Toy Wonders New Arrivals

February 15, 2008
Your wholesale source for diecast 1/18, 1/24, and 1/64 scale collector model cars, toys, and more.

$200.00 minimum order
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A few shipments arrived this week. If you log into your account at www.toywonders.com, before clicking on any of the links below, you will see wholesale pricing -as well as a picture.

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DIECAST Collectible Model Cars And More

Item#	Description	Stock Status
91781YL	Jada Toys - Chevy Camaro Concept Hard Top (2006, 1:18 scale diecast model, Yellow) 91781YL	Restock
91670BK	Jada Toys The Godfather - Cadillac Fleetwood Series 75 w/ Figure (1940, 1:18 scale diecast model, Black) 91670BK	New
29263W	ERTL - Packer Pontiac Catalina Race Car (1962, 1:18 scale diecast model, White) 29263W	New
29265P	ERTL - Chevy Camaro Z-28 Pro-stock (1969, 1:18 scale diecast model, White) 29265P	Restock
29417W	ERTL - Packer Pontiac Catalina Race Car (1961, 1:18 scale diecast model, White) 29417W	New
29468BU	ERTL Chevrolet Legends - Chevy Chevelle Race Car (1965, 1:18 scale diecast model, Blue) 29468BU	New
29503YL	ERTL Mopar - Dodge Daytona Race Car #3 Don White (1969, 1:18 scale diecast model, Yellow) 29503YL	New
29538G	ERTL Mopar Nascar - Dodge Charger 500 Race Car #22 Bobby Allison(1969, 1:18 scale diecast model, Red/ Gold) 29538G	New
CC39306	ERTL Elite Chase Car - Chevy Camaro Z28 Hard Top (1969, 1:18 scale diecast model, Hugger Orange) CC39306	Restock
39287YL	ERTL Elite - Pontiac Lemans Hard Top (1968, 1:18 scale diecast model, Yellow) 39287YL	Restock
7325	ERTL - Ford Boss Mustang (1970, 1:18 scale diecast model, Blue) 7325	Restock
7800YL	ERTL - Pontiac Grand Prix (1997, 1:18 scale diecast model, Yellow) 7800YL	Restock
33405	ERTL - Chevy Corvette Coupe Convertible (1984, 1:18 scale diecast model, Pewter) 33405	Restock
71169ABN	Muscle Machines - Acura RSX (2002, 1:18 scale diecast model, Bronze) 71169ABN	Restock
12531R	Welly - Volkswagen Classical Bus (1962, 1:18 scale diecast model, Red) 12531R	Restock
19865HBU	Welly - Chevrolet Impala Hard Top (1963, 1:18 scale diecast model, Red) 19865HBU	New
19865HR	Welly - Chevrolet Impala Hard Top (1963, 1:18 scale diecast model, Red) 19865HR	New
92268R/1	Yatming - Tucker Torpedo Hard Top (1948, 1:18 scale diecast model, Red) 92268R/1	Restock
92757PK	Yatming Leather Series - Oldsmobile Super 88 Convertible (1957, 1:18 scale diecast model, Pink) 92757PK	Restock
92598SV	Yatming - Buick Electra 225 Convertible (1959, 1:18 scale diecast model, Silver) 92598SV	Restock
98691	Yatming - Digital Gas Pump Cadillac (1:18 scale diecast model, Yellow) 98691	Restock
50351/2	Jada Toys Street Low - Chevy El Camino Pickup (1959, 1:24, Asstd.) 50351/2	Restock
91386MP	Jada Toys VDUBS - Volkswagen Beetle Hard Top (1959, 1:24, Asstd.) 91386MP	New
91609	Jada Toys Bigtime Muscle - Chevy Bel Air Hard Top w/ Removable Hood (1955, 1:24, Asstd.) 91609	New
83131	Jada Toys Speed Racer Assortment (1:43, Asstd.) 83131	New
12006W12H	Jada Toys Bigtime Muscle - Wave 12 (1:64, Asstd.) 12006W12H	New
12765SV	Jada Toys Import Racer! - Nissan (1:64, Silver) 12765SV	New
12062W3A	Jada Toys VDUBS - Wave 3 (1:64, Asstd.) 12062W3A	New
91895	Jada Toys Road Rigz Speed Racer - Peterbilt 387 Hauler Tractor Trailer (1:64, White) 91895	New
50258A	RC2 Johnny Lightning JL Mopar Mayhem 1 (1:64, Asstd. A) 50258A	New
50999G	RC2 Johnny Lightning JL 2007 Speed Racer (1:64, Asstd. G) 50999G	Restock
13603D	Motor Sport Car (1:36) 13603D	Restock
312F	Fire Engine 312F	Restock
4004	Kinsmart - Mini School Bus (3.75", Yellow) 4004	Restock
5046D	Kinsmart - Lexus IS300 (1:36, Asstd.) 5046D	Restock
5088D	Kinsmart - Toyota bB (1:32, Asstd.) 5088D	Restock
CG529	Tin Sign: Smiley's Rest Stop CG529	Restock

Toys

Item#	Description	Stock Status
91861	Jada Toys Speed Racer - R/C Mach 5 (1:16, White) 91861	New
9101/2	Magic Juice & Milk Bottles 9101/2	Restock
9104	Baby Love Magic Bottle 9104	Restock
8844/2	Lovely Terry 8844/2	Restock

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Thank you

Lu
Toy Wonders, Inc.
www.toywonders.com
201-229-1700

 

God and the Art of Toy and Diecast Model Car Marketing
Prime Numbers
By Lu Su

Agnostic, Astronomer, Astrophysicist, and Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagen makes an assertion in his book Contact on what intelligence looks like. Most of us didn’t read his book, but most of us did catch the movie Contact that starred Jodi Foster. It’s hard to believe, but that movie came out ten years ago. A whole decade ago! If you remember that movie, most of the population no longer considers you young. So on that encouraging note, allow me to remind you what the big excitement was about in this fictional story. The big excitement in the movie came when these these radio telescopes on earth pick up a signal from the Vega star system. The signal is a series of electro-magnetic pulses that demonstrate a particular pattern. The pattern was a series of prime numbers. Here Sagen is arguing that only an intelligent being(s) could recognize and produce prime numbers. So understanding and recognizing the special properties of prime numbers is a sign of intelligence eh?

For those of you who have forgotten your 5th grade math, prime numbers have a unique property about themselves. Prime numbers are positive, non-zero numbers that have exactly two factors -- no more, no less.  A more formal definition is an integer p is called a prime number if the only positive integers that divide p are 1 and p itself. So for example 7 is a prime number because no other numbers can divide evenly into it other than 7 and 1.

Most of us were taught this definition about prime numbers a long time ago (in a place far far away). But another property of prime numbers that most of us were never taught is that prime numbers are the elementary building blocks in the production of other numbers.  The multiplicative structure on integers in its unbounded expansion toward infinity requires prime numbers. What gibberish speaks thou?

In short, prime numbers serve as building block to get to other numbers quickly. So what this means is that every whole number (integer) you can think of can be expressed as a product of its prime factors. For example the number 18 can be express by 3 x 3 x 2 (note both 3 and 2 are prime numbers). Another example, 42 can be expressed by its prime factors 2 x 7 x 3 (all three numbers are prime). And one last example, lets pick an odd number this time, 51 can be expressed by its factors of 17 x 3 (both numbers being prime numbers and both happen to be odd numbers). This reminds me of one of my favorite comedians lines, “I had a furious argument with the roulette dealer on what I considered an ODD number”.

In 2006, the largest known prime number was 232,582,657– 1.  A number greater than two to the thrity-two million-th power. Note that this number is so large that it is conveyed with prime numbers. If you were to actually calculate 232,582,657– 1 and write this number out, it would contain 9,808,358 digits. I double dare you to try to say this number. Just writing it out would take a very long time.  If you could write one digit of this number per second, it would take you over 113 days (with no sleep or breaks) to write out this number alone. Thank goodness for prime numbers and multiplication.

So if prime numbers is the basic building block for numbers and if math is the basic building block all sciences, then why has no mathematician ever one the Nobel prize? Math has benefited all the sciences. Try using Physics or Chemistry without the use of math or numbers. So any advancements in mathematics can benefit all the other sciences, but not vice-versa. So why has no Nobel prizes been awarded to mathematicians?  There is a very good moral to this story.

Alfred Nobel, a wealthy person and a chemist, started the Nobel prize awards. Although there is no historical hard evidence to support this (i.e. diaries, spoken admissions, written letters, etc…) The story is that Alfred Nobel was dating a woman named Sophie Hess for many years, but then Sophie rejected/cheated on Alfred with this famous mathematician Gosta Mittag-Leffler. Right around the time Nobel was forming these different Nobel prizes to be awarded annually. During that time, Alfred Nobel made the decision that no mathematician would ever win one of his prizes. So good job Gosta (Adam) & Sophie (Eve), your affair (sin) caused the down fall of generations of Mathematicians (mankind) to never obtain the ultimate prize (relationship with God).

Carl Sagen’s premise that if a series electromagnetic waves were being radiated from outer space to earth AND within a pattern of sequential prime numbers were found, this certainly would be very out of the ordinary. He makes the assertion, without any explanation, that this is a sign of intelligence. I have no argument with the man and I think all scientists and philosophers would be in agreement here. What I find amazing is that while most people will grant that intelligence is involved in transmitting a series of prime numbers, discoveries on earth or about the human body that rival or even exceeds the complexity of a series of prime numbers are dismissed as natural occurrences. Matter, chance & time created life?  Which in you opinion is easier to make, a human body or a series of electronic pulses in a particular pattern?

A good friend of mine in medicine told me about a very interesting experiment. Like in humans, scientists have identified the portion of the brain in rats that is responsible for sight/vision -they call this portion of the brain the visual cortex. The scientists in this experiment took newborn rats (like people, rats developed eye sight after they are born) and damaged/removed the visual cortex portion of the rat's brain. So all expectation was that these rats, having that portion of the brain removed, would be blind for life. But what they soon discovered is all of these rats still developed sight. Granted that their vision was not as strong as who did not receive the lobotomy of the visual cortex, but nevertheless they could still see! "How could this be?" asked the scientists. After further exploration, scientist realized that the rat's brain routed the visual cortex function to another portion of the brain. And that part of the brain then took on the added responsibility of vision.  If you are a theist you would conclude that “God is a marvelous designer”.  If you are not a theist, you would say, “Time and chance, without the need of intelligence, did this”. 

The human body is very complicated.  I would argue far more complex than a string of prime numbers –but that’s just my thinking. I say this because with all the powerful tools and test we have, we still do not fully understand how our body and brain works. If our bodies were not complex, Pharmaceutical companies would have a much easier time of coming up with drugs that did not have a list of side effects longer than your arm. Furthermore, theory is nice and you can theorize all you want, but things really don’t get interesting until you see an application of theory. Hydrogen engines or even that futuristic Delorean engine (Back to the Future movie) that runs on garbage is far more interesting and engaging when it departs the theory and is actually sitting on your drive way.
 

If we were to receive a series of electromagnetic pulses from space and within these pulses we detected a pattern that signified intelligent design, there would be no immediate application for this discovery –at least none that I can immediately think of.  But in the situation where you have lobotomized rats developing sight, vision is a direct application of intelligent design.  More on this next week.