality control" lol. Getting a $130 1:24 scale when they were supposed to send me a $12 1:64 scale lol. Also my boy OBB is a great reviewer too. Met him twice and we chat online time to time. So shoutout to him and raising awareness on quality control!
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.
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…
I collected 1/24 NASCAR diecasts for a long time, and after Dale's passing and a bunch of drivers retiring I lost interest. They sure made some quality cars back in the 1990s. I gave a lot away and sold some unique pieces. Thanks for this video. That is quite the collection Brother.
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
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.
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.
Kurt Busch reference was a pleasant surprise. One heck of a wild career. IROC, Cup and Daytona 500 Champion. NHRA and IndyCar competitor. Indy 500 rookie champion 🏁
Another lesser known series is the Raceway Replicas 1/24 run from '92 to '97. Each car came with a COA and authentically replicated car cover. The cars in the run are Bill Elliott's '92 Budweiser Thunderbird, Hut Stricklin's '93 McDonald's Thunderbird, Davey Allison's '93 Thunderbird (with or without "Our Teammate Forever" on the C pillar, Mark Martin's '94 Thunderbird, Bill Elliott's '95 McDonald's Thunderbird, Ernie Irvan's '96 Thunderbird, Rusty Wallace's '96 "Splash" Thunderbird which is the only one to include a solid wood display base, Sterling Marlin's '96 Monte Carlo, and David Green's '97 Monte Carlo. These have to be the highest quality diecasts made until Action had their breakout year in 1998 with the updated Elite line.
Weren't these actually made in America? I remember getting an old NASCAR magazine and it showing some diecasts that were actually made in America and not China and thinking that was cool.
@QuietDriver97 yeah I think the company that made them in the USA made 1:43 scales not 1:24 now that I think of it, the real shame is they didn't make a 1996 Pontiac Grand Prix if they were so good...I've never actually seen one...and the '96-02 Pontiac Grand Prix is my favorite model in NASCAR.
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.
Great video. Pretty spot on. I'm 34 years old and started getting diecasts when I became a fan when I was like 6 or 7 by my dad. I miss the late 90s to mid 2000s with Action, Winners Circle, Hot Wheels, Racing Champions, Team Cailber, Motorworks, CFS etc making cars. With Action Elites especially the 2007-09 and team caliber owners series being the best 1/24s. Lionel was decent until like 6 years ago I noticed. I have over 2700 diecasts and I love comparing today's cars to like 2007. Blows me away everytime.
Greetings from a seasoned Nascar fan from the mid to late 00s, I remember seeing Nascar diecast where ever I went. I remeber seeing all the Winner Circle merch at the Target near my Nana's house. I even remeber her buying me a 2007 Juan Pablo Montoya 1:24 Havoline during one trip. I even remeber finding older die cast at stores like RidAid where I found a 2002 Lyndon Amick Dr.Pepper Spiderman, new old stock no less. I even remeber seeing diecast for sale at a local sports bar that is no longer open in my city. It goes to show the acessability Nascar diecast was during the sports prime, but sadly around that time around 2013-14 I had a small falling out with the sport (mostly due to not having alot of friends into it). So right around that whole transition period of Lionals monopoly on die cast took place without me knowing, today I rarely see any Nascar merch in the big box stores. I was only to pick up some samples of die cast recently due to some guy selling his collection at the Flea Market. I do occasionally see some Nascar stuff at Target and Walmart but its just depressing that because of the monopoly their not exactly intermediate friendly like they used too. With the sport slowly getting big again (in part due to nostalgia circles and channels on UA-cam). Who knows what the future for the scene holds, seeing its been a good long while since the sport has been mainstremely successful.
So on the "Pegwarmers" bit... I actually found all the 75th anniversary diecasts for 1:64, and got them for less than the full collection ($40 vs $75 if bought at once in the collection), and I also bought the 3 individual manufacturers cars and only spent $15 on all 3 (not sure what they were priced as a set, but probably not $15) Those one-offs are a cheaper way to get collection pieces vs buying them at a markup
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.
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.
Before they were stolen, I had a bunch of diecasts. Through a flea market, I had gotten my collection back to decent shape with older cars. Few years back, I went to a diecast store to get a newer car. I knew how good the cars looked in the late 90s and early 2000s. I was in shock at how bad the quality was. What should be the top brand with new technology to make them even better looked like Racing Champions of the 90s. You had to shell out big money for an Elite to get close to quality of Action in the early 2000s. It made me so sad. I wish Team Caliber was still around. Quality was amazing.
My biggest complaint as a 1/24 collector is the issues with paint/finish..I’m super lucky to get one nowadays that doesnt have multiple paint blemishes throughout the car. Frustrating after spending so much $$
Bro when I was a kid 1:24 die cast had opening hoods, trunks, roof flaps, a soft window net, steering wheels that would rotate and actually move the front wheels, WTF happened man? Got my first die cast since like 2012 this year and was super disappointed. I will not be buying another one any time soon
What happened to the quality of Lione's cars? I miss the Owners Elite line, which was a combination of the TC Owners Series and the Elite versions...I miss them very much.
The owners elite line was never a combination of Team Caliber Owners and action elite,, they only used the name owners, the actual diecast itself was 100% action garbage.
@@noidnomis I still believe that it was a combination of the two, as they had more details than ever before. Owners, yes, that was to help the Team Caliber collectors know that it was a re-branding, of sorts, and that it was a new era for both diecast companies. The 2007 cars weren't horrible, for the OE Series. Anything beyond 2010 under the Elite line wasn't as good, and even the new Elite Premier isn't that good of a car.
@@AndreChambers-ih1gk All the Team Caliber moulds were destroyed, any parts were never used in the 2007 owners elites, those were all action/lionel. It was only an owners in name only, never anything more than that. This comes direct from multiple people who worked for Team Caliber and Roush, who were managers in charge of the merchandising side of the business. Anything action, lionel, arc made has always been inferior to Revell, Team Caliber, CFS Checkered Flag Sports... ..and has only gotten worse each year since the enforcement of the merchandising agreement that has made the monopoly that destroyed the diecast industry for this racing series.
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
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!
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.
Every point here is very well said. The last 1:24 diecast I bought is from 2020. I've wanted to buy a NextGen diecat or two but the quality is just terrible for the price. Even the elite and "super" elite (forgot the actual name for them) are awful quality vs from even 3 years ago. I hope Lionel improves on this. Diecast are one of the forefronts to bring new fans to NASCAR, they should be a quality product.
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
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.
👏 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
@@EllyProductions49All because of the MOQ crap. I don’t understand why Lionel can’t spend money to make actual good quality cars, but again that further supports the point that Lionel is ruining diecasts, and more people stop collecting them.
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...
"they're for kids" f those kids then I guess, I kinda think kids shouldn't get ripped off either.
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.
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
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
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.
@@gnatsum-uy4foactually they did have one off promos and exclusives.
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.
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
I agree with Nashawk. I think Lionel can bounce back just like Kurt Busch did.
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.
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.
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.💀
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
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
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 UA-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.
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.
Interesting timing to drop this right after that diecast mini-doc was made.
Almost gave off EmpLemon vibes. Great job!
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.
My local Walmart has had ironically another #48 diecast on display for months which is Alex Bowman's 2023 patriotic scheme
NEVER be excited about exclusivity, it’s a lesson in hindsight we all have to learn. Great video sir!
Also side note the ending Pink Floyd 8bit sound was sick 😂👏🏻
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
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….
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
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...
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
Great Videos man! Your NASCAR Stop Motion Random Cuts still sometimes make me laugh today!
i hope this video blows up so lionel can actually see this and attempt to fix these problems
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
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!
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
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
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
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.
Like Nashawk, I also, have come to appreciate the older diecast from the 90s/2000s because it has many iconic schemes/drivers from that era. Something that the sport needs today. Great video!
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 UA-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 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
Great vid, the last nascar die cast I ever bought was a Action COT Dale Jr Mountain Dew car and I quit keeping up with nascar shortly after that. When I did start coming back I saw this whole Lionel thing and wondered where Action had went and wondered where the hell Lionel came from. This vid clears up so much.
This answered so many questions I had, nicely done my guy 👌
9:22 I have that same Ty Dillon car. The front sticker was placed so off that there's just a black line on the front of the car, and the whole front looks skewed
...I don't know how I got here...youtube seeing the word Lionel and going 'TRAINS?!' Which is funny because I model HO (1:87) Not O (1:48). But you've clearly got a huge amount of passion for the subject. It is amazing to see how a company good (ish) at one thing can be so horrible at another. Of course the prices certainly scream Lionel....Thinking about it, this is a lot like all the times Lionel tried getting into HO scale! often weird, misshapen locomotives that barely function for an unreasonable price tag...except with better high notes than "This one isn't so bad."
But uh- A very well produced video! You don't hang on a subject too long or go on a tangent that doesn't lead anywhere.
(Also your icon requires a soft gentle boop.)
"Exclusive Rights" always f*ck things up, i.e. 21 Ignition
Any Color You Like by Pink Floyd playing at the end was a really goated decision btw 🙌
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😭
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
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 craziest thing that's happened to me was being sent the WRONG car. And when I say wrong, I pre-ordered Michael McDowell's raced win Indy 1:64 scale for $12. I got the right scheme alright. Instead they sent me an Elite 1:24 scale that costs like $130. That's the only time I will ever be happy with "quality control" lol. Getting a $130 1:24 scale when they were supposed to send me a $12 1:64 scale lol.
Also my boy OBB is a great reviewer too. Met him twice and we chat online time to time. So shoutout to him and raising awareness on quality control!
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.
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…
4:57 anyone know that website?
Nascar diecast should be sold in Canada tbh.
This is the type of content I was waiting for, well said Nashawk!👏🏻
I collected 1/24 NASCAR diecasts for a long time, and after Dale's passing and a bunch of drivers retiring I lost interest. They sure made some quality cars back in the 1990s. I gave a lot away and sold some unique pieces. Thanks for this video. That is quite the collection Brother.
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
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 old companie was just better.
All the old companies were
Acton/Acton racing collectibles
True
WAIT YOURE THE OLD FUNNY MOMENTS GUY OMG THIS VIDEO IS SO GOOD
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.
The DNP business model works for the trains. It doesn't work for the diecast
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
Kurt Busch reference was a pleasant surprise. One heck of a wild career. IROC, Cup and Daytona 500 Champion. NHRA and IndyCar competitor. Indy 500 rookie champion 🏁
Another lesser known series is the Raceway Replicas 1/24 run from '92 to '97. Each car came with a COA and authentically replicated car cover. The cars in the run are Bill Elliott's '92 Budweiser Thunderbird, Hut Stricklin's '93 McDonald's Thunderbird, Davey Allison's '93 Thunderbird (with or without "Our Teammate Forever" on the C pillar, Mark Martin's '94 Thunderbird, Bill Elliott's '95 McDonald's Thunderbird, Ernie Irvan's '96 Thunderbird, Rusty Wallace's '96 "Splash" Thunderbird which is the only one to include a solid wood display base, Sterling Marlin's '96 Monte Carlo, and David Green's '97 Monte Carlo. These have to be the highest quality diecasts made until Action had their breakout year in 1998 with the updated Elite line.
Weren't these actually made in America? I remember getting an old NASCAR magazine and it showing some diecasts that were actually made in America and not China and thinking that was cool.
@@PaperBanjo64 The Raceway Replicas are unfortunately made in China if that name hurts it for someone but, they are very well put together.
@QuietDriver97 yeah I think the company that made them in the USA made 1:43 scales not 1:24 now that I think of it, the real shame is they didn't make a 1996 Pontiac Grand Prix if they were so good...I've never actually seen one...and the '96-02 Pontiac Grand Prix is my favorite model in NASCAR.
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.
I had a whole side of one of my Matt dibedidetto come off paint wise
Great video. Pretty spot on. I'm 34 years old and started getting diecasts when I became a fan when I was like 6 or 7 by my dad. I miss the late 90s to mid 2000s with Action, Winners Circle, Hot Wheels, Racing Champions, Team Cailber, Motorworks, CFS etc making cars. With Action Elites especially the 2007-09 and team caliber owners series being the best 1/24s. Lionel was decent until like 6 years ago I noticed. I have over 2700 diecasts and I love comparing today's cars to like 2007. Blows me away everytime.
Greetings from a seasoned Nascar fan from the mid to late 00s, I remember seeing Nascar diecast where ever I went. I remeber seeing all the Winner Circle merch at the Target near my Nana's house. I even remeber her buying me a 2007 Juan Pablo Montoya 1:24 Havoline during one trip. I even remeber finding older die cast at stores like RidAid where I found a 2002 Lyndon Amick Dr.Pepper Spiderman, new old stock no less. I even remeber seeing diecast for sale at a local sports bar that is no longer open in my city. It goes to show the acessability Nascar diecast was during the sports prime, but sadly around that time around 2013-14 I had a small falling out with the sport (mostly due to not having alot of friends into it).
So right around that whole transition period of Lionals monopoly on die cast took place without me knowing, today I rarely see any Nascar merch in the big box stores. I was only to pick up some samples of die cast recently due to some guy selling his collection at the Flea Market. I do occasionally see some Nascar stuff at Target and Walmart but its just depressing that because of the monopoly their not exactly intermediate friendly like they used too. With the sport slowly getting big again (in part due to nostalgia circles and channels on UA-cam). Who knows what the future for the scene holds, seeing its been a good long while since the sport has been mainstremely successful.
So on the "Pegwarmers" bit...
I actually found all the 75th anniversary diecasts for 1:64, and got them for less than the full collection ($40 vs $75 if bought at once in the collection), and I also bought the 3 individual manufacturers cars and only spent $15 on all 3 (not sure what they were priced as a set, but probably not $15)
Those one-offs are a cheaper way to get collection pieces vs buying them at a markup
This really reminds me of an Elly Productions video
So this is why that 1986 Tim Richmond car on the Hendrick's website I ordered over a year ago never arrived. Thanks for this video!
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.
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.
Great Video! Now I have to go through my collection and see how many PTC 's I have😂
Before they were stolen, I had a bunch of diecasts. Through a flea market, I had gotten my collection back to decent shape with older cars. Few years back, I went to a diecast store to get a newer car. I knew how good the cars looked in the late 90s and early 2000s. I was in shock at how bad the quality was. What should be the top brand with new technology to make them even better looked like Racing Champions of the 90s. You had to shell out big money for an Elite to get close to quality of Action in the early 2000s. It made me so sad. I wish Team Caliber was still around. Quality was amazing.
My Walmart still has 2023 Wave 1 cars
Which those are cars from 2022
@@wolfgamingnetwork3542 I know 😭😭😭
@@chasebriscoefan19of 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
My biggest complaint as a 1/24 collector is the issues with paint/finish..I’m super lucky to get one nowadays that doesnt have multiple paint blemishes throughout the car. Frustrating after spending so much $$
Bro when I was a kid 1:24 die cast had opening hoods, trunks, roof flaps, a soft window net, steering wheels that would rotate and actually move the front wheels, WTF happened man? Got my first die cast since like 2012 this year and was super disappointed. I will not be buying another one any time soon
No competition hurts we the buyers. I miss Revell , Action , Winners circle, and Team Caliber.
What happened to the quality of Lione's cars? I miss the Owners Elite line, which was a combination of the TC Owners Series and the Elite versions...I miss them very much.
The 2007 owners elite was my favorite ever diecast
The owners elite line was never a combination of Team Caliber Owners and action elite,, they only used the name owners, the actual diecast itself was 100% action garbage.
@@noidnomis I still believe that it was a combination of the two, as they had more details than ever before. Owners, yes, that was to help the Team Caliber collectors know that it was a re-branding, of sorts, and that it was a new era for both diecast companies. The 2007 cars weren't horrible, for the OE Series. Anything beyond 2010 under the Elite line wasn't as good, and even the new Elite Premier isn't that good of a car.
@@AndreChambers-ih1gk All the Team Caliber moulds were destroyed, any parts were never used in the 2007 owners elites, those were all action/lionel. It was only an owners in name only, never anything more than that.
This comes direct from multiple people who worked for Team Caliber and Roush, who were managers in charge of the merchandising side of the business.
Anything action, lionel, arc made has always been inferior to Revell, Team Caliber, CFS Checkered Flag Sports...
..and has only gotten worse each year since the enforcement of the merchandising agreement that has made the monopoly that destroyed the diecast industry for this racing series.
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
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.
0:22 the goat of nascar diecast
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.
The DNP bullshit is the reason why i only pre order Cup series diecasts. i dont even bother with trucks and xfinity cuz 60% of them never get produced
The higher up’s at Lionel need to see this video. Well done sir. 👌🏻
Facts, well for some, but when I tried to get a david ragan #60, but it got canceled and I was fuming.
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!
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.
Every point here is very well said. The last 1:24 diecast I bought is from 2020. I've wanted to buy a NextGen diecat or two but the quality is just terrible for the price. Even the elite and "super" elite (forgot the actual name for them) are awful quality vs from even 3 years ago. I hope Lionel improves on this. Diecast are one of the forefronts to bring new fans to NASCAR, they should be a quality product.
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
I’ve never collected die casts. This was a well done video that kept me entertained. Good work!
I have hundreds of dreams of a store of only nascar diecast from all of time such a dream it was
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.
My Walmart is only the hendrick and petty gms waves