Digging the Mach 5

I mentioned my whole Speed Racer indoctrination a few posts ago so it should come as no surprise to anyone that I snagged a copy of Volume 4 the other day. One of the neat things about Volume 4 is the tiny little die-cast Mach 5 that they package with the set - a far cooler bonus than Volume 1's rubber-tire-textured packaging. Also cool in a lame sort of way because it's one of those cars where you pull it back and then it drives off on its own, which is great for getting the cat all worked up.

I'm actually kind of regretting not buying a much larger version of the Mach 5 when I had the chance, now. Wal-Mart was clearing out these scale versions of pop culture cars like the Monkee's car and the Mach 5. It only cost, like, $5 or something but at the time I couldn't give a rats ass for anything Speed Racer related, so I just ignored it. Probably bought myself a Big Gulp and a bag of chips with the money instead.

My son, Simon, loves cars and racing and all that jazz so he has a bit of a Speed Racer jones, now. The downside for him is that dad's not going to let him play with the car. Watch the DVD, sure, but no touchy the Mach 5.

Looking at the two pictures again I'm noticing that they both sport a '70s glamour glow like I had a filter on my phone or something. I'm convinced that there must have been some schmutz on the the little pinhole lens or something, but I'm kind of digging the overall effect.

You can catch a glimpse of my collection of animated DVDs in the background, too. Lining the car up with other Japanese shows was not intentional, by the way.

Onwards and upwards!

mike