Well, we normally like to save the Hot Wheels finds posts to HWC, Youtube videos, and our Facebook page. But occasionally there is cool story to tell.
I have spent the last few days visiting family in Arizona. First Tucson, and now Scottsdale. I had a little bit of time last night so I decided to call my collecting friend Jeff Koch to see if he wanted to get together for a chat. Instead of the normal pow wow at Starbucks, we decided to do a little late night hunting.
My schedule is such that midnight visits to Walmarts for a little pallet-raiding is not a possibility. But since I had nowhere to go in the morning, and since we were already together, we decided to give it a run. Jeff lives in Phoenix, so he took the lead, and decided we needed to drive halfway to LA to start. We ended up hitting three Walmarts in West Phoenix. By the time we were done it was after 1 AM and I thought sleep was a decent idea.
Plus, we had already done pretty damn good.
After striking out at the first Walmart, the next two stores each had untouched Hot Wheels Dump Bins waiting for us. I have never encountered a bin unopened before, so to come across two made for a crazy night. But even that wasn’t the shocker.
The real shocker: they were P case dump bins. We were mainly hunting to see if we could find any Walmart N cases, which include the next three Zamac Exclusives, namely the Datsun 240Z
and Ferrari F12
. Instead of N cases, however, we found P cases. A very strange find considering hobby dealers have not gotten the P cases yet, and the domestic N cases are just barely hitting stores.
But Jeff and I did not complain. Yeah, we want those Zamacs, but considering the Treasure Hunt in the P cases is the Mazda RX-7, these two JDM nuts were more than happy to settle for P case dump bins. We preferred it actually. He and I don’t have a lot of luck with Hunts, so being able to get a few of the Hunt we really wanted was fantastic.
Between the two bins, we found about 15 RX-7’s, three ’07 Mustang Super Treasure Hunts, and a slew of other highly anticipated models, including the brand new (and supercool) Lamborghini Aventador J.
I personally ended up with eight RX-7’s and two ’07 Mustangs. The strange thing? All three Supers were found in the second dump bin, but there were no basic ’07 Mustangs at all. I did find two basic ’07 Mustangs in the first, sitting on top of the sealed cases. It made for a very strange assortment. The Mustang’s “Then and Now” counterpart, the ’92 Mustang, was plentiful. But it was odd to find more Super than regular Mustangs.
Nonetheless, when I return home tomorrow, we will start a run of P case First Looks, including the extra Super Mustang that will be freed from its blister prison. It should be fun…
My finds:
First Dump Bin:
Second Dump Bin:
All the Hunts:
The Mazda RX-7 (Best reg TH this year – surprised?):
The only two basic ’07 Mustangs we found, along with the two Supers:
The Then and Now Mustangs (funny that the 92 Mustang shares the same complete deco as the Super, and not the basic ’07):
Spare the hunts!
Good finds! I found a dump bin all to myself the other night, found two supers and about ten regular hunts. They also pinned up four sidekicks, two Fast and Furious and two of the Corvette sets. I got three '67 Mustangs. The first one on scene definitely gets all the spoils!
SO what was the total Enterprises and Madd Propz?
Are Walmarts open that late?
Look's like one of those regular mustangs is on a super mustang card.
they're 24 hours, for the most part.
I'm loving that black porsche.
Man why do you people have to buy every single treasure hunt you find? Do you need 15 RX7s? Are you planning on dumping them on ebay for wildly inflated prices? Because I tried that with the one TH I have ever found (that ridiculous awful pink Ranchero) and I only got burnt, I think I made like $5 off that thing.
I only see 8 there. Jeff took home the others. One to keep, one to open, another to keep, one for Harold, one for Barry, one to keep, one for Maude, two for Jack because you know how he is…
Well that's forgiveable I suppose. It's just that whenever I see pics of treasure hunts on the internet I instantly have this image of a bearded man at Wal Mart at midnight scouring the dump bins like a squirrel who misplaced all his acorns, and then waddling off with all the cars I came to walmart at midnight to look for
Seeing stuff like this seriously makes me want to stop collecting. I understand that these are nice cars and we all want them…. but come on guys.
I know everyone says “Oh Im getting an extra or two for friends, my kids, ect” but we know that the true pallet raider is flipping them online for five times the price. Its bullsh!t and you all know it.
Don't you know? Every collector has 50 or 60 buddies they RAOK all their spare hunts to because Hot Wheels is a hobby for generous rich adults who can afford to ship dozens of cars individually across the country.
Well, at least that's what people say on HWC.com when they make posts like this, with a dozen of the same car in their cart.
And everyone else gets nothing… so, you know.
“one for Harold, one for Barry, one to keep, one for Maude, two for Jack because you know how he is…”
Not sure if serious…
Oh boo hoo…
Thanks for showing us all the great castings we'll probably never see on shelves because 1 “collector” has to buy 8+ of the same car. Way to expand the hobby!
Not serious at all. So guys, I bought 8 RX-7's. I am a JDM nut. I have 10 each of both colors of the Celica, 12 Toyota 2000GT basics and 8 2000GT Supers (one of which I found, the 7 others I bought on ebay), 12 First Edition Kenmeris, 10 FE Hakosukas, 6 Datsun 510 Wagons, and on and on. I buy multiples of every JDM casting. So you can imagine my excitement when I was able to find the 8 I would have bought on the secondary market.
I leave reg Treasure Hunts all the time. I left a couple I came across on the pegs this week. But I did buy the 8 RX-7's, and I don't feel bad about it. If it were the Fiesta, I would have bought two.
If you guys follow this blog, you would get an idea of what the Lamley Group is about…
Why is the word “collector” in quotes? Do you not think I am a real collector? Have you read even one post on this blog?
Matthew don't know specifically but there were quite a few of each. We left a ton there.
I didn't buy these for friends. I bought them because they are RX-7's.
I hope your entire collection catches fire and the only thing left is your 15 RX-7's to keep you warm.
Well to keep me warm they would have to be burning too. But thanks. And I still only count 8.
Thank goodness Mattel is upping production on these. Only have found two in the wild and trust me I have been hitting it hard.
That's why I like this hobby so much take all the good stuff and leave nothing for other collectors
May all your RX-7's have paint flaws. JK! I would probably do something similar if I found a horde like that here in the bay area.
F you,john lambert!!
who the fuck is this john lambert?are you some kind of puppet to these dump bin sweepers?maybe you get some shares from these greedy A-holes or something?
This John Lambert is the author and owner of the Lamley Group.
Sorry to sound a bit naive (I’m in the middle of rediscovering my passion for Hot Wheels from when I was a kid), but how do you know a treasure hunt or a super from a regular Hot Wheels car. How can you spot the difference?
I’m from the UK by the way, so it might be different In Europe.
Thanks
Hi, I asked that myself too. I had to read a lot about to figure it out, and it changes from one year to another. To make a long story short: treasure hunts have a little symbol (a flame in a circle). And the Super Treasure Hunts have rubber tires, the letters TH on the casting and have sometimes another color effect (called Spectraflame). I guess the tires are like the Boulevards… I cant tell, I never seen one. Here in Brazil all the interesting models are taken by the employes from the the shops before the public has a chance to buy them. After that they sell them on ebay or have agreements with collectors that pay them some extra cash.
To all you haters, boo fricking hoo
Try living in the uk, sod all supers, no 2013 batmobiles on short card either.
At the end of the day they are just toy cars after all so talking about burning someone makes you one sad twat.
Yea and because you definitely needed 16 of them to.
hey john lambert, you REALLY ARE a f***** man!
Umm, John, I'd like to tell you something.
You know some of the comments talking about you they really hate, I think their language gives you bad advice. That I mean, some of them just called you the F*** word.
…part of the thrill is finding them 1st. Its the hunt.
…I understand the frustration when people dont find what their looking for…but for crying out loud stop WHINNING about it. I found if YOUR WORTHY youll find what cars your looking for. If your just a PIA in life, karma will NOT reward you.
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