The return of the hot wheels!

Now that I have a son, I have finally discovered the greatest toy for a single dollar.  This timeless toy has been around for over fifty years and has cost around a dollar for as long as I can remember.  It is the hot wheels.  These 97cent cars have held up better to the terrors of toddlerhood than their much more expensive toddler aged counterparts.  Fortunately, this child does not put foreign objects in his mouth because I do have quite a few spare tires found with hubby's childhood collection that proves they are destructible.  Little man loves to spend the entire day telling me about these cars and racing them on any surface in the house.
One day, the car aisle was in shambles as a baby boomer searched desperately around the freshly stocked cars for the few needed to complete THAT year's collection.  When he was done, he showed me his printed check list and pictures of all the cars he had amassed since the creation of hot wheels.   It was mind boggling! I had never fully comprehended the sheer number of different cars created in a year.  This created a small, nagging fear in the back of my mind which I promptly tried to dismissed.  After  all, little man couldn't possibly realize all the differences yet, could he?
 My son's obsession with cars began around the age of six months.  Now I have become quite the toy car expert.  My father has been grooming me for this my entire life.  He literally has thousands of model cars ranging from matchbox to Franklin Mint.  My amazon wish list even has dad's only remaining desired car toy; a Yat Ming 1:18 1961 Chrysler Crown Imperial listed in hopes that someday it will be reduced from the $80 it lists for.  I know my car toys.  When I visit dad, the guest room is little man's fantasy....and mommy's  nightmare.  Walls of bookcases, completely covered from floor to ceiling with some of my dad's  prized collection.  My little climber is in pure heaven, and I have visions of crashes and concussions followed by broken limbs, rear view mirrors, bumpers, and fenders dancing through my head all night.  So far, casualties have been limited, but little man is only two.  Thankfully for the budget, hotwheels have managed to almost equal the boy's hero...Lightning McQueen and friends.
Traveling up the car toy aisle got progressively easier and cheaper as the year progressed.  Somehow, he could remember which ones we had, and which he thought he needed to have.  Most of the desperately needed cars were at home, waiting by the train (or car in this case) table a friend graciously gave us.  The days of peace have reached an end.  Now there are, according to the hotwheels website, 250 new cars available.  These seemed have finally reached our shelves.  Yesterday in the car aisle, little man's eyes lit up Christmas morning when he saw all of this year's creations.  It was a cute, if not imminently expensive, Kodak moment.  I should have known.  Any company that has been in business for so long, knows what they are doing.  What they are losing in initial cost, they are making up for in sheer volume and quantity.  I guess the new 2013 hunt has finally begun.