Racing Champions #51 Ford Talladega Torino Series 1 of 5,000

    Fireworks, beer, hot dogs, and NASCAR!~ Happy 4th of July to all of you!~ I made a pretty big sacrifice to be able to do this blog today~ I opened an unopened Racing Champions #51 Talladega Torina Series 1/64... one of only 5,000 made~ The good news is, it was a double.. so I'm not in too bad of shape~ With that being said, let's roll this beautiful bean footage!~

    Racing Champions was founded in 1989, by Robert Dods, Boyd Meyer, and Peter Chang~ Dods and Meyer had met in the 1980's, as Dods was a sales rep for several toy manufacturers, and Meyer was a buyer for a small chain of nickel and dime stores~ They formed a partnership called Dods-Meyer, Ltd., and had seen the rapid growth, and interest in NASCAR~ Before long, Dods was flying to Hong Kong to secure deals to get the cars made in China~

    Dods and Meyer still had a long road ahead of them, having to secure licensing deals not only with NASCAR, but the sponsors, car manufactures, the tire manufactures, as well as the drivers~ Surprisingly, they achieved all of this with relative ease, and the first Racing Champions cars hit the stores in 1989~

                                                              The front of the card~

    I was surprised to see when I opened the package, the names printed on the bottom of the card~ They were tucked behind the car in the package, and I never noticed them~ Sadly, the only 2 people who could write properly were Dods, and Meyer~ The first person might be Peter Chang, but it doesn't look like that's what the name says~ I tried my hardest to find out who the other 2 people were, to no avail~

   In my opinion, this is by far one of the coolest Racing Champions cards ever made~ It's the only one I know where the people in it are drawn like a cartoon~ It's like the King of the Hill of Racing Champions cards~ haha~ However, the front of the card is where all the fun stops~ I imagined that even though I couldn't read the other names on the card, I would be able to just flip it over, and the names would be written on the back~ Makes sense, right?~ Well... this is what happened~

                                                               The back of the card~

    First off, I wanna point out that I'm an avid fan of yesteryear NASCAR... I enjoyed this little story on the back of the card.. it was nice to have a little bit more information on the back of the card, instead of just the drivers signature, date of birth, and where they are from~ However, in this one instance.. I'm calling bullshit~ lol~

    It's as if the 2 guys who couldn't legibly sign their name on the front of the card are just trolling us now~ Why isn't their name spelled out on the back of the card?~ It's a never ending riddle that's gonna haunt me for life, I'm afraid~ Maybe one day, they'll read this blog post.. and leave a comment, stating who they are~ I know, I know.. yeah right!~ But it's not the most unimaginable thing I could think of.. it could happen~ *UPDATE* I found out that the third guy is Fred Wagenhols, who left Racing Champions to form RCI, and the first guy is Peter Chung, not Chang~ Anyway, let's just get to the main event, the car~

                                  Racing Champions #51 Ford Talladega Series (1 of 5,000)~

                                                               Click pics to enlarge~

    Up until last year, I never knew this car existed~ A friend I met on another site had showed it to me, and my hair instantly blew back~ I knew I had to have one, but didn't think I'd ever be able to find one~ I had seen them on Feebay a time or two, but they were like $16 bucks, and I didn't want to pay that for one~

    I ended up paying 12 bucks to a guy at the flea market~ I asked him if he had one, and a week later he had it there for me~ About 3 weeks later, I found this double at another flea market near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for a dollar~ So it averaged it out to 6 bucks a piece~ Not to shabby, and it just goes to show, it's better to find these out in the wild, at a swap meet or flea market, than it is to jump on Feebay and pay way too much, just to have it sooner~

    All in all, I really enjoy owning this little car, and the card being "signed" on the the bottom made it a little cooler~ I had heard that it was assumed the guys on the card were execs at Racing Champions, but it wasn't confirmed~ Now that I opened it up, it's totally confirmed~ I give this car an A- on the Racing Champions quality scale~ It lost some points for not having the names of the people printed on the back~ Thank y'all for stopping by the blog, I hope you enjoyed it~ Happy 4th of July, stay alive, and I'll see ya' next time!~ Below are some old NASCAR videos~ :)

                                                                  The good ol' days~

                                                                  NASCAR 1969~

                                                                      1970 NASCAR~

                                                                NASCAR 1970-1978~

1991 and 1992 Racing Champions Sears Set Cars

    Starting in 1991, Racing Champions put out special sets of 1/64 cars, that included 13 cars in the 1991 set, and 11 in the 1992 version~ Most of these cars were common drivers, while one car was a special car that was only included in these sets~ These sets are called Sears sets, because they were sold exclusively at Sears stores~ In today's post, I'm gonna be looking back on the old Sears sets, and the included cars~

                                                              The first set from 1991~

    Each set came with specific cars, and in the 1991 set shown above, we can see A.J. Foyt #14, Sterling Marlin #22, Cale Yarborough #66, Jim Sauter #89, Rusty Wallace #2, 1991 Sears Set car #91, Rick Mast #1, Bobby Hamilton #68, Kenny Wallace #36, Bill Elliott #9, Hut Stricklin #12, Kyle Petty #42, and Richard Petty #43~

    The reason these specific cars were put into this set is no coincidence~ They were selected for this set due to low sales compared to some of the other drivers Racing Champions was producing at the time~ A lot of you may remember 1991 wasn't the best year for Bill Elliott, and the Wallace car didn't sell well due to the dullness of it~ The A.J. Foyt car had been recycled for a couple years at this point, so it made sense to stick the lesser selling cars into one big set~

                                                              The final set from 1992~

     In the final Sears set to be produced, the first thing you'll notice is, you got shafted out of 2 cars, versus the 1991 set~ Once again we see poor ol' Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace, and Bill Elliott.. but we are welcomed with newcomers J.D. McDuffie #70, Darrell Walrip #17, the 1992 Sears set car #92, Morgan Shepherd #21, Michael Walrtip #30, Ricky Rudd #5, Davey Allison #28, Ernie Irvan #4, and Mark Martin #6~

    J.D.'s car was added due to having a boat load of them left over from making too many after he died~ The same goes for Richard, as far as they just made too many getting ready for his retirement~ This is the first time we see Darrell Waltrip's car in the Racing Champions stable, and I think they figured they'd sell more of them than they did~ It always boggled me that they never produced his #17 Tide car, and then here's Ricky Rudd in the #5 Tide.. what's with that Racing Champions?~

    They tried to fancy up Rusty's car for 1992, but it still flopped~ People don't want to buy a car that doesn't have the accurate sponsorship on it, they just don't.. and I don't blame them~ Michael Waltrip's car, which was one of the coolest looking cars on the track at the time, just wasn't the seller Racing Champions thought it would be, and Davey Allison's car had the same problem as J.D. and Darrell's, it was just too overproduced~

    I really liked these sets for what they were, and if you can find them at a flea market, or yard sale, at a decent price, they're worth picking up still, just for the extra stands you can get out of them~ I buy them, and give the cars to my daughter, and keep the stands for my cars that weren't produced with stands, and buy custom cards for them sometimes~ The last sets I bought, I paid 5 dollars each for, so 5 dollars for 24 stands isn't bad, considering you just can't find the stands for sale anywhere~


                                                        1991 Sears Set Exclusive Ford~

                                                        Click pics to enlarge~

                                                                  Rear of the car~

                                                  1992 Sears Set Exclusive Pontiac~

                                                             Click pics to enlarge~

                                                          Rear of the car~

    The cars basically look the same, with the 1992 car getting Sears logo's on it, whereas the 1991 car doesn't say Sears anywhere on it~ I use the 1991 car's card a lot for cars I have that don't have cards, it works out great for that purpose, whereas the 1992 card says 1992 on it, rendering it useless for such things, unless the car you use it with was from 1992~

    If you like collecting Racing Champions cars from this era, these are neat little cars, nothing special, but cool to have in the collection~ Sometimes you can find a good deal on them on Ebay, but most people try to get 30 out of them, and it's not really worth that for 2 cars, if you have all the others~ Besides, Ebay takes the fun out of finally finding that car you've been looking for for so long~ I do it sometimes, but the cars I buy on there, I would never find around where I live in a million years~

    Thanks for stopping by the blog, I hope y'all enjoyed this post on the Sears cars.. it was kinda hard to write about a fictitious car, but it was fun to do in the end, for me~ Since there was no driver, or track featured on this car, I'm just gonna leave you with some random videos~ Enjoy~ :)

                                                            What racing was all about~

                                                            1987 Busch 500 Finish~

                                   Sears Dynaglass Tires & DieHard Batteries commercials~

                                                           Bill Elliott interview- 1994~