Sunday, January 18, 2015
Goin' Fishing (Mattel Zowee)
One of the few toy hot rods I've hung onto all these years is from the Mattel line of "Zowee" custom cars; Goin' Fishing is cool simply for the fact that it's a great white on wheels! It's interesting to note that this came out in the 70's, and though I'm not 100% sure, I do believe this car was released even before the movie JAWS hit theaters in 1975. Other wild cars in this series featured stuff like a skull, a devil head, a severed arm shifting, a red knight, a sombrero, etc... all on wheels! Check eBay if you're interested in learning more. One source claims my shark car is "rare" and valued at $75!
Nice little shark!
ReplyDeleteAs you know, Ebay prices are often unreliable. As for "values", the vintage toy market is strange, there's a huge gap between theoretical values (based on rarity, conditions of the item etc.) and prices people are willing to pay. A 1984 Baseball Smurfette is valued at least 125 $ and some chinese guys even made fakes of it, but I see many smurfettes unsold for years on Ebay and other places.
To summarize, the crisis has dramatically lowered the prices of vintage toys in Europe in the last 5 years, and international sellers of rare and expensive items, especially vintage Japanese toys, mostly deal with Chinese and Korean buyers.
Why am I saying this? Don't know. I never sell anything, sometimes i buy, but not on Ebay anymore, too risky.
Being mostly into 70's-80's sci-fi toys and action figures, I couldn't resist and bought a "Metlar" from the Inhumanoids series a couple of years ago. It was pretty affordable, but international shipping's fee killed me...
I go to flea markets where I just buy what I like if it's cheap. Nice little markets where you can find a Micro Change mc 21 radio robot (pre-Transformers toy) in italian box for 5 e., or a bunch of Micronauts or Remco figures, or Soma "Monster men" from some garret... or at least some moldy comics!
Geeze, Karswell, dust your toys before photographing them :)
ReplyDeleteAre the metal prongs in the mouth supposed to be teeth or some kind of seat? Either way, it's a weird mold, but I love the look of it.
There are two larger metal teeth in his mouth at the front bottom, plus an engine where his tongue would be. Wait, do sharks have tongues?
ReplyDeleteYeah, ebay sucks, JD... I mainly just use it for reference info and dates.
Well, the toy market used to base its prices on some kind of "local" rarity. But the internet has changed everything. Not rarity per se--but all concepts of "local" have been entirely redefined by connective tissue engineered to put people with similar interests together. Now I can buy my Japanese toys from people in Japan, for instance, who do not consider them nearly so difficult to obtain as did those Atlanta Fantasy Fair dealers of my youth. It's kind of a Golden Age, actually.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, that is such a cool shark car! As someone who is almost exactly your age, I hope you are as as surprised as I am that I have never seen it before. Or I'd totally own it.
Noticed one on eBay but it's part of a rather expensive, larger lot of Zowees
ReplyDeleteZowees were the BOMB!! I have a few funny cars stored away somewhere.
ReplyDeleteYeah, funny car hot rods are THE BEST!
ReplyDelete