User talk:Vista69

1971 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser
Hey, Mike - have you seen the new 1971 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser from Matchbox yet? I finally scored one on Friday! Here it is if you want to see what they look like. HaarFager 23:56, 2 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I LIKE IT! I've heard and read about the new casting but this is the first time I've seen it.  I'm sure I'll buy more than a couple when I finally find them.  I'm still waiting for the Johnny Lighting '64 Vista to show up on the pegs,  because I don't want to pay S/H. Thanks for sending me the link to your photo site, you have a neat collection.... 'Still waiting for a '69 VC though :-) ... Vista69 00:19, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

20th Anniversary 3-Pack
Hey, Mike, do you know what the other 2 vehicles were that was in the 20th Anniversary 3-Pack along with this Ferrari Testarossa (chrome model with 20th Anniversary stamped into the roof)? I have the Chrome Ferrari, so I must also have the other two. I just don't remember what they were! Thanks! HaarFager 00:38, 16 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Hi Kenny, The 20th Anniversary 3-Packs only included one exclusive car plus two other more common issues. Along with the Testarossa, other exclusive castings included... Monster Vette, Combat Medic, Mercedes 540K, Tall Ryder, and Firebird Funny Car (1982).  Some of them were also issued with Gold Chrome. Vista69 14:34, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Mike. I have the Combat Medic from this set, but I bought it last year.  The others must have been lost, because I don't have any of those anymore.  HaarFager 22:16, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Redirecting Series
Mike, please don't take this wrong, and I hope you don't think I'm always getting on your case, I'm not intending to - it's just that lately you've been doing most of the work on here. But what I wanted to ask you about involves your redirecting the various series put out each year. Such as these two kind of series: Wild Wave Series and 2003 Wild Wave Series. I had hoped that people would start creating pages for each series such as the one I did for the 2003 Wild Wave Series. That way, each series could sort of be spotlighted with it's own page. I may have this page incorrectly named, (maybe it should only be called the "Wild Wave Series" without the 2003 in front of it), but when each of these are redirected to the page for the year they were released, the specific pages detailing just the series itself will be lost or not be able to be created. I really wouldn't want to have the Wild Wave page redirected into nothingness, (after all the work I put into it), and it seems a shame to take away the potential for creating other pages for other series in this manner. It also seems like it might make using series names as categories a moot point. You'll lose the functionality of what having categories is all about and what the code behind it does. You might have noticed I like creating pages that group things together and I don't use a lot of redirects. I think instead of redirecting stuff in this manner, links to where it would or could have been redirected to could be used in the articles themselves and people will find their way to these other pages by clicking on the appropriate link. With redirects, searching for several different names will take you to only one place. That seems like we might risk losing potential pages - such as a special page for each series. I hope I'm being clear, because it's such a confusing matter to me sometimes in dealing with redirects. I don't want to make you mad, but I had intended on creating more series pages. If they're just going to be redirected somewhere else, there would be no point in creating them. I hope you can see the point I'm trying to make. Just tell me your thoughts on the matter and we'll see what can be done. Maybe I missed something and will have to rethink my position. Please just don't take this the wrong way and be mad at me. I feel I'm trying to do what's best for the Hot Wheels Wiki, as I'm sure you do, also. I figure there's usually a good solution if it is worked on long enough. HaarFager 07:28, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Arrrggggg
The Go kart page is giving me as headache. I have tried linking 2007-135 but can't get it to show. I tried this at least a dozen times and even got me so cinfused I screwed some photos up.

Could you help me out and see why the thumbnail isn't showing? http://hotwheels.wikia.com/wiki/Go_Kart http://hotwheels.wikia.com/wiki/Image:2007135gokart.jpg
 * I feel your frustration. I tried to insert it too, with no luck.  Were you aware of wiki-wide maintenance this morning?  Maybe you downloaded your file during this time and it just didn't take fore some reason.  Maybe you could re-download your file with a slight change to the file name.  If you get a 'duplicate file warning' just ignore and download anyway.  Kenny can delete unused or duplicate files.  Good Luck Vista69 16:20, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Also, I stupidly typed Walgreens instead of Walmrt in the comments section of this photo http://hotwheels.wikia.com/wiki/Image:2007135wgokart.jpg is there a way to edit JUST the comments? Thanks ranugad 15:16, 20 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm not real sure, but I don't think that you can just edit photo comments. Just download another copy of your file, with a slight file name change, rewrite a correct comment and ignore any warnings.  Let, Kenny, (HaarFager) know which file is correct. Good Luck, Vista69 16:20, 20 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, I'll keep my eye on it and when you're ready for me to delete the one that's not needed, just let me know. HaarFager 17:39, 20 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I reloaded the image with a name change and edited it into the page - fixed, thanks for the tip.

I thought it was maybe a syntax error I just couldn't see.

And right after I asked, I noticed an edit this page button above theother offending photo, it allowed me to change the comments easily. Thanks again

Abbreviations
Mike, ever since I joined here, I have tried to get rid of any abbreviation I've seen. They just get confusing sometimes, as to exactly what they stand for, so please don't undo all my work. One thing I've specifically changed is Met. to Metalflake. I've tried to keep the wiki easy to read and abbreviations slow up this process. Thanks! HaarFager 23:23, 17 April 2009 (UTC)


 * O.K. I'll stop, I didn't realize you were changing the the abbreviations. Sorry dude, Vista69 23:26, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Inserting Pictures Problem
Hey Mike, are you still having problems? BigBadBrad01 06:33, 3 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Nevermind Mike, I am having the problem too. I emailed someone so hopefully it gets fixed soon. Until then, I guess we just have to continue inserting them manually. ;) BigBadBrad01 06:57, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Station Wagons
Mike, can you think of any Hot Wheels Station Wagon models I might have missed in this list? Station Wagons. I tried to think of them all, but I'm sure I've overlooked some. It's just that Hot Wheels hasn't made too many Station Wagon models, unfortunately. HaarFager 22:00, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Base Color / Type
Mike, I saw your message about adding in "Type" with the Base Color. When I started out, I missed adding that in some pages, too. Now, I'm just trying to go through pages and standardize them. Thanks for adding it! HaarFager 05:10, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, yes.... is that your station wagon on your user page? When I was little, my best friend's parents had one of those Vista Cruisers.  My parents had a station wagon, too.  I guess that's why I grew up loving them.  I have a station wagon myself!  HaarFager 05:10, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Casting Names
Hi Mike, I learned doing the lists the casting names on the card with our names together will work. Example Purple Passion will take you to Purple Passion. Now let's say the page Purple Passion is already there, watch what happens without making a redirect with Steel Passion with a break in the middle. Purple Passion has to be first then a | break then Steel Passion ""Example click here still takes you to the Purple Passion Steel Passion. Fantazim 21:45, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Your new pics
Hi Mike, I like your new pictures you have uploaded. They look very nice. I especially like the Evil Twin ones. Its a cool casting and you did a great job. Keep up the great work! BigBadBrad01 18:29, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Super Scraper
About the Super Scraper of mine that you moved - I finally found out where you had moved it to, but it wasn't to a page for the Pathbeater, as you had identified my version. I found it on the Power Plower page, oddly enough, but I did find it. There was no Pathbeater released in 1997, so my unknown version is not from then and I still don't know when mine was released. I did have the guy that runs the South Texas Diecast page identify mine as a Super Scraper, though. I had already created the Super Scraper page a few months ago, so I added all your pictures and info on it, too. Unfortunately, I had it incorrectly named, so that's probably why you didn't see it. I have corrected that, too. There is no description of my version over on the South Texas Diecast page identifying it as either a Power Plower or Pathbeater, so I'm pretty sure it was not named with either of those names. I'm also going to move the description of mine and all the other descriptions for the Super Scraper and Power Plower to the Bywayman page because when Big Bad Brad gets done redirecting all the other pages to Bywayman, those other pages won't exist anymore and all the descriptions and images will have to be relocated to the Bywayman page or lost, too. Brad's been going around and unconfusing things for castings with multiple names, so please don't take offense if your page should disappear. Many of my pages have gone the same route also. HaarFager 08:02, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Designers
Hi Mike, I see that on the Ford F-150 page you changed the designer at the top. I am assuming you changed it to the actual car designer but that category is for the Hot Wheels Designer, therefore it should be Michael Kolins. I'll change it back for you. BigBadBrad01 07:58, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Formatting
Mike, I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to include a blank line between all the descriptions of vehicles. It's not needed and adds unnecessary space to entries already long enough. This symbol "|-" is what denotes a separation between descriptions. Just thought you'd like to know this so it could save you extra steps. HaarFager 16:11, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Tampo Location
You bring up a very good point, and I have seen it done both ways too. That is, the tampo listed in the same column with the color of the car, and then sometimes in the next to last column right before the image column. I've noticed that there seems to be 2 different page forms and they list the tampo in a different area on each. An administrator once told me not use 100px sized thumbnail images because it throws off the column spacing. Well, using this thought, I myself tend to like putting the tampo information in it's own column. Because sometimes when a color of the car is like "Metalflake Green, w/White fenders," or a long name such as that, when you include the tampo info with this, the column space is really stretched way out there. That's why I personally like to separate these two things, so that one column isn't real wider than all the others. Maybe we can get some kind of consensus on this and that way, everybody will know once and for all on this matter.

As far as the entering in of information when you make an edit, just under the window where you type in all the changes, add in image, etc., there is some text that begins with "All contributions to Hot Wheels Wiki...." etc. Below that is a box for typing in information with the word "Summary:" to the left of it. Type in the changes you did there, and then below there, select "this is a minor edit," because it usually is considered minor, and then hit the "Save Page" button. That's all there is to it. It's so handy when you're reviewing changes to see, in writing, what the other guys did. That way, when he's uploaded really cool pictures of some great looking '31 Doozies, such as you just did, others can read that and know immediately that it's something they'll want to go and see for themselves. Plus, I'll bet it makes life for the administrators easier, and I'd say they sure appreciate it.

Did I mention those were some nice looking '31 Doozies you uploaded earlier this afternoon? I replaced the image, which I had taken and uploaded, and was up at the top in the header of the '31 Doozie page, with one you had taken because it was the first edition. That's another thing I wonder about and here's my stance on the issue. I think any image and any casting is better than no image. Followed by a clear, sharp image of any casting being next best. Then, an image of the first edition casting, with an image of a pre-production sketch being the absolute greatest thing you could have in a header. That's why, when I create a page, if I only have a later casting, I'll use it until an image of a first generation release gets uploaded. That way, a page will at least have a picture of what the body style looks like, but the first version being the ultimate preference. After all, that's what Hot Wheels decided the first one should look like, so why not use this one? I've said a lot, but hopefully I was able to answer all your questions and maybe somebody will hear us and we can decide on the tampo placement issue. HaarFager 22:28, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Standardized Pages
Please don't take this the wrong way, but I just wanted to ask why you went into the Baja Bug page and undid all my corrections? You say that you're a newbie, and there's no problem with that. But, when I joined, I saw how the pages were already being built and used that style. I figured others before me who had started this Wiki knew best. So, I always use that same style. You can refer to the Purple Passion page to see what I mean. But, the names and colors are always capitalized and the colors aren't bolded. When I first joined and changed something I wasn't aware of, I was called on the carpet the very same day about it by an administrator. I'm not doing that, just trying to be helpful and let you know. Because, after all, aren't we wanting this Hot Wheels Wiki to be good? If so, consistency is a way to insure that. If the pages all look the same, it will be so much better. Oh, and I've seen administrators say that when you make changes, please note what you did and why in the space provided. It helps others at a glance to see what changes were implemented. This is just stuff I found out, so I thought I'd pass it along to you, trying to be helpful. Keep up the good additions! HaarFager 17:34, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Hello
I'm new here and I thought I should ask a member here to show me what to do. Fclass 17:59, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Question
Do you know what year the Drive-In Set was released? Fclass 17:04, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't know for sure, because I don't have the set. However since the 4th Edition Tomart's Guide only goes to 1999 and the set is NOT in it, than I'm inclined to guess that the set came out in 2000 like the Hot Wheels Collector site  shows.Vista69 14:21, 6 August 2009 (UTC)