Incredible news! Ken just e-mailed me a link to an event taking place this Saturday, Nov. 8th: another K-mart Collector Day, and another 40th Anniversary vehicle promotion! Hit our calendar to get the links!
Yes, yes, I know the previous K-mart event was just this September. I can't explain it; I just dig it!
Yes, yes, I know that's the same date as our November club meeting -- you'll just have to make it work somehow!
See you at the November meeting!
BOO! ...And thus ends any further reference to Halloween. Added several new photos to the Gallery, including a few of a very special ornament, as well as a bit of interactivity. Enjoy!
Added a great new link that a very nice person sent to me (thanks, Ken!).
Updated the calendar, including closing out the link to the Nomad® promotion -- hope you didn't miss it!
And with that, even the Update is fully updated; you are now free to roam about the site.
See you at the November meeting!
The first real update since my hard-drive crash! Woo-hoo!
Added a bunch of great photos, including a few from the "lost time" (see Aug. 11 update). The photos include one of a Husky model which inspired me to do some online research about the company. That lead me to a great gallery site with pics of MOC Huskys (no, really!), as well as several other classic brands. So, that site is now atop the updated Links page.
Closed out the K-days link in the Calendar, and swapped the entries for the Tampa Auto Show and our November meeting (since the Auto Show comes first!) (Your humble Webmaster is not always brilliant...)
See you at the October meeting!
Added two great items to the Calendar: 1) The next Kmart Collector event (mid-September), and 2) The 40th Anniversary Nomad® promotion (mid-September thru October). Be sure to click the links to get the details!
Also, discovered a mistake on the Links page: accidentally erased the retro catalogs entry; it's back now, under the Maelstrom entry until the next update.
See you at the September meeting!
Got a few more updates now. Updated the Calendar to close the Dairy Delivery® offer as well as the past few meetings; also updated the dates for the Tampa Auto Show.
Added a new link: a Maelstrom fan club site! It's part of a larger site, but the Maelstrom section is pretty substantial on its own. Be sure to check out the Millstrom in the Customs section!
As for the computer (see previous update), most of the stuff's back together now; not at 100% yet, but close. Thanks for your prayers and your patience.
See you at the September meeting!
CRASH! Yep, it happened. Which half-explains the delay in updating the site. In July, family get-togethers ate up some of Your Humble Webmaster's free time; that same month I did a big room swap, moving the office into the guest bedroom and vice-versa. This meant not only the furniture and all the stuff on the shelves, but also having to sked relocation of the cable & internet service. I eventually realized I would not be able to get an update posted in time for the June meeting.
So, I began making the updates and prepping the photos, etc., for the August meeting. Then my laptop's hard-drive goes belly-up -- AUUGH! I was able to get a replacment shipped to me in a few days, but I had to install Windows and all the laptop drivers and utilities from the ground up. And I'm still not done!
Oh, the laptop is running fine, but only few of the apps and none of the peripherals are installed so far. Swapping the hard drive, which I considered the scariest part, actually went quite smoothly; but it's taken far, far more hours than I expected to do the software installs.
That's why the only update on the site right now is this one, to explain the lack of updates. The rest of the site updates will be piecemeal. I had backed up many files, including all the site files, about a month or so ago, so I have to re-create only the most recent stuff, but between now and the September meeting I'll update just a section at a time, with brief notes here on the Update page, until the site and my laptop are back up to speed.
See you at the September meeting!
Very, very happy to announce the arrival of the 2008 Club Truck! We have several great photos of it on its own dedicated page. (Word to the wise: both the '08 and '07 Club Trucks are in limited supply!)
Added a huge stack of pics to the Gallery. Also made an addition to the Gallery that I've been thinking about for a while: a horizontal rule & month call-out. Its purpose, aside from the obvious calendarization of the Gallery, is to visually break up the photos into groups, and thus give it a more organized appearance.
Updated the Calendar to include the 2008 Toys 'R' Us Dairy Delivery® promotion (with link).
Added a groovy new link: a collection of catalog scans from our youth! Check it out, and relive the halcyon days of "Mom, if you just get me that, I promise I won't ask for anything else!"
See you at the June meeting!
On behalf of Mike & Ken, I want to give a shout-out to those who have contributed to the financial needs of this website. We offer you our very sincere thanks.
Jeremy was at it again, customizing some perfectly harmless cars and making them into outrageous rides. You can see his handiwork in the Gallery, as well as a few other cool finds from last month's meeting. You gotta get to our meetings to get these great trades and finds!
Added several new links. Newer member Patty is also into 1/18-scale models, so I added some forum addies that she sent me. Speaking of 1/18: added a link to an online gallery celebrating toys and pop-culture, which features several seriously modified 1/18 Drag Bus models (you can view a sample in our Gallery). Warning: this site is very graphic-heavy.
Closed out some expired links in the Calendar -- uh, I think I'm done here!
See you at the May meeting!
We are very happy to announce our first customization! Please check out the Gallery for Jeremy's groovy Nova custom & interview!
Also want to give a big shout-out to Frank L., who had some very nice things to say over at Joe's Diecast Shack -- thanks, Frank!
Added two new links (yes, two again): the home page for the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as well as a July '07 interview with Pierre Picton, who owns the original Chitty and was a stunt double and driving double for Dick Van Dyke in the movie.
Updated the calendar to add a couple of new shows, close out the February K-Days link -- and note that the Hot Wheels 40th Anniversary VW Drag Truck can still be ordered through April 26!
See you at the April meeting!
Well, the first big update you'll notice is that our Updates page has been moved right here to the forefront! I decided that our newest info would seem newer if it appeared right after you clicked past the home page rather than having to bring it up "manually" via the navigation column. Having the map, with address, show up right after the home page, also with address, was just redundant. Another change you'll notice is that I no longer put links in specific updated items; again, it's redundant to have them here and in the nav column right over there.
Oh, that reminds me: the "Enter..." and "Updated..." lines on the home page are now one link again; since that link brings you right here to the Updates page, no need for a separate "Updated..." link (again, that there redundancy issue!).
No pics were taken during the January meeting -- too bad, too, as some great finds and trades took place. The Jan meeting was unique as well: power was lost to half the Sports Bar, so the doors were open for fresh air. A dark, cool, quiet meeting -- hooray for power outages!
We do have some nice pics from the Feb meeting, so please check out the Gallery. And there are two new links on the Links page(!); one of our members did some online research to get more data on one of his new purchases, and one site gave info that led him to the second site for verification -- this is also referenced under the first new Feb pic in the Gallery.
Another (minor) update: I've removed the pop-up blocker notes, as most browers warn you if a link you chose gets blocked. And finally, I'll now be "signing" each new update as WM (for Web Master, not William).
See you at the March meeting!
Added links to the Calendar for K-mart / Hot Wheels events, as well as the Zephyrhills Auto Show.
Updated the Calendar, now showing all regular meeting dates for 2008.
Closed out the links to the pre-Christmas sale.
Added some Christmas meeting pics to the Gallery.
And finally got around to correcting a silly error on the Links page: your humble Webmaster had left out the Gran Toros link when redesigning that page. It's now back atop the list and will stay there until after the Feb. 09 meeting.
Updated the Calendar, including adding a special page for the pre-Christmas sale.
Closed out the links to the K-mart event.
Added a "teaser" pic to the Gallery.
Updated the Calendar, including adding a special page for the upcoming K-Mart event.
Added more pics to the Gallery. By the way, I'm trying something different: instead of stacking all of ToyCarGuy's pics in the Gallery, I've put them in an in-line frame (a scrollable window) within the Gallery. Please e-mail me with your comments about the i-frame ...especially if it's not working!
Made a (hopefully) useful change to the Home page: the "Updated..." line, which had been part of the "Enter..." link, is now a separate link that brings you directly to, well, here, the Updates page. Thus, one click now lets you see the most-recent updates!
Updated the Calendar
Added some sweet pics and an intro paragraph to the Gallery
Added another address to the Links page, as well doing another format change: arranged the links into a table for easier reading (and to take up less vertical space!)
Of course, the first update you'll notice is that we've added this Updates page! It's a brief, chronological summary of specific changes. It goes a little something like this...
Updated the Calendar (this one will show up in pretty much every update)
Added several more pictures to the Gallery
Added a new site address to the Links page (the Links page has also had a small format change: any new link will be posted at the top of the page, flagged as NEW!, and will remain at the top for one month or until another new site is added)
Well, that's our first official posted update; hope you find it useful!