Back when Jimmie Johnson had his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup championship tied up, I put in my order for an RCCA Elite 1:24 scale diecast. This was way back at the end of 2010. Over this last weekend I finally received my championship diecast, adding to my collection.
Finally!!!
Now granted, this is the fifth NASCAR championship in a row. A huge achievement. This is then, also the fifth Jimmie Johnson diecast I’ve bought in five years and it was getting old to add blue and silver diecasts to my collection of NASCAR Champions.
But as you can see, this year, they mixed it up a bit. Last year they added ticker-tape confetti to the scheme to differentiate it from the year before. The first two championship diecasts were different because one was the old car design and the next one was the COT. But egads man, enough is enough!!!!
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I don’t know if you noticed but I’ve seen some talk about the new Captain America: The First Avenger movie and how it will be missing some era-relevant war symbols and such.
In this rendition of Captain America (starring Chris Evans), the bad guy, the Red Skull (played by Hugo Weaving) is no longer a Nazi or Communist as he was in much earlier, previous renditions but rather, a member of Hydra. It also looks like since we won’t be seeing the historical bad guys from that era of war, we’ll also be missing the markings of the swastikas.
Don’t worry, there’s a decent answer for this.
Marketing & social hurdles.
There are a lot of instances where a product can be produced as is and left alone to be marketed and sold in stores. But there are laws, rules and other guidelines that can affect the marketing of a product or merchandise from a product that impact how it’s sold or distributed.
For instance, in NASCAR, diecasts and apparel are huge. Everyone wants a piece of their favorite driver. But as a once-avid diecast collector, one of the first things you notice as you get into the industry is that there are “adult” diecasts and clothing lines for NASCAR. By that, I mean that the drivers that are sponsored by alcohol or tobacco companies have a noticeable challenge when selling merchandise.
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As a member of RCCA, (Racing Collectables Club of America) which, in case you didn’t know, is now a part of Lionel NASCAR Collectables, you have a pretty cool event for the upcoming week at Daytona. They have three drivers confirmed for the events and all you have to be is a Platinum, Gold or Bronze member to participate! I wish I were headed there or I’d sign up in a hot flash!
RCCA members will have an opportunity to race go karts on Feb 16th, and if the timing works out, the winner of the race will face off, head to head with Mike Wallace.
On the 17th of Feb., it’s dinner with the racing legend, Bobby Allison.
On the 18th of Feb., the selected RCCA members will get a garage tour and meet with Joey Logano, Brian Scott and Clint Bowyer.
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All you have to be is a member. I don’t know if signing up to become a member gets you the chance or if this is open to existent members like myself. I’ve held an RCCA card for … wow, around ten years now. And yes, I have so many diecast that it’s a hazard to my health!
Check out the press release below and if you are, and you can, go for it and come back and let NASCAR Bits and Pieces know about the fun you had!!!
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Right now when you hit up the NASCAR website, call any of NASCAR’s listed phone numbers or other such attempts at communicating thoughts to the sanctioning body, you get anywhere but. For instance, NASCAR.com is peppered with 2nd & 3rd party interactive sources. Eleven right upfront. Most notable of those is Turner.com. For me to see most content on NASCAR.com, I have to allow Turner.com in my NoScript add-on here on FireFox. Emails via the website end up with Turner Sports and phone numbers are answered by ISC. (International Speedway Corporation)
In other words, good luck! It’s like trying to find an email address for the YouTube (Google) support gang!
Recently, NASCAR hired a survey firm to understand how the NASCAR fan likes to interact with NASCAR and the study involved 1,500 fans. But right off the bat, from my opening paragraphs, you can see the issue already at hand. NASCAR on the web is anything but. The overseeing company of this study project, in both the study phase and latter execution, is called Taylor.
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Now NASCAR is looking to refocus their identity when it comes to the internet and in so doing, and in replacing Ramsey Poston, they are looking to hire someone outside the industry of auto racing to replace him.
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I heard this question on the SIRIUS NASCAR channel the other day and it reflected on whether or not Jimmie Johnson would get his 5th consecutive title in as many years and if so, would this make his achievement the greater achievement than say Richard Petty or Dale Earnhardt achieving 7 championships?
I have a real hard time trying to gauge that one. 7 titles “from the day” are impressive and so far, untouched and as far as I can tell, will more than likely stay untouched for a while. I just can’t see Johnson taking the title for the next 4 years to achieve the status of overtaking that magic No. 7. But then again, I’ve been wrong before. (That’s assuming a consecutive streak.)
No, there’s nothing technical I can quote as to why Jimmie won’t win #5, but I can reference an athlete’s worse fear, and that is the dance with lady luck. Lady Luck can have an awful affect on one’s mental outlook after so many moments when you dance with her.
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First and foremost, RCCA has heard your complaints and are going back to using UPS.
Not only are they going back to UPS, but they’re also starting up combined shipping rates for multiple purchases! (Here is were my wallet is shrinking thinking oh crap, now he’s got an excuse to buy more!)
But on a serious note, here is what RCCA has to say about combined shipping:
Available on in stock purchases only. Die-cast shipping will be $8.50 for the 1st car and $4 for each additional up to 6 cars per order. This only applies to in stock die-cast and MUST be ordered by calling customer service. Web orders will not be processed with combined shipping due to system limitations at this time.
They obviously aren’t including what I would consider to be the mainstay of their product ordering process, the web, but it’s there. I’ve called in orders and my past experiences have been fantastic.
For you Becketts fans, the Becketts Racing Magazine is back and it will be a quarterly publication.
www.beckett.com
That’s what I got from an RCCA Newsletter today!
NASCAR Bits and Pieces contacted RCCA (Racing Collectibles Club of America) and they told me that the 2009 Jimmie Johnson Championship diecasts will be up for sale on Tuesday, December 1st starting at 9 a.m..
No… you will not beat me to the punch on this one. I buy the champion diecast every year and I’ll be darned if I miss a year now! Even if it will be my 4th No. 48 Lowe’s RCCA Elite diecast that I’ll be adding to my collection. Grr… so much for diversity of cars, but now, I’ll have history in my display case.
Diecast links for RCCA, GoRacing: http://www.goracing.com
