Well, we normally like to save the Hot Wheels finds posts to HWC, Youtube videos, and our Facebook page. But occasionally there is cool story to tell.
I have spent the last few days visiting family in Arizona. First Tucson, and now Scottsdale. I had a little bit of time last night so I decided to call my collecting friend Jeff Koch to see if he wanted to get together for a chat. Instead of the normal pow wow at Starbucks, we decided to do a little late night hunting.
My schedule is such that midnight visits to Walmarts for a little pallet-raiding is not a possibility. But since I had nowhere to go in the morning, and since we were already together, we decided to give it a run. Jeff lives in Phoenix, so he took the lead, and decided we needed to drive halfway to LA to start. We ended up hitting three Walmarts in West Phoenix. By the time we were done it was after 1 AM and I thought sleep was a decent idea.
Plus, we had already done pretty damn good.
After striking out at the first Walmart, the next two stores each had untouched Hot Wheels Dump Bins waiting for us. I have never encountered a bin unopened before, so to come across two made for a crazy night. But even that wasn't the shocker.
The real shocker: they were P case dump bins. We were mainly hunting to see if we could find any Walmart N cases, which include the next three Zamac Exclusives, namely the Datsun 240Z
and Ferrari F12
. Instead of N cases, however, we found P cases. A very strange find considering hobby dealers have not gotten the P cases yet, and the domestic N cases are just barely hitting stores.
But Jeff and I did not complain. Yeah, we want those Zamacs, but considering the Treasure Hunt in the P cases is the Mazda RX-7, these two JDM nuts were more than happy to settle for P case dump bins. We preferred it actually. He and I don't have a lot of luck with Hunts, so being able to get a few of the Hunt we really wanted was fantastic.
Between the two bins, we found about 15 RX-7's, three '07 Mustang Super Treasure Hunts, and a slew of other highly anticipated models, including the brand new (and supercool) Lamborghini Aventador J.
I personally ended up with eight RX-7's and two '07 Mustangs. The strange thing? All three Supers were found in the second dump bin, but there were no basic '07 Mustangs at all. I did find two basic '07 Mustangs in the first, sitting on top of the sealed cases. It made for a very strange assortment. The Mustang's "Then and Now" counterpart, the '92 Mustang, was plentiful. But it was odd to find more Super than regular Mustangs.
Nonetheless, when I return home tomorrow, we will start a run of P case First Looks, including the extra Super Mustang that will be freed from its blister prison. It should be fun...
My finds:
First Dump Bin:
Second Dump Bin:
All the Hunts:
The Mazda RX-7 (Best reg TH this year - surprised?):
The only two basic '07 Mustangs we found, along with the two Supers:
The Then and Now Mustangs (funny that the 92 Mustang shares the same complete deco as the Super, and not the basic '07):
