Custom and imaginary vehicles - The Twin Mill (orange second to last row middle 2 engines) was one of my first 5 cars. The exhaust pipes are gone now. The Second Wind (numbered 5 and 6 middle left) were the Hot Wheels Mach 5 knockoff. I had the '5' model when I was little but lost it. I saw the '6' one and bought it years ago, then found one with the original decals later. The two bottom orange cars are fattie Mustangs that have been turned into wagons.
Muscle cars - Firebirds, Camaros, a Challenger, Mustangs, a Cobra, plus a Packin' Pacer and a Gremlin X
Corvette, Lotus, and Ferrari - The bagged car is the same as the one next to it and as I recall came from an early to mid 90s cereal mail in offer.
Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, and Lamborghini - The poor silvered Mercedes C-111 in the top left is another of my first 5 cars. It got scratched up and I got a second one you see there. A kid stole the second one out of my coat pocket and broke one of the gullwing doors off one recess that I had to stay inside for talking in class in second grade. He put it all back in my coat pocket and I have since repaired the door. I picked up a nice minty 3rd one anyway as it was always a favorite. The (barely) orange Porsche 917 second row right was another first 5 car and I broke the engine cover off. I just recently got a decent shape replacement (to the left) as that model has gone up in value, especially if it still has the rear window which is prone to falling out as well as the cover breaking off.
F1 cars and dragsters - The black F1 car near the top left was the best car I had as a kid for my Thundershift 500. It is a Corgi Jr car, but it rolled faster than all of my other cars I had at the time. All of the dragsters shown here have lift up bodies. The beat up yellow Mustang II dragster in the middle is another first 5 car and is old enough that it has a little plastic snap in cage for the driver from before all the Hot Wheels dragsters used the same one piece frame.
Other racers and 50s Chevy - The Renault Turbo in the middle back is actually a Darda pullback car, but when it arrived in my hands the motor was a rustball and I had to gut it so it would even roll. I could get a replacement motor, but it's a German toy and I'm not really worried about it. The beat up 57 Chevy in the bottom left was my first ever Hot Wheels. I got it in kindergarten for class gift exchange so I've had it since I was 4!
Oldies - The Paddy Wagon in the bottom left is missing its top. but it was given to me that way.
More oldies and Datsun/Nissan - The Model A and Model T trucks were also mail off vehicles, thus most being bagged. The Rodney Roadster on the far left came to me with no body and I glues some random model bits on it so it wasn't so bare as a kid. The Nissan 126-X concept car in the bottom right had its rear suspension break and I fixed it. I'm surprised I don't have more Z cars.
Large, luxury, and compact
Trucks - I have the model of the black and orange Bronco as well.
Vans and cabs - The sliding door opens on the black Caravan, that's why it's facing the other way. It is hard to tell but the hood opens on the orange van right next to it. I had a green version of that orange van but lost it in 1st grade one day at recess that it had frozen and everyone was playing with the ice. Must have fallen out of my pocket.
TV and movie vehicles - Row 1 Spider copter, Yogi Bear, Jerry, Tom, Cannonball run Ferrari Dino, Days of Thunder. Row 2 Bat boat, Bat copter, brown Buick is related to the DC vehicles to its right somehow, orange Wonder Woman Bertone Runabout (WW is gone), 2 Supermobiles with punching action (one has wheels, one has nubs). Row 3 Thor van, 2 Iron Man Vette Vans, Hardcastle & McCormick Coyote. Row 4 2 General Lee and a 007 Lotus sub.
Service vehicles - Swat van and mail truck back doors open. The ice cream van seemed to fit best here.
Construction vehicles and wreckers - The green Unimog with the blade had a canopy on the back, I have no idea where it went. I had the middle 2 white wreckers as a kid, the other 2 came from a lot. The yellow has a different decal on it but is a misprint as it completely missing from the left side. The red truck on the right used to have a yellow skip but I popped it on and off so much the hooks broke off.
More work trucks - I forgot the forklift in the previous shot.
Random - The Junkers JU was obviously another casualty of the silver marking pen.
Key Cars and spark plug car - All of these are Key Cars except for the orange Jagermeister BMW which uses the spark plug for locomotion. Key Cars all have an orange key as shown that slides into a slot with a spring in the back. Then you squeeze the key to fire it off. The red Corvette has a hood that flies off when it runs into something. I have no idea why the gold 280Z was sold with the Magnum PI license on it. Since I have that 308 with glow in the dark bits, presumably there was a red Magnum 308 sold.
Pullback and Micro Machines - Except for the little tiny F1 car and the Micro Machine Beetles, these are all friction and pullback cars. The white 280Z has a spinning part on the back and does gyroscopic tricks. The black FJ jeep thing with the surfboard is a penny racer. That's Mayor McCheese next to it. The black Capri is a Shift Kicker, you pull it back and pull the lever back. Then you line up the car where you want and flick the lever to make it go. The little red Beetle will bounce off a wall, flip over backwards, then take off again. The TT and New Beetle are insanely detailed for their size.
Odd lot - The first row is old slot cars. That is a General Lee from a set my friend had, but the labels are gone from the car. The maroon, green, and red cars are Crackups. They have little panels that flip around to show damage when hit. The rear window that holds the maroon panel in place was gone when I got that one. I'll probably open up the car and craft a new one at some point. The 2 little moon vehicles were from a mall cheapo toy store years ago. The spaceship cockpit tilts up and back and the buggy claw has a lever to pull in the back to grab things. The blue car in the bottom left is a wax car. A friend got a set and I've managed to hold onto that car for ~30 years without letting it melt.
Corgi large cars - These are about 1 1/2 times bigger than a Hot Wheels/Matchbox car. The bottom one is an Adams Probe 16 (with sliding roof) that was a custom vehicle that only a few were made. One was used in A Clockwork Orange.
Big Beetles - These are double the size of a Hot Wheels/Matchbox car. They all have opening hoods, doors, and pullback motors.
Beetles - The poor battered one in the top left was my first Beetle toy. In first grade, the bully that tormented me throughout elementary school was busy trying to destroy that car in class one day. After he threw it away I rescued it from the trash. It is a shame since it is more detailed than most of the similar sized Beetles I have. Perhaps someday it will be repainted. The 2 bright green cars on the second row are dragsters with lift up bodies.
Buggies and Rabbits - The man in the open purple buggy bounces up and down as you roll the car.
Sealed Matchbox VW - Dune buggies, Things, a Van, and Beetles.
Sealed Matchbox VW 2 - Taco Bell New Beetle Concept, 2 concepts, 2 concept convertible, 2 baja. The green baja is a little different than the yellow one, which also has an opening hood. The loose silver baja earlier is the same mold as the yellow but does not have an opening hood.
Sealed Hot Wheels VW - The yellow Beetle Cup one is actually open and the body is removable from the chassis. The green one is a convertible. Notice that HW face right in the package and MB face left.
Bit Char-G - The original tiny RC cars. I had a yellow New Beetle at the time I got this. The red Skyline is a pullback car, but you can put the body on the RC chassis. That's a random Walgreens die cast.
Random VW - Really detailed Meyers Manx dune buggy and black Beetle Dragster. Small detailed red Beetle, Blue dune buggy and a large 52 Beetle.
Random 1 - Aerovette concept car with rubber wheels. Random stock car. The bottom Mach 5 is actually the exact same kind as the loose pullback one above. I had bought the loose one, then when the DVDs were coming this was our rental copy at my old job that came with the car. They didn't want it so I took the outer box and car and it turned out to be the same vehicle.
Random open 2 - These are all opened. 2 highlights are the GT 40 and the Copperhead on the left.
Random sealed - Datsun Bluebird 510, 2 skyline, 60s Batmobile, Ferrari 308, Vega, Alfa Romeo Guilia, Lotus Europa, Austin Mini van.
Vandemonium custom - This was a Scorcher (pullback motor Hot Wheels) that I found as a kid with a broken motor and the rubber missing from the back wheels. My dad opened it up and removed the broken gears and made some rubber wheels for me. The top right shows what a minty one looked like. While it was awesome of my dad to bother fixing it for me back then, they weren't perfect. At my old job we had some knockoff Bit Char-g cars and there was a dead one sitting in a drawer. I took the wheels from the broken RC car and worked them into the van and I was pretty happy with the results of it being lowered, a little aggressively tilted forward, and the wheels filling the fenders much better than the originals. Sure it looks a little "dublike" which I generally don't care for but it looks a lot better than it did. It was pure dumb luck that they were a similar 8 spoke design.
