Hot Wheels

[Sticky Spice]

Before this year, the last time I bought a Hot Wheels car was in about 1986.

This year I was at the store and thought it would be fun to find s cool looking Hot Wheels car and keep it on my desk. I'm not a big fan of cars, but some of them do look pretty nice. So I get one and...it's light. Real light. The entire thing was made of plastic - what happened to the metal chassis?

So then I start looking around and there's this whole Hot Wheels line called Hot Wheels Classics, and man are they sharp. They take some classic releases and re-release them with the ol' metal chassis, flashy paint jobs, and some really cool tiny details. Like the ones you grew up with only better. They also cost 3x the usual Hot Wheels at $2.99.

I then poked around at some of the collector sites online. I didn't understand what half of them are talking about, but I do know that a lot of them keep their cars in the package. That's great I guess if you see it as a financial investment, but how in the world can you really enjoy these things without settin' them free?

Anyway, apparently there's this thing called Treasure Hunt, which I'd never heard of, where there's a rare edition car randomly inserted into cases. Apparently they are doing this to encourage friendships with the local Toys R Us stock boy and to get people to rifle through the merchandise. How people know which car is a Treasure Hunt I have no idea.

With Ebay on the scene they're saying that the value of these cars have plummeted from about $50 a car to $10 a car. Sound familar card collectors? I'm wondering if maybe the natural evolution to this would be like the sports card industry has done - serial numbering, 1 of 1 masterpieces, actual chunks of cars on your Hot Wheels, etc. But as long as this treasure hunt has gone on I guess they would have already moved towards this if it was doable. The only thing is how can you make it a random find when nearly the entire vehicle is visible in the package?

Anyout out there bonkers about Hot Wheels or know someone who is?

Dang, I wish I had an image to throw in here. The Corvette Stingray is the one that got me interested.

[WharfRat]

This the one?



Don't know much about the collector side, but Hot Wheels were the ish.

[WharfRat]

Or this:

[Sticky Spice]

It's hard for me to differentiate Stingray body styles since I'm not a big fan, but the edition I'm talking about is a 1975 Corvette Stingray.

[logan]

collectibles,no matter what they may be, are an ever fluctuating market. cards,toys,comics etc is a market you must stay with the trends in to make money. couple years ago when marvel released the ultimate line the comic market exploded and everything became valuable again. now recently the market is down again (not as bad as it once was by any means but not as hot as it was for the first two years of the ultimate runs)


as far as thehot wheels treasure hunts go they usually say it on the front of the packing in a green band. you will never see one in a toys r us though as the stock guys pick the hell out of eveything. i know my friend used to be one.

[ironman]

No collecting fad crashing to the ground brought me greater joy than the ridiculous Beanie Baby craze. I just remember those insane suburban moms practically getting in fistfights over a little stuffed toy. Now, aside from a few rare ones they are worth absolutely nothing. Even the creators, TY, say that they were never meant to be anything more than a baby toy.

[Madison]

I have a friend who's constantly buying Hot Wheels. He's got a few thousand of them. All in their original packaging and displayed in a room of his house. It's quite an amazing sight actually.

So no, you're definitely not alone should you go crazy with collecting tons of Hot Wheels.

[wkelly91]

I started collecting them when they first came out....they looked great and the tracks that they had for racing where great. There also was a competeing company called "Johnny Lightning" but they weren't as good. I had around 100 cars before I gave them to my brother

I remember walking about two miles to a drug store to buy the newest car that I saw when I was shopping there with my mom. I couldn't ask her to buy it so I plotted out my strategy. (I feel like Ralphy and his red-rider bb-gun when I think about it) I took my allowance and got off at the wrong school bus stop. walked the two miles....whaaaala! It wasn't there

I also collected some Corgi cars and some matchbox. My favorites were the Batmobile that shot bombs, had a buzzsaw in front , I also had a Green Hornet car that had a radar that shot out the roof and a missle out of the front

Good times

[Rirruto]

I have a friend who's constantly buying Hot Wheels.

Right......a friend....

[Madison]

I have a friend who's constantly buying Hot Wheels.

Right......a friend....

I don't collect anything at the moment. My big weakness was/is baseball cards.

The only Hot Wheels I buy are for my son, and he's so tough on them that they are definitely not for a collection.