Unexpected finds

I knew that the Big Lots by where I live was getting Hotwheels today and so I decided to make a run shortly after they opened the store. I arrived right after they had installed two different shelf holders of cars. Upon first seeing them, I thought they had already been raided because all of the cars were facing down. But I didn't want to waste the trip and started to go through them. About halfway through the first one, I found a car that I have been looking for a long time. The Sting Rod II Treasure Hunt. It looks much cooler in person than in the pictures I have seen online.

It has been one of the more frustrating cars to try and find as there are two models out on the shelves that look similar, but obviously are not the same. I get excited every time I find one, but of course there is no Treasure Hunt logo. But today I was very blessed! I didn't find any supers, but I'm more than content with what I found.

You can see the HUGE Treasure Hunt logo in red/white on the back. Pretty hard to miss if you are a collector. While I was there I decided to pick up a Enzo and a Mustang that I did not have.

After going to Big Lots, my wife (she is pretty awesome for putting up with me on these adventures) and I went to a Wal-mart that claimed that they were going to have a new shipment of Hotwheels cars on the pegs this morning. When we got there, the pegs were still pretty much empty, so no luck there. We then decided to head over to a movie theater grill place to watch a movie and have lunch. But...the movie we wanted to see was sold out. Since we were in the area, we headed over to that Toys'r'us because I know one of the guys there would let me buy a case that he showed me earlier this week.

I talked to one of the guys I had spoken with before and knew the guy helping me with buying a case. He went straight to the manager and apparently the case had been stored in some random place as they could not find it. I decided to do some detective work and hunted around the store for it. What I came across was another box instead. It was for some reason hidden under the Customer Service desk. It had been opened, but it look like most of the cars were still in it. I decided to dig through to see what I could find and ended up finding another old Treasure Hunt car.

When this one first came out, I remember finding two or three of them at a Wal-mart. My gut feeling told me it was something special but I ended up leaving it behind because I figured it was just another basic car. After I had got back to school, I did some research on it and come to find out, it was a Treasure Hunt. I went back to that Wal-mart later that week and went back to the bin I had found them. I was only successful in finding one of the ones I had seen previously. I guess a collector overlooked it or was content with having the ones they found.

I still couldn't believe it was a Treasure Hunt and decided to tear it open to look for myself. Sure enough, the card said that it was indeed a Treasure Hunt. Who knew? My wife was able to point out the symbol after I couldn't find it. You deserve a cookie if you can find it quickly. I'll give you a hint, it is toward the back. Of course this picture makes it a lot easier to see because of the flash, but in person, it is super hard to see.

Here is my haul for the day:

Fun fun! :)

Hotwheels at work?

Who says you can't have a cool desk at work? The rare occasions I'm actually in my cubicle, I get to enjoy these three Hotwheels cars I have on display.

The Aventador is my favorite Lamborghini, the JJ Enterprise is my favorite Enterprise, and the 599XX is my favorite Ferrari.

Derek Twigg
John 3:16

A good day to be a collector

I got to do some for the very first(ish) time today. I say the ish, because of K-mart day I did get to open a 36 count box to search through.

But anyways, today I got to be the first person to search through a 72 count box of Hotwheels cars. I was going to buy the box, but ended up putting most of the cars onto the pegs at the store I was at. It was like working at a retail store all over again, just this time I was not restricted from being able to purchase the cars I was putting up. Someone even stopped to ask me if I could help them find something and I had to assure them that I did not work at the store. I did end up helping the lady anyways, it was kind of fun. I do miss getting to work retail and helping customers. Fortunately the job I have now I get to meet new people almost every week, not quite the same, but still fun!

Moving along to the actual opening. I didn't know what to expect and honestly I thought the box would be much larger. But it was a tiny box that somehow packed 72 Hotwheels cars. After peeling away the flaps, I looked inside with a long glance to see if I could spot anything I wanted. I quickly noticed a STAR TREK battle damaged Enterprise (I have way too many of these things now). I decided to start pulling cars to get a closer look at what was inside. To my surprise, I finally found a car I have been searching for months to find.

I found the 2007 Ford Mustang Super. I keep hearing from collectors that you do not always find a Treasure Hunt in a case. But this was not the case for this case (pun intended). I found the Mustang super and also a normal Mazda RX-7 Treasure Hunt.

It was a good way to end the day after visiting several other stores that had clearly been wiped before I had a chance to walk through the door. Here is a picture of what all I grabbed from the box:

I'm sure the other cars have no value, but they are fun to have! My wife has already opened the plane and claimed it, haha!

The Mustang will be the 7th Super I have found while collecting. The first was a Ferrari Enzo that I already sold on ebay earlier this year. The other ones I have will be harder to let go, especially the 599XX I found last year. It is my favorite Hotwheels car I own, I wouldn't even take it out of the protective shell for the picture, it stays protected!

(Quick Edit) I realized that in the final picture that one of the cars is not a Super, I do have two Supers of that car but accidentally took a picture of the normal one. Another quick edit, I really need to go to bed, but I actually have been blessed enough to find 8 Supers! The Camaro Super is a pretty funny story on how I found that one, I will have to make a post based on just that experience! :)

Here are the other two that I have:

Until next time,

Derek Twigg

John 3:16

How it started

I have always been a fan of Hot Wheels cars thanks to my father buying them for me when I was a toddler. My father started my collection shortly after I was born. He passed away when I was three; yet 25 years later and I still have the cars he gave me. They are not in the best of condition anymore, but their sentimental value is priceless to me. They are currently stored at my parent's house, I will have to get a picture of them one day to post on here.

Even though I had Hot Wheels cars growing up, I didn't actually start seriously collecting them until the mid-90's. I do have hundreds of them before that period, but they were all opened and heavily played with. Nothing like having an adventure with your cars or maybe setting up a huge dealership to sell your cars. When my brother would join in on the fun, I had it set up to where my cars were on the dealership lot and that every three minutes or so, he would earn fake paper money we had (the kind you find at the dollar store). He could then use that money to purchase a car to drive around in. It never lasted long because he would want too many cars and three minutes seemed like eternity for him.

And here we get to the point of my first post in this blog, how on earth did I become a serious Hot Wheels collector. Ironically enough, it was because of Matchbox cars. I kid you not, I became a serious Hot Wheels collector by a birthday gift of Matchbox 1 in 25,000 series cars. My grandparents and mom gave me a ton of them for my birthday one year. I, being a young child who loves playing with cars, of course wanted to tear them open and play with them. But...just hang on one second, there was a stipulation to these prized birthday gifts. I was not allowed to open them. How can you tell a child that they are not allowed to play with toy cars? I didn't know what Limited Edition was, I just saw cars enclosed in their plastic prisons that needed to break free and hit the tracks.

So it started, my Hot Wheels collecting bug that hasn't been killed even to this day. It wasn't because of Hot Wheels cars, but because I was not allowed to open Special Edition Matchbox cars. When buying Hot Wheels cars from that day on, I almost felt like I would be punished. Talk about a mental scar. It did seem like punishment but yet it somehow blossomed into a fun hobby. Cars that I buy today, even if I buy them with no intentions of selling, are very difficult to open. Fortunately my wife has no problems with opening them and I can let her do it for me (I'm such a great husband, haha).

My collection is relatively small compared to many collectors I've run into, thus the reason why I call my blog Part-time Collector. It is a fun hobby that I do when I have some free time, but nothing that I live by. I hope you have enjoyed this short first post. I will leave you with a picture that contains most of my collection, the rest of them were in other locations and it has grown since I took this picture earlier this year (I blame you K-mart day! That will be another post).



Until next time,

Derek Twigg

John 3:16