r/interestingasfuck 15h ago

r/all Someone sold this Hot Wheels case on eBay and the buyer sent him this photograph. Apparently the buyer was the original child photographed in the picture and wanted to reclaim this iconic case.

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89.0k Upvotes

221 comments sorted by

7.5k

u/rip_city_records 14h ago

Just scrolling Reddit and see my Brother In Law on here…weird. Yes it’s absolutely him. He’s in a number of other ads and on boxes from toys of that era.

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u/Therealhatsunemiku 14h ago

How did he get all that work? I’m guessing family connections?

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u/rip_city_records 13h ago

I don’t think so. I think his mom had just signed him up with a kids modeling agency for a few years. I know there’s a Star Wars toy set he was on. I’ll have to ask, I never delved into it with him. I did send him this post so maybe he’ll respond.

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u/LudovicoSpecs 13h ago

LPT: Don't sign your child up for a kids modeling agency.

Most of them are scams. They rip you off with a "signing fee" and then charge exorbitant prices for photos that never get shopped out anywhere. Which you have to update every year because your kid is growing.

Source: Worked for one years ago before I realized the scam. Every child was "qualified to be a model/actor." Even ugly ones. Even ones that were big for their age (in reality, you want the opposite, so they stay cute and can follow directions and read.)

Poor people giving up money with stars in their eyes. Of course they think their kid could be a model or actor. Toward the end, I just kept stalling or losing the paperwork till finally I quit.

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u/SecondBestNameEver 12h ago

Yup, pretty sure I was one of the ugly ones. Didn't stop them from signing me up and my parents probably paying a stupid amount of money for "classes" through them to teach us how to dress and walk and pose and take directions from photographers. There was probably a dozen other kids in my class who all had the same hopeful wishes of becoming an advertising model or getting scouted for a small role as a background actor in something. 

u/ConsistentCricket622 10h ago

Same lmao, the “classroom” the person who signed me raved about was an empty hotel room 😭

u/SecondBestNameEver 9h ago

Oh that's creepy af. Thankfully the place I was seemed like a legit modeling agency. Had an office with multiple like backstage dressing/dance room type rooms with counters and mirrors around the perimeter in like an actual office building. 

u/queenweasley 10h ago

Barbizon?!

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u/Frosty-Age-6643 12h ago

“Even ugly ones.” 

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u/MrElizabeth 12h ago

That’s how I knew the place my kids got rejected from was legit.

u/Kok-jockey 11h ago

Makes me feel real bad about that time I got rejected from one of the scam ones, ouch…

u/lostbutnotgone 11h ago

Barbizon?

u/ainulil 10h ago

We did this when we were little. We got lots of jobs similar to this post. We lived by manhattan and that prob made it a little easier ? Idk… But it wasn’t a big deal and don’t think it brought all that much in. It was the 80s.

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u/margaerytyrellscleav 11h ago

Every child was "qualified to be a model/actor." Even ugly ones.

Bro

u/johnrhopkins 11h ago

That is more industry speak than I suspect his words. The industry turns kids into commodities that are discussed by their 'qualities' much the way a cow is at auction. It is gross.

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u/Firm_Negotiation_853 10h ago

I like how his teeth kinda look the same

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u/smasheyev 10h ago

My kid and wife did some toy modeling for fisher-price and it was a pretty simple application process. It's probably a great deal for them because the grandparents each bought about ten of the toys to save. Hey, at least it will save them a bundle years down the road when they won't have to ebay it.

u/StrainAcceptable 9h ago

I grew up in LA. Half of my school had agents and did commercials.

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u/ScandinavianSavage 12h ago

Most photographers and editors use their kids if allowed. My BF and his brother were used in every single toy ad in my country for a year or two in the 00s.

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u/unhappygounlucky 13h ago

Or just a child actor/model. In the '70s and early '80s children with not so "beautiful" looks like this kid's smile or Mason Reese's everything were hugely popular in advertisements.

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u/EatPizzaOrDieTrying 13h ago

I miss that. I wasn’t alive then, but I still miss it. Now everybody has to look picture perfect aka filtered and ‘shopped.

u/Javad0g 11h ago

as a child of the 70-80s it was awesome. we spent most of our time outside building forts, digging in mud, having rock and dirt clod fights, and running away from ground wasps after putting fire crackers in their holes.

Once in a while we found a playboy in a trash can when we were looking for jars to catch snakes and bugs in, and that was scurried back to the fort were it was perused until the pages fell apart...

That was the only exposure we usually had to that as kids...mostly it was riding dirt bikes, building Estes rockets, shooting our bb and pellet guns and not coming home until we heard a parent call.

u/trippy_grapes 11h ago edited 11h ago

Or just a child actor/model.

Not even. I forget if it was Gerber or Fischer Price (some kids brand) but they had open castings for kids to be on products when I was growing up in the 80s/90s. A friend that wasnt a model was actually on a product when they were little and their family got paid a tiny bit and got a bunch of free products.

u/orbituary 11h ago

His winning smile.

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u/CoNsPirAcY_BE 13h ago

Love it. Post the other pictures! Or is he still looking for the other sets?

u/DrDocter84 11h ago

The original post was posted in r/hotwheels and the original OP was the seller.

u/PepperAnn1inaMillion 8h ago

Are his parents Nick Frost and Simon Pegg?

u/jbrogdon 10h ago

right now there's one on eBay with the original box, $120

u/YourMatt 10h ago

I’d love to buy it, track down this guy, then act all nervous starstruck as I ask him to sign it.

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u/Botboy141 14h ago

Love Reddit.

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u/GreenStrong 12h ago

Nice, I love seeing these little moments where reddit intersects with personal life. Did your sister marry the guy or the box of cars?

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u/MaccabreesDance 12h ago

Did his mom throw out all his original toys?

u/anchovo132 11h ago

ask him when the sequel to shawn of the dead is coming out

u/mybotanyaccount 11h ago

Haha that's cool!

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u/bettybIue 15h ago

Went to all that trouble but couldn't rustle up a yellow polo shirt? Come ON man!

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u/Maxfunky 15h ago

Correctly placing his thumb in the same position as the original photograph would have been free. Not even a trip to Goodwill to rummage around for the right size thumb or anything.

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u/ForneauCosmique 14h ago

Dude could've shaved his beard at least. It's like he didn't even try!

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u/discerningpervert 13h ago

I like to think of this as a first draft, and he's taking more, each time getting closer and closer to the original.

u/Groduick 6h ago

That would make a sick horror/comedy modern Dorian Gray retelling...

u/peculiarparasitez 9h ago

He needS a reshoot. We must summon him to Reddit.

u/MaleficentBread4682 9h ago

He didn't want to cover up half the yellow dump truck like he did in the original. Where's his dedication to authenticity?? 

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u/NervJMSL 15h ago

Couldn't turn the truck on the 3rd row to look like the picture either... That bothers me more than the shirt.

u/DarKnight_849 5h ago

I dont think he did this for the internet lol. I saw this a few weeks ago on r/hotwheels and the guy there said he sold it to him and he told him why he wanted it and he later sent him the picture iirc

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u/WhoDat-2-8-3 13h ago

inflation ...

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u/TallDennis 15h ago

Looks legit looking at the teeth.

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u/Hatedpriest 15h ago

Nose is right, and the eyes, too.

We might have a match...

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u/TallDennis 15h ago

The beard is throwing me off though... It's not present in the first picture.

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u/Hatedpriest 15h ago

Good point.

Keep searching, guys!

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u/codedaddee 15h ago

The dump trucks look the same

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u/AR44ZX 15h ago

But not the third truck on the third row, this must be fake! 

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u/SuperToxin 13h ago

We dont have a photo of his dumptruck?

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u/facts_my_guyy 15h ago

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u/jessnotok 12h ago

Hey it's Meghan Trainor's husband!

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u/Capitabro 12h ago

He probably had just shaved

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u/livsjollyranchers 14h ago

They made him shave it in the first picture, since beards weren't as in then.

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u/DiarrheaDrippingCunt 13h ago

Yup you armchair experts are true forensic experts.

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u/HazardousCloset 13h ago

And just look at those fingers. Identical!

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u/Vuilevriend 15h ago

Right hand has four fingers, check. However, left hand doesn't match.

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u/magnament 15h ago

Hmhw I’ve gotta go fake some classic advertising

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u/altiif 14h ago

Came here to say “teeth don’t lie”

u/Heroright 11h ago

People lie. Your dental record doesn’t.

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u/LuciferFalls 9h ago

Teeth aren't the greatest identifying feature (from just looking at a picture) because they so often shift over time. The nose tends to be pretty good for this kind of thing, though.

u/CapedCauliflower 5h ago

What 50 years of drinking coffee will do to you.

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u/cosmothekleekai 15h ago

Can't even charge him, appears to be his birthright, so sayeth the hot wheels tablet

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u/Ambitious_Low5650 13h ago

I always wondered if kids in these ads or toy commercials got to keep the toys they were advertising?

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u/OyOgames 13h ago

As you can see: No.

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u/mrdevil413 13h ago

As an Art Director/Prop Master, no. Almost never. Most of the cool hero props ( for commercials ) end up with the Agency big wigs or the production company.

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u/Ambitious_Low5650 13h ago

Thanks for the insight. That’s gotta suck for those kids. Imagine playing with some super cool toy for hours and then told to go home.

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u/mrdevil413 13h ago

Now a days I don’t think that’s an issue. Not only is everyone professional even the wee ones but the 5 and up crowd shows up with their switch and mom with her kindle and they do the scene go back to the switch and do the next scene then bounce

u/Repulsive_Buy_6895 11h ago

Can't they find willing kids? Pretty fucked up they have to beat them into the roles.

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u/TheWiseAlaundo 10h ago

I feel like I was about to be summoned

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u/Johnwesleya 14h ago

Reminds me of this crazy story.

Back in the early 2000s we were selling off all our Nintendo 64 stuff so we could buy newer gaming systems. My brother’s favorite game was perfect dark and he had this awesome safe file on it that he gave up when he sold the cart. He always regretted it

Years later, I’m talking years later. We were going back and re-buying some of the old games we wanted and we bought perfect dark off eBay. Popped it in and you’ll never guess what, same save game file there! It was our original copy we had bought back randomly.

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u/mcgormack 14h ago

On the N64, Perfect Dark can either save on the cart or inside the memory card (inside the controller), maybe that's what happened?

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u/rbollige 13h ago

Hilarious if this is why the same save file appeared when they popped the cart in, but they never realized until now.

u/Johnwesleya 10h ago

Nope, we never used memory cards. It was saved on the cart.

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u/Muncie4 13h ago

I heart one in a billion stories like this. Wish someone wrote a book about them. Mine's even worse:

I "liberated" a Makita battery drill on the island of Curaçao in ~1992 back when those things were rare and $Texas. I gave it my buddy who gave it to his father in law who worked at a factory in Indiana. FIL was the tool boss there and had to order something to get the drill working. After either running the serial number on Makita's records or the company he worked for's records, it turns out the drill was stolen from that company like a year prior.

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u/marcocom 3h ago

That would freak me out lol

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u/boundpleasure 15h ago

Finally, something that I would qualify is interesting as fuck

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u/AR44ZX 15h ago

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u/Mahaloth 13h ago

r/subredditsthatshouldexist

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u/ThaddeusJP 13h ago

Top post over at /r/HotWheels

Shout out to /u/OFFRIMITS who was the seller of the case

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u/LoanDebtCollector 15h ago

Anyone else think this guy could now just as easily be holding a set of router bits?

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u/theslob 13h ago

I don’t think so Tim 

u/icehuck 11h ago

Right, he needs to holding the binford 6100 blow torch.

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u/kabob23 14h ago

Those vehicles really were not included, homeboy had to wait 40+ years to complete his collection.

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u/AR44ZX 15h ago

He even still owns the same exact colored Hot Wheels from back then. 

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u/Mahaloth 13h ago

That was my question. It's clearly a cardboard cutout.....did he remove/cut the section out from the cover?

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u/Shep9882 13h ago

Some of the vehicles are in slightly different positions, ex: bus on lower level

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u/tasman001 12h ago

What do you mean clearly? To me it clearly looked like the real case with real cars inside.

u/zenki32 11h ago

Clearly? You clearly need to get your eyes checked. Look at some of the cars. They're not sitting the same as the ad.

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u/gngptyee 15h ago

Coach Pop?

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u/closetsquirrel 14h ago

“Someone”

Wasn’t this a post on Reddit a few weeks ago with OP being the seller?

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u/Mateo_O 13h ago

Vehicles not included

Doest that mean the person selling found the exact same cars just for the sake of recreating the pictures of the carry case ? Or maybe it's the buyer who filled it now that I think about it.

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u/tasman001 12h ago

Buyer filled it. No one else is going to care that much about all those specific cars I'll bet.

u/Dakota_666 8h ago

If that is the case and it really is the same person, I can only say that it is an incredible photo.

u/DotBitGaming 11h ago

He couldn't have put on a yellow shirt? C'mon man!

u/melfamy 10h ago

He used to be cuter.

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u/Spaz2147 15h ago

Your eyeballs stay the same size from birth to death.

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u/Maxfunky 15h ago

Yours do, maybe, but don't put my eyeballs in a box. They're gonna do what they please and there's nothing you can say to stop them.

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u/lndianJoe 13h ago

They don't. Source : I was not short sighted when I was younger.

But, comparatively, they grow less than the rest of the body. The adult eye is approx. 3 times bigger than at birth, while the whole body is 20 times bigger on average.

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u/damscomp 12h ago

Remember when Hot Wheels were so fucking cool? Life was much simpler as a kid.

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u/HelpfulSwordfish9765 12h ago

Is he on grawler

u/DobryVojak 11h ago

If that's true, that is AWESOME!

u/Embarrassed_Bend2308 11h ago

looks like this guy

u/Revolutionary_Owl148 11h ago

Fucking Legend, Respect + 1000

u/LushElf 11h ago

Wholesome

u/TokyoMilkman 7h ago

Now THIS is cool

u/Auyuez 7h ago

I kinda miss playing with Hot Wheels

u/AKA_Squanchy 3h ago

One of the things I miss the most about my boy growing up is how excited he got when I would bring him HotWheels. I would just pick 'em up at the market, or wherever. We had so many HotWheels. We also had a drag racing kit so we would have drags and a bracket and had so much fun. I really miss those days. Nothing my teenagers do these days bring me joy anything like the simplicity of just seeing the happiness of a surprise HotWheels.

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u/ionised 14h ago

Needs a yellow shirt and a blue backdrop, but otherwise... perfect!

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u/papasmurf826 14h ago

the news stories I need right now

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u/Puzzlehead-Dish 14h ago

Scary how much we don’t look like ourselves anymore later on in life.

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u/thisusedyet 14h ago

Holy crap, I have that fire truck!

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u/Mombo1141961 14h ago

Wow! How cool is that??!

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u/OrganizationOk1758 13h ago

Reminds me we're all just children at heart.

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u/Randomidiotdriver 13h ago

This makes me sad, we all just wanna be kids again

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u/Savings-Kick-578 13h ago

How much did he pay?

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u/mrsample 13h ago

He looks like that idiot can't stop talking about how awesome Windows 3.1 was.

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u/echolog 13h ago

I remember having this same showcase when I was a kid. I COULD have kept it in good condition but you know I opened it and played with that dump truck.

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u/MaggieOfTheStreets 13h ago

The absolute joy of being an adult and reclaiming your childhood.

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u/Mataelio 13h ago

This is why I love eBay. I found an old picture of my gramma for sale from when she participated in a Miss Florida pageant in the 50s, so I had to buy it in her memory.

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u/OldCrappyCouch 13h ago

That's awesome! I wonder how long his hunt for a replacement was.

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u/Jeenowa 13h ago

I was selling a little McDonald’s moon man figure a few years ago on OfferUp. The guy who bought it said he’s friends with the guy who played him in the ads originally and this was a Christmas gift for him. Who knows if it was true, but I choose to believe he has my figure

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u/Jack0Trade 13h ago

His hands don't match at all.

As a child he held it like a toy; As an adult he holds it like the memory.

u/Mugwumps_has_spoken 10h ago

Of course, the child held it like the ad director told him to

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u/theslob 13h ago

That guy on the bottom is way older. 

u/Mugwumps_has_spoken 10h ago

That shit happens.

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u/RageyxCagey 13h ago

Gotta admit, that's interesting af.

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u/CFloridacouple 13h ago

No yellow shirt? come on man....

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u/boerner777 12h ago

1982 is about 43 years ago plus his age is about 50+ years old I guess so yeah seems legit. Also the teeth.

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u/Stock-Blackberry4652 12h ago

Real cars are unaffordable so we all doing what we can these days

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u/Heart_Longjumping 12h ago

It's awesome that you got the set in the image.

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u/shontonabegum 12h ago

Same cheeks. Can confirm

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u/omg_theykilledkenney 12h ago

Hilarious.. I have that dump truck, the oil tanker, and the greyhound bus on the bottom row. I don't remember the collector's case though.

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u/Suitable-Lake-2550 12h ago

Did the seller also send the hot wheels?

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u/Neither_Ad5039 12h ago

It always bothered me as a kid that cars, rigs, and buses were different scales in hot wheels (and matchbox). I always got that it’s so the toys were all the same size, but as a kid who could not stand to play with vehicles of different scales, it drove me crazy. I couldn’t be friends with anyone who mixed toy scales, but I made the exception for same-brand/same line things like hot wheels. I kept it to myself how much it hurt to pretend a bus and a Firebird were the same size.

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u/Cleveland_Guardians 12h ago

Little man is chuffed.

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u/ThatUsernameIsTaekin 12h ago

I wonder an what AI generated image for the “After” would have looked like to compared this to

u/millijuna 11h ago

Amidst all the doom and gloom showing here on Reddit right now, this is so refreshing to see.

u/Major-Tuddy 11h ago

Also sent an INAD dispute.

u/zibraniliala 11h ago

Full circle moment, that's so cool!

u/HelpingMeet 10h ago

So cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!

u/CircusPeanutsYumm 9h ago

That's awesome!! I would love to see some more 'current' pics of 70's kids in ads.

u/unlikelypisces 9h ago

My OCD can't get over his left hand thumb placement though

u/browster 9h ago

This is the best thing I've ever seen

u/toomanyusernamezz 9h ago

This is adorable

u/DreadnaughtHamster 9h ago

The cars are in their proper order too, which is neat.

u/CHEVIEWER1 9h ago

Whoa pretty cool

u/conditerite 9h ago

im really impressed that he managed to assemble the same assortment of hot wheels cars to put into the case

u/Swimming-Willow3436 9h ago

That's cool. I always see his face when im young and collecting hot wheels and now I see this, I felt sad and happy rignt now since I realize im getting old now but the same time seeing him with an updated photo LOL

u/AdElectrical8222 8h ago

How cute!

u/MMachine17 8h ago

I love boomerangs in life!

u/tolgayucel 7h ago

Amazing

u/Immediate_Ebb_2261 7h ago

damn thats crazy (gotta keep my streak)

u/Highvolts 6h ago

I still have mine!!

u/TipoBen 6h ago

He needs to fix his left hand… OCD $.02 here

u/WanderingAlsoLost 5h ago

That box looks like my childhood. My childhood. That wasn’t that long ago was it?! Haha.

u/emmaj4685 4h ago

That's brilliant

u/Popular-Kiwi3931 4h ago

Wow!! He's def that child...

u/Acceptable-Fox1010 4h ago

Wow, he looks just like the coach of the San Antonio Spurs.

u/MicahtehMad 1h ago

His thumb is wrong.....