The experiment to see if I can find all 15 2014 Supers by only visiting stores during normal daytime hours hasn’t been going so well.
I got off to a good start by finding the Opala SS, Sandblaster, Camaro Special Edition, and ’71 Mustang. I haven’t been so lucky since, until yesterday.
I had a minute to spare in the morning on my way to a meeting, so I stopped off at a nearby Walmart just before 9am. The pegs were a bit disheveled, as someone had clearly been through them a little earlier. I went looking for anything interesting, and at first went right by this:
I went back after a minute thinking it might be the MC5 vari, and was more than surprised to see the Summit logo on the roof:
There were no regular Hunts, so my guess is this one was missed. I have to think that previous visitors had their mind on the H and J Supers, and the Chevelle is VERY easy to miss. If you aren’t looking for it, there is a good chance you would pass it off as the standard version. You practically miss it with the two versions sitting right next to each other:
Nonetheless, I was very happy to take it with me.
Fast forward to the afternoon. I just finished an appointment around 4 pm, and decided I had a minute to hit a nearby Walmart, hoping to find the Zamac J cases. Once again, picked over pegs, but this was waiting on the top left-hand corner:
Who woulda thunk? My second Chevelle, only this time an afternoon find.
Not 15 seconds later another collector arrived, roughly looking through the pegs. I asked what he was looking for, and he said Hunts only, and told me they were impossible to find, and not to worry about looking. I might have played a little dumb, and asked him what to look for. He said Hot Wheels does 250 Supers a year, one for each model, and that I would never find one. I finally told him it was 15, one for each batch, but I didn’t mention the one in my hand. He was nice enough and went on his merry way. Another collector arrived, gave the pegs a quick gander, and left just as quickly. Based on that frequency I witnessed in only a couple of minutes, I have to think this Chevelle went unnoticed by earlier visitors as well.
Plus, I don’t think standard collectors know what to make of the bearded guy wearing a bow tie and orange-souled wingtips looking through the pegs. The looks are always a little amusing.
A lucky day to say the least, but I am still a bit behind in my quest to find all 15 on the pegs. I have to hope that, like this Chevelle batch, older batches will hit some stores and will find the ’07 Mustang, Chevy Gasser, and Twin Mill. And maybe the J cases will arrive at a nearby Walmart one of these days and I can get lucky and find the Nova Wagon. Finding all 15 on the pegs in 2014 is starting to look a little bleak…
For now, I will just enjoy these two finds:
Great finds. I've been collecting 3 years and still have never found a super. Even the regs are hard to come by. Still missing some from 2014.
Well, in my country, believe it or not, I can't even find a single LaFerrari or the Homer at the stores. Already got the red 993 GT2 which is in the same case as those two. I mean really is there justice in this world or you have to be super lucky? And Yes I've seen them on the internet and some shops with triple the price, isn't it GREAT?
I don't know why some people have them with three or more a piece while I wanted just one.
Wow. I'm grateful for my luck. I started a year ago and have found 5 supers. I think it is all luck. You hit every single store that stocks Hot Wheels. Even the ones that have only 6 or 7 on the pegs at a time(Walgreens, CVS). It's a huge task. There is a Walgreens and CVS every 5 minutes if you're driving in Texas.
Good luck. Finding a Hunt in the wild is always a joyous task, but it only happens every 100 or so times you go to a store.
Eric, you're the luckiest kind of guy finding 2 Supers in 1 day. Your experiment started off well, then tapered off, then now you got 2 Chevelles. Lucky! The luckiest I have been is finding a Super 599XX and the Super 71 Mustang in the same tray at Toys R Us. This was in February. Very strange considering the time length between the two cars, nonetheless, I was whooping with joy when I found them.
I'm surprised those Chevelles still exist on the pegs. This case seemed way back. This was the exact same case that was out at the time I helped a Walmart worker stock 20+ boxes of new cars on the pegs, some months back. I found nothing…out of 20 boxes…that's more than 1400 cars and nothing at all…No Gasser, No Chevelle. Regulars all the way. Sigh…
Anyway, your stroke of luck was very cool. I am jealous, but hey, I'm not the only one.
I understand your pain. I have had the joy finding LaFerrari here in Texas, but it is still a chore to find one with the perfect tampos and without and dings and dents. They are starting to fade out recently, so I hope to find a good LaFerrari soon.
I lost hope with the Homer. It was NEVER present at every store I went to. But 3 weeks ago I was very lucky to find one at a Randall's grocery store. Sold it at eBay auction but since eBay is quite saturated with the Homer right now, my auction was not viewed very much and I made a very low profit when I could've made so much more.
I guess justice is served. When you scallop the cars and don't collect them, karma comes around.
Don't get me wrong, I am a serious collector, but I don't collect cartoony or non-licensed stuff. All my cars are real world.
But the other side is selling to other collectors. Both sides win. You get some pocket money, they get a model they've been looking for.
I am sorry about your situation in your country. If you ever want to collect, come to Texas. It's so darn big most collectors only hunt locally and not over their entire city.
Over here in the UK you have a one in a million chance of finding a super on our shortcards. I did hear a story about mattel stopping putting them in shortcards untill people moaned at them and afew turned up half way though the year on mainline cards with out the super card art and this year afew have shown up but very rare.
All I know is a discount store called “poundland” get random cases of usa longcards in and in the year or so they have been doing this my local store can not of had more than 15 cases in that time and I have found 3 supers.
Thankfully tv/ film cars, reg t-hunts are easy to find ( not that I want any of this years rubbish t-hunts) as I guess we do not have as many collectors as the USA.
Hello ladies! Welcome!
Now, a head start.
Okay, what's going on? I'm just asking myself.
Anyways, those things you have John is good thinking, good looking. I do like the purple color and the Summit logo, but I've got something in mind, that is just what you took from my mind- OF COURSE IT'S A $TH and a VARIATION!!!
My $TH Chevelle variation was that it did had the regular version's body (which means it did not have the Summit logo on the roof) and it's code number, GO1. I got another $TH with no body variations and the code number this time was, G23. Really, really weird. And there wasn't just those stuff. Got 3 PR5 code number variations of the Chevelle, 1. G04, 2. G20, 3. F28. REALLY EXTREEEEMELY WEIRD!!!
By the way, the PR5 code number variations were also found at my local Wal-Mart. Extremely rare, extremely hard to find.