Hot Wheels Super Treasure Hunts (or $upers, or Soups) remain the most talked about Hot Wheels among collectors every year. It seems to be that news on a new Super will always out buzz the news on a new casting. I might be more excited about the R33 Skyline, but more folks seem to be excited about the ’70 Nova Soup. Hot Wheels knows what they are doing.
And it isn’t just us nerdy adult collectors that get excited enough to sacrifice out nights, mornings, evenings, lunches, and every other waking moment to find one. A couple of weeks ago, at the request of a good friend, I brought some extra Hot Wheels to his son’s birthday party. The party was full of 10- to 11-year-old boys and girls. The birthday boy wanted me to teach everyone about Treasure Hunts. So I did. I first explained what a Regular TH was, then dove into the subject of the day, the Super. Watching the interest on each of their faces was hilarious. Pretty soon they were 100% focused on Supers. So were their parents.
After the lecture, I let them blindly pick Hot Wheels in a box. I told them I included two Supers as well. They closed their eyes, reached in, grabbed a car, looked at it, looked at me, asked if it was a Super, I told them no, and they asked if they could pick again. Young pallet raiders in training.
Eventually the two were found, and then everyone got to focus on how cool their other cars were. But the Supers had them obsessed.
They just do that. And to me too. I love finding Supers. Not enough to spend a lot of time looking, but when I do come across one, it makes me smile.
But I am a blogger, so I like writing about them and photographing them. Some Supers would be sought after no matter what. Others only get snagged because of those Real Riders, and that paint, and most importantly, that “TH”. If that TH is on the car, collectors pick it up.
So I will continue to write about them, and feature them on the YouTube Channel. Mattel was nice enough to send the 2018 Supers over so I can do my Super Showcases on the Channel, and of course I will feature them here too.
But by the time I show them – about when the cases hit – you already know what they are. So I need a different angle. Hopefully what I find out about each of them from Mattel is interesting, as are the pics. But I thought it would be cool to compare each new Super to older Supers. The connection might be obvious, it might make no sense, but hopefully it will be interesting.
So here is a practice run. Last year’s ’67 Camaro Super compared with…the 2013 ’67 Camaro Super. Easy, right?
Both are ’67 Camaros, and both are Supers, but there is a fair amount of difference. For one, the Summit Camaro is the old casting – metal base, opening hood. The 2017 Camaro is the new casting – plastic base, no opening hood. The Summit also goes a little more hot rod with wide rear wheels, while the red Camaro runs on narrow steelies.
But damn, they are both beautiful. The ’67 Camaro boasts as much Hot Wheels history as any, but as a casting it lacks a bit compared to other newer Camaros. But who cares? The ’67 is always treated as royalty by Hot Wheels, and these two Super Treasure Hunts provide ample evidence. One just looks badass, the other takes a retro Camaro deco and makes it look amazing.
I could have included the other two ’67 Camaro Treasure Hunts, but technically they aren’t Supers. The famous 95 and anniversary 2005 were both Treasure Hunts, before HW introduced the Super. Plus, I don’t have either one of them.
But I don’t need them. This pair more than suffices.
Ever since the TH line debuted in 1995, it is still the most sought-after series. I have only 2 THs to my name: the white ’67 Camaro from 1995 and the Super TH ’64 Buick Riviera. Both are loose and mint.
The ’67 Camaro is one of those castings in which you could attempt to collect every known variation for a very long time and still have doubt that you have every last one.
’67 Summit for the win! Actually, it’s pretty interesting – The Hot Wheels Dream Team posted the ’17 Super TH Camaro on their instagram and it garnered a LOT of negative reaction. A lot of people were not happy with the plastic base, and were flat out lamenting the lack of an opening hood. I understand why people would be upset. I have the Mini Cooper with metal base, the Ferrari F40 with opening rear engine bay hatch (yellow, 5 pack version) and metal base, and the mainline ’67 Summit Camaro (with metal base and opening hood) that has some good honest wear, tear and dirt from my kiddos before it was given a place of prominence on the wall case. We are seeing less less of these.
Yet, I am not too upset since these wonderful little cars still cost $1 (with some sales hitting $.79 or even $.69) I’m sure Hot Wheels has had to get pretty creative by keeping it at that magic pricepoint. Pretty impressive really, in this day and age. As long as their more expensive counterparts (Car Culture, Retro Entertainment, etc) continue to come with premium features, I’m okay. Plus, I since Matchbox is (I think) on the brink of releasing some opening door models, hopefully we can get our fix that way.
That being said, does anyone know if HW ever released a 1st gen Camaro with same size wheels? I sure wish they would – gosh that would be a hit! Was just perusing the grocery store today and saw the Redliner collection (minus the Bad Gasser) and had a good long look at the Camaro. The paint was beautiful, but alas, I left it on the pegs. The real riders on that model are not my favorite and the large rear wheels are a little bit of a distraction. No worries, someone else will get it who will enjoy it more than me.
But it would be great to see the same size wheel on the back. If HW was to do this to any model, what a doozy that would be to have it first happen on the ’67!
So, what is your angle? You basically are a leading authority on all diecast. A Blogger yes. I dont turn to your page or website for anything less. Not many people can string together a list of words cohesively to describe what is available and how cool they are. You have tackled subjects like lurkers and sham artists. You have actually reported on design flaws as we collectors see them…(upswept chin comes to mind) while maintaining the integrity of provenance with the designers who create our passion.
You dont need an angle. You are an angle. One that it seems Mattel, AW, and Tomica seem to recognize as an authority on the subject. I know I do.
Either car works for me. The Camaro is an iconic Hot Wheel for the brand. Not sure Hot Wheels could make a bad one.
I think if they had put the steelies from the 2017 on the 2013 Summit car (complete with metal base & opening hood), it’d be the ideal mix of the two.
Personally, I’m not a fan of the casting (heresy, I know) but I do have the mainline 2013 version (because the Summit livery is cool) as well as the 2017 super (because it’s a Super) and I’m happy with what I have.
I like the 2017 rendition’s paint and wheel’s choice better than the 2013…..but they dropped the ball by getting rid of the opening hood gimmick…that was still on the Walmart-exclusive 50th Anniversary Camaro mini-series released just months earlier…
That anniversary one was also made in Thailand, where the premium lines are done. We were told that the metal/metal/opening hood tool would remain a premium/special release from now on.
I’m curious to know what the 2 Supers were that you gave away to the kids.
As far as these Camaros go, I prefer the Summit one. Looks perfect in that livery!
Children should be kept away from Super T Hunts
The ’67 Camaro is quite the casting, even in the “new” variation with less features, in the classic Hot Wheels treatment, staggered tires front to back, it’s stance is great, could nearly pull off ANY color and still look bad ass. As you mention early in the article, digging and finding a Super TH is quite the experience and truly a hunt. I was so fortunate to give a mid Saturday run to the grocery store and was just there to glance at the toys, well, next thing I realize, I am sorting the double sided shipper as my OCD kicked in and I just don’t like seeing a messy Hot Wheels area, think that store managers hate it too, so if I help keep it clean, perhaps the store will continue to keep up in stocking Hot Wheels, at least that is the theory I came up with. LOL Well, the OCD paid off as when I got to the small dump bin to satisfy my curiosity on what could be in there, TWO, yes TWO Super ’67 Camaros were my reward, basically buried at the bottom of that bucket, so you see, cleaning up a mess has its rewards, and if you are lucky enough to get first dibs at a case, please, bear in mind to NOT LEAVE A MESS, otherwise the folks stocking won’t want to see you again. OK PSA over, get back to hunting.
The retro Christine one could easily beat the summit super. Clean grey casting, metal base, opening hood, and Goodyear tampo on the tires. One of the best…