The great experiment continues. My attempt to find all 15 Super Treasure Hunts in stores during the middle of the day on random visits to stores hasn’t gone completely as desired, but the occasional find has made it pretty fun.
The count to date:
Chevrolet SS – Found at a rural Walmart at 11:30 am
Sand Blaster – Found at a nearby Walmart around 4:30 pm
Camaro Special Edition – Found at neighboring town Walmart around 3 pm
’71 Mustang Mach 1 – Found on a Saturday afternoon grocery run at Harmon’s Market (I found two)
’07 Mustang – no luck
’55 Chevy Bel Air Gasser – no luck
’70 Chevelle SS – Found at two different Walmarts on the same day (one at 10 am, one at 5 pm)
Twin Mill – no luck
’64 Chevy Nova Wagon – no luck
’83 Silverado – we will get to that
’76 Greenwood Corvette – not out in my area yet
6 out of 10 ain’t bad, especially considering all were found in the middle of the day.
And we have an update. I have had a surprising couple of days while traveling for business, and it started with a first. My first gas station find.
I spent Tuesday evening driving south from Salt Lake City to St. George, Utah, and I inevitably had to stop for gas. That meant hitting the Flying J in Beaver, Utah. While pumping gas, I went into the convenience store for a bottle of water. While wandering, I saw two small bins with a total of about 50 Hot Wheels, and I of course had a look.
The first thing I noticed, they were crazy expensive for the US – $2.99. I told myself while starting to look that I would only purchase one if it were a cool error or a Super. I saw a few models I liked, but left. Then I saw a Mazda RX-7 Treasure Hunt. It is a Hunt I would normally pick up, but $2.99 was a deterrent. That is until I saw one of the last cars in the second bin:
Yep, that is the ’07 Mustang Super from 2013. The fourth time I have found that model. Glad it is one I really like.
I said this was my first gas station find. It is also the oldest Super I have ever found. It was released almost a year ago. Certainly it hasn’t sat in that bin that long, but it is interesting to wonder how long it has been there. Considering the $2.99 price, maybe awhile.
I bit the bullet and went with these:
So that was fun enough, finding an old Super in such an odd location. But it did nothing to help my quest in 2014. But I made some progress yesterday.
The theme for my finds this week has been water. I went into the Flying J for a bottle on Tuesday, leaving with a Super, and the same happened at Target in St. George on Wednesday afternoon. Of course any visit to Target means a visit to the pegs, and while those pegs weren’t full, there were some interesting models.
First, I saw the Porsche 993 in white, meaning the K case was there. Then the black Hakosuka Skyline. Then the Ford Fiesta Treasure Hunt. Our friends at DiecastTVChannel were looking for one, so I could send them this one as part of a trade. Regular Hunts get left all the time, but there is always the chance it could mean this was a pegged case that hadn’t been looked at yet. Midway down, behind a couple of cars, there is was:
It seems I find Supers well after they were released, after collectors have moved onto the next one, so this we surely unexpected. I was happy to take it home.
Not a bad two-day haul:
Think I can keep the streak alive?
Good eyes!
must be a different world where you live.. up in Canada we have what are called door warmers and the pegs are always bone dry.
Here in Mexico the mattel guys team up with those asshats and leave nothing behind, i never found a snoopy in the wild, but my parents bought 2 for me in a flea market
Same in Brazil.
Ha well if it makes you feel any better, models like the Snoopy are even impossible to find more than 1/2 a day after being put out at the quietest least-diecast interested Walmart's in the midwest U.S…. so you're not alone there.
Is it wrong that I just want to find the pink wheeled Ford Fiesta? I'd gladly trade one of my WRX or RX7 hunts for one! 🙂 Though there's still a chance I might find one…
I found a Super TH '71 Mustang a few months back in a well turned over dump bin at the Superstore (Loblaw's) here in Nova Scotia. I very nearly fell over. Happy day. I have better luck at the grocery stores than Wal Mart's. All my Super TH finds except the S2000 came from the grocery store. The Targets around here have pretty much no selection, even in the main line. Drug stores are also a favourite hunting ground, and though I don't find much in the way of T-hunts, sometimes you find older choices. Stumbled into a huge rack of late 90s/ early 2000s Hot Wheels at a Jean Coutu pharmacy in Montréal last summer. Got a Ferrari Daytona 365 GTB/4 and the Radio Flyer Wagon which made me smile.
I'm in Canada – Sherbrooke QC specifically and lucked out on a fresh bin full of J's and K's (I think..) at WalMart. I just collect what I like so I snagged a teal Honda Civic, a custom V-8 Vega and the red Morris Mini (the only one in the bin, I think). What I left behind was a plethora of riches for those who like the white Porsche 993, TH Fiesta, the Skyline, the red Datsun 620 (which I love but bought on ebay never expecting to find it in store), and Snoopy to name a few. Best batch of recents I've ever come across at a Canadian store.
I hate to branch off.. but I saw on T-Hunted about the re-issue of the HW's Fast and Furious line. It includes the green '72 Torino Sport(Awesome!), the maroon '69 Daytona and as well, the dark green '67 'Stang.
There are some for sale on E-Bilk right now and from Canada. I would like to see if this line is going to make it into newer areas this time, or will they be distributed into the same markets as before?
Stay tuned!
BTW John.. I know you displayed nice pics of the Torino on April 9th, but do you know when this line might show up here in the States?
I would like to see you do a article on people that ruin the hotwheels hunting hobby by buying every good car that comes in a shipper because they know when the stores are getting their deliveries.
To me it would be no different than someone taking a truck to a lake or reservoir that is stocked with fish, and on the day they stock the lake they just transfer all the fish worth keeping to their truck and drive away only leaving fish that are not worth catching in the lake. I feel their should be a code of conduct and some type of sportsmanship when it comes to collecting before you become a scalper and hoarder. Even the best fisherman are not allowed to catch all the fish in the lake on one visit, everything should have their limit. I know an article might not make a big difference but I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way. Nice job scoring the supers at a gas station.
My friend designed that radioflyer wagon, it comes in red and blue, pretty neat.
GAWD, I wish it were that easy to “happen upon” the desirable Hot Wheels in Dallas. The Pegs @ Toys,'Not Us are paltry, at best, and Wal-marts are so picked-over, it seldom benefits me anything more than wheel-harvest-offerings. HELP!
Nice. Even though my area's pretty heavily saturated with collectors and scalpers, I still manage to snag some supers every now and then. I got lucky and found the super Silverado and Fiesta TH in a 4 sided shipper at Ralphs pretty recently. It also had plenty Porsches, Skylines, Civics, Snoopys and several other models I had been after. I think I bought over 30 cars from that shipper (some for me, some for my brother in law and some for my nephew). No I didn't buy all the Snoopys. I left plenty for other people.
I also got lucky with the '07 Mustang super around Christmas last year. Walked into Big Lots at around 10:30 am and there were a whole bunch of 36 count trays out. After some picking through, I found the super near the back of one of them.
Interestingly, the only 2014 Supers i've found are two you haven't yet, John: red 07 Mustang and the Gasser. I traded that Mustang away for a Super S2000 and a Lincoln. I may use the Gasser as bait for the Datsun 510 Super, in the event I don't find it.
What annoys me is being unable to find the Morris Mini. It's one of the releases I want most this year, and it's completely absent from every store I visit.
Got to dive into an untouched dump bin at my local Wal Mart today. Found the Silverado Super! It's been dry for a while. Days like today are what keep you hooked.
You just made a post about leaving regular TH for the little kids, and then you go and post a picture of yourself buying 3 of them, including one with pink wheels. Ts ts ts, shame on you.
Sorry. The RX-7 I will always pick up for JDM friends, and the Fiesta for a friend in New Zealand. You should follow us on Instagram to see all the Regs we leave.