On the way home from California yesterday, the family made a pitstop in St. George, Utah. There was a Walmart nearby, so I decided to take a break from driving and get a little walking in. While there I found a Hot Wheels dumpbin that clearly had been put out in the last 24 hours.
It seemed logical that this could be a Q case, considering no Q cases have shown in western US Walmarts. But it was a 2015 A case. While I was very happy to pick up the models I needed, it did lead me to wonder what happened to Q case dump bins at Walmart.
If we follow the normal Hot Wheels release pattern, Q case dump bins were supposed to hit Walmarts in early September, and they were to include the last three Zamacs of 2014. They never did. Some collectors in the Eastern US reported finding Q case bins, but without Zamacs. No reports surfaced after those first few.
In late September, the last Zamacs have appeared, but as part of R cases. We have never seen R cases before, and they seem to be 2015 Batch A models with the last batch of 2014 Zamacs. These cases don’t include Supers. This photo was posted by HWsMichael at HWC:
Since then some have reported finding the Zamacs with dump bins containing A case cars, along with Fast & Furious and Batman cars, and others, like me, have found A case dump bins.
So does this mean the Q case run is over at Walmart?
It seems something like this happened last year. The 2013 Q cases showed sporadically at different Walmarts, with many not seeing Zamacs. We never saw them around here. So whatever that issue was, Mattel is trying to resolve it with R cases.
But where does that leave the Datsun Wagon Super TH and the 2015 Mustang New Model? New Models and Supers only stay in one batch, and from all reports they are not in the R or A cases. We assume more Q cases will appear at other stores like Target and Kroger, but without Walmart, the numbers of some of these models will be much smaller.
So while it is early, could this make the Datsun Wagon Super even more sought-after? Only time will tell. In the meantime we will try and figure out what is in all these batches.
And let us know what you are finding by way of our Facebook or Instagram pages. We definitely want to know…
I suspect that the Datsun estate will be a bit of a pegwarmer in the UK – when it finally appears. I can't see it having the following it has in the US in the UK.
As for case Q – it'll probably appear in Poundland in a year or sos time. We got HW Flying Colours last month – we got 2 batches but only 4 of the 5 in the range. (I was there just after the box was put onto the pegs.)
They are also the only ones to have sold the MB Dodge pickup and pale blue Karmann Ghia in the UK.
Chris
For what it's worth, the R cases we found (I'm in GA) were Q and A case cars, including ZAMACs, but all of cards were marked Q. That included the Kombi, Datsun 620, etc. No Supers but there were Cloak and Dagger regular THs.
Out here on the east coast, two of my local WMs have just recently put out N case bins. One last week and the other yesterday They were standard WM cases – Zamacs and Supers included. This is out of sequence since both already had the P cases out. It's possible we could see Q cases after the As, however with them mixing in the Zamacs with the R cases, I don't know.
Targets in my area already pegged their Q cases around K Day and then this week are getting P cases in.
Very strange.
Opened 2 sealed q cases at target there was no 510's or supers. Walmart in my area of phoenix have not released the q case yet. Saw a youtube video where a guy found both q and a cases in a dump bin at walmart with super 510's.
I hit a A case dump bin today. 10/01 im in ca. it had no zamac but held supers
We should be getting our Q cases this week in Vegas Walmarts.
We get the new cases generally the first week of the month. On my way now to go see, but sometimes they are not out till Friday.
Here in Louisiana i had no trouble with q cases. They showed up in bins a month ago. But we got skipped on the p cases. Just yesterday some bins showed up and my grandpaw found a p case and got one lafasta and a Harley. I have yet to see either. It appears a cases and batman and fast and furious are showing up now. The latter of which seems to be left overs from last year with the exception of two cars. So Im just hoping to see some p cases
At a WM in Kansas I visit, the Q case showed up the week before K Day, but there wasn't a single 510 (unless a scalper got to them early) or Zamacs. Plenty of new Mustangs and Porsche 934s though. Another WM I frequent that usually has the best/newest stock, still hasn't gotten the Q case. So, I've yet to see one single regular 510.
Im fairly certain I was the first person to go though the bin today at my wal mart.
Batman and Fast and Furious cars abound.
There were over 40 zmaca Twinmills 47 Mustang's and 2 custom Mooneyes VW in the bin.
Not one single 510 wagon in the bin. Several regular Thunts (cloak and dagger)
Off on some more hunting at the stores around town. Maybe someone did beat me and grab all the 510's but I kinda doubt it.
Reporting from Dallas:
I caught my local walmart stocking q case cars last night, and cherry-picked their stock. A fellow collector beat me to a boxed mainline 510 by mere inches, which was the only one in the whole of the store, and procured a white Lotus Esprit S1. Oddly enough, we could find no yellow Acura NSX. My local Target was also flush with fresh q cased pegs, but again no NSX or 510 wagons. Finger's crossed for R cases.
I hit two dump bins today. I finally found the original batmobile and picked up a couple fast and furious Skylines. Didn't see any Datsun, lotus or new Mustangs.