It has been awhile since I found an Ultra Red. At least until the last couple of weeks.
I have felt some heat coming from the collector world about Auto World. I think many people are starting to catch on as to how cool these classic American car castings are. And yeah, there are chases. Ultra Reds, which are about 3% of a castings run, and the rarest of all, the Ultra Raws, which are limited to 10 no matter how large or small the run is.
I have never come across an Ultra Raw in store, and doubt I ever will. Ultra Reds, however, I used to do fairly well when Auto World was in its infancy. With a growth in popularity comes an obvious growth in visibility and awareness of what to look for. That means I don’t find as many, and I have no problem with that.
But I have been lucky a couple of times this last month, and that is probably because the Ultra Reds I found are somewhat hard to see. I even had to go to Instagram on both to figure out if what I was looking at was an Ultra Red:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZmSuiMlvcH/?taken-by=thelamleygroup
The first was at Toys R Us. There were three TRU exclusive models on the pegs, all three there same – the 1964 Pontiac Grand Prix in red. Alas, one was an Ultra Red, but not easy to pick out. My guess is the Cadillacs were gobbled up, and the Ultra Red was understandably missed.
The other was today. The “Color Swatch” Barracuda is one of the most unique models Auto World has released, and they recently announced a second Hobby Only version with a different color mix. But with all the colors on the Color Swatch model, executing an Ultra Red is tough. AW decided to go with a red hue on each color, along with a white base. That definitely makes the Ultra Red different, but when you don’t have a standard version to compare it to, which I didn’t, it is still hard to tell.
But I had a hunch, and IG confirmed it. One model, the Cadillac, was missing from this batch, so once again I just think someone missed it. I won’t complain.
I have more Auto World coverage coming, from the 2017 Premium Release 4 Preview to an Ultra Red/Ultra Raw opening. Stay tuned.
I found the ultra red Pontiac as well. What I loved about it was that the chassis and other items where white! Super cool. Love AW. Keep ’em coming.
Which of the 3 Pontiac Grand Prix is the ultra red? Can’t tell from this angle.
In the picture of three, the top left Grand Prix is the Ultra Red.
It’s the one with the sweet delicious Candy Apple coating that’s hard to find… I better truck on over to TRU & see if I can get one, but I’ll even settle for the standard ’68 Barracuda in the funky striped dress!
I’d be happy to find ANY new AutoWorld at my local stores, let alone an UltraRed. So frustrating.
Yeah.. seems TRU is basically the only one around lately to carry Autoworld.. & maybe just one Walmart in my area. I feel your pain.
I found the “RAW” TRU 64 Pontiac Gran Prix. Very nice!