#66: Scooby Doo Mystery Micro-Figures - Velma

Blindpacked minifigures has become one of the interesting trends in toys lately, thanks to LEGO's ongoing line. They're a pretty inexpensive way to get a lot of characters, and add the thrill of surprise/frustration of figuring out what you'll get to the toy buying experience. Character Building, who already has a Doctor Who line of these is expanding into Scooby Doo. Friend of the blog James was trying to get both Daphne and Velma, but ended up with two Velmas, so I got the spare. Apparently only Velma and Daphne are in the blindpacked line, and if you want the rest of the Scooby gang, you have to buy the larger building sets. So that pretty much kills any likelihood that I'll be getting the whole group. As the brains of the operation, Velma is probably the most important character anyway.

"Meddling kids!"

#98: Scooby Doo Hot Wheels - The Mystery Machine

Recently I watched the first season of the newest Scooby Doo cartoon, Mystery Incorporated. Except for maybe the time that the Scooby gang met Batman, I think it is the best onscreen version of the Scooby Doo franchise. More recently, I was taken by surprise when I saw a display of Hot Wheels cars at the grocery store, with a Mystery Machine right in front of one of the compartments. I had no idea this was being made, but since my Hot Wheel collection tends towards pop culture vehicles, this was a nice fit for my collection. This is a pretty great representation of the iconic van from the cartoons, although it's only painted on the sides. I'm not really familiar enough with Hot Wheels to know whether this is a typical sort of paint shortcut, but it's Mattel, so I'm guessing that it probably is. Still, it's a very cool toy car to have, so I'm glad I was able to find one without any prior knowledge of its existence. It is numbered 38/50 in the upper corner, for easy identification on the pegs, as well as having "Scooby Doo" written on the upper lefthand corner.