In the 1990s, the 5 packs of the time were rather… interesting. It was the era of variations, such as wheels or chrome vs plain plastic pieces. With a lot of the differences, you could come across 3 of the “same” 5 pack in the store but each could be different due to the different variations.
The ’57 Chevy from the ’50s Favorites 5 pack was a fun one. The pack was released a number of times from around 1995 through 1997. The standard one came with 5sp wheels and a chrome base. A few harder to find ones swapped 5sp for sawblades. And then you had these 3…
First, the all-plastic one. No exposed engine. I believe this was actually the Color FX tooling, but could be wrong. It was just an odd piece overall, one of only a handful of all-plastic $1-price-point Hot Wheels released. This was a seriously odd one to find. And as you’d expect, it’s light as hell.
And now for the gray bases. At the time, for a run of releases, it was common to find find cars that would normally have chrome pieces to be bare. Not sure the reason for this (I’d have to assume some production issue with the VUM), but it happened among the normal single releases and the 5 packs. Hell, you could find entire 5 packs of cars with all plain plastic pieces. The ’50s Favorites 5 pack was no different, and 4 of the 5 cars could be found with these plain light gray plastic bases (the ’55 Nomad was an all-metal casting so no plastic to be had). The 5sp one is rare enough, but to find one with the plain base AND the sawblade wheels? Now THAT was rare.
So if you’re a variation hunter, might want to take a gander at some older releases. You’d be surprised at the number of different things you can find!