Life in the States is slowly getting back to normal which means one thing: retail diecast hunting is making a return! I know sitting at home in the name of public health and safety is a duty we’ve all had to take on, but it sure feels nice to dig through a dump bin and shuffle through packed pegs again.
Like many of you I try and tie in Hot Wheels hunting with my daily errands, and today I struck a little post-quarantine gold. While I didn’t find and Supers or chases, I did find a lot of new stuff, and sometimes it’s the regular releases that can get your blood pumping.
Stop 1: Kroger
Our local Kroger stores have been diecast Godsends lately, in that they were one of the few stores still restocking pegs during the covid crisis. Today I stumbled upon a fresh dump bin and a newly stocked isle. I was able to pick up some new 2020 mainlines I hadn’t seen before, namely the C7 ZR1, 50th anniversary GTR, and a few recolors I needed. Total Disposal in green, Twin Mill Gen-E in a beautiful dark maroon matte, and a bright blue RV There Yet.
The paint and white walls on the 8 Crate recolor are drool-worthy.
I did find a regular Treasure Hunt — although I didn’t even buy it because it was a TH — I first saw the paint error which I jumped on, ha. To me, errors are among the coolest and most unique type of diecasts to collect…and they are even cooler on TH models.
I also found a SWEET looking NASCAR: William Byron’s Hendrick #24 Camaro in Cole Trickle’s Days of Thunder livery. The livery was first seen on the #24 during the 2019 Bojangles’ Southern 500. Hard to pass up anything Days of Thunder related, no matter the brand.
I found a few surprise Hot Wheels releases too. The pegs were stocked with new Mutant Machines and the larger carded haulers series — which included the amazing new Scandia Rally Truck and one of the coolest “special feature” action haulers to date.
The Mutant Machines line came out a few years ago (2013/2014), but there are some new colorways added to the mix this round. I picked up the alligator/dinosaur hybrid casting named SKULLFACE. They are built with a snake skeleton type design that allows the vehicles to bend in all directions. They can fit through some pretty tight track spacing making them extra fun to play with. I like that Hot Wheels is more than mainlines and premiums and I’ll often pick up the fantasy stuff.
The next find is the absolutely killer fantasy truck Cruisin’ Illusion. It has a special feature that makes the truck have a built-in magic trick — but I’ll unbox and show the trick that one has in the next post. The star of this haul is definitely the Scania Rally Truck.
This thing is huge and has great detail. I would say it rivals the Matchbox Working Rigs line. In fact, if you put Matchbox graphics on it and stuck it on an orange card, I probably wouldn’t suspect a thing. It’s done very well.
The cab is metal and so is the articulating trailer dolly in the rear, but the chassis and rear cargo area are plastic. I don’t mind that it’s mainly plastic as it weighed in at 2.5 oz, more than double your average Hot Wheels mainline and still feels very solid. For reference, the Subaru 22b casting weighs 1.2 oz.
The rear dolly pulls out and holds a car quite well actually. It’s designed nicely and feels like it could take some action without damaging the dolly assembly.
By pushing the dolly back into storage mode you’ll feel a nice “click” as it locks into place using a similar kingpin style attachment that the Cruisin’ Illusion has.
The truck has plenty of colorful tampos on both its metal and plastic surfaces. I like the yellow base with the race graphics – I think it fits the truck well and would imagine it will catch the eye of both a veteran collector and the fidgety six year old rummaging through the toy isle. I consider myself a combo of both of those demographics, ha!
In terms of size, I’d consider this one of the biggest, most accurately scaled vehicles they’ve made – even more so over the Team Transport line. It looks proportioned nicely against a mainline and fantasy semi-truck cab. Again, if you’re familiar with the Matchbox Working Rigs line, the Scania will feel right at home in your collection.
Even though the Kroger was a mini honeyhole, I still had more errands to run. On to stop two!
Stop 2: Target
Target is usually where I have the most luck. They are commonly stocked with everything I love: Hot Wheels mainlines, premiums, ID cars, Monster Trucks (HWs and Spinmaster), tracksets, NASCARs, and now Greenlights (at some locations). Today I didn’t have a lot of luck, but did find a few worth taking home.
A Premium S14, a vintage inspired Mustang NASCAR, and the newest Fast & Furious 5-pack.
I really liked the 21 car as it hearkens back to the glory days of NASCAR when that similar scheme covered David Pearson’s Purolator Fords. The S14 is actually an opener as I already have that set carded. As far as the 5-pack goes, it’s only the second time I’ve come across it so I was definitely picking that one up. I did a Youtube video unboxing that set too, which you can see here:
Stop 3: O’Reilly Auto Parts
I had to pick up some sanding material for my 1:1 scale car project, so my last find was kind of a surprise. It was the 2020 Hot Wheels Kia Stinger — but it’s on an international card. No idea why, but I picked it up regardless. The car looks great in the blue over gray wheels.
Not too shabby of a haul for a Thursday….but my mail call post for next time should be fairly decent too….🏁
I never knew that Scania existed. Now I’ve got to find one.
Love the Scania truck., just wish the graphics were more appealing. Too may great castings don’t achieve their max potential due to cheesy / tacky graphics. Oh well, that’s why there are so many modders out there now.
Dang that Scania truck really does look like a Matchbox