Found my first 2014 Camaro $uper in the wild!

While having my flat tire fixed in the tire shop, I decided to head over to the Hot Wheels area to see what I could find. I came across a bin and pegs filled past their limits full of C case cars. Looks like they put out 9 of them based on how many Fangsters I found. While halfway through the bin, I managed to find this...

I was starting to lose hope with how many cars I had gone through, but there it was. Fell out while I was 2/3rds of the way through the bin. Only found one out of all the cases put out, but I'm not going to complain!

Here is what the shopping cart looked like as I was using it to help go through the bin:

You can kind of see the chaos of the bin, haha. I found 4 Bat Pods, 9 Fangsters, 7 Herbies, and the 1 $uper Camaro. Not a bad hunt. Though the only ones I took were the Camaro and two of the Bat Pods.

I will leave you with this final pic of the Camaro as I am ready to head to bed!

Until next time,

Derek Twigg

John 3:16

PS FYI etc :P

Here is a video I made while there...

Super x3?

It's not everyday you are the first person to a freshly set up display of Hot Wheels, even rarer is when you get to help set one up. I ran across a Kroger that had their Hot Wheels Christmas display boxes sitting on top of some shelves in the same area they have a ton of other Hot Wheels cars.

I decided to go ahead and ask about them to one of the employees. He said that he would get some help to bring them down so I could go through them if I wanted. After waiting a few minutes, an employee showed up and got a ladder to take them down. He let me help set up two of the displays and go through the other two in which he put back up on the shelves after I was done going through them.

Here is what I was able to pick up:

I found several more of the Fire Eaters, but considering I have more of that Treasure Hunt than any other one I have ever owned, I gladly left them behind for the next collector. I even had fun hiding them in different locations to make the hunt all the more exciting.

First time finding that many $upers at one location. The '67 Camaro is definitely one of my favorite Treasure Hunts this year. If only I could be so blessed to find that many every time I went Hot Wheels hunting, haha.

Until next time,

Derek Twigg
John 3:16

B Case From Hot Wheels

I'll let the video do the talking this time as I got the 2014 B Case from Hot Wheels :)

Until next time,

Derek Twigg
John 3:16

What does it look like to find a Super Secret?

I can report to you first hand exactly what it looks like as I had the rare experience of finding one last night. Without wasting anymore of your time, I give you this...

I was starting to give up hope on finding this one. It was a big blessing to end a long day. I almost didn't stop at this Kroger as I didn't expect them to get another shipment for awhile, but I was literally across the street and couldn't help myself. I went to the place I found my last Super Secret at this Kroger (still need to post a blog on that) and found a display that looked like it had either:

A. Kids messed up all of the cars

or

B. An employee who has no idea how to set up a Hotwheels display was the one in charge of this project

Fortunately for me, it was B. Not the first time I have run into this. If you look at the left of the picture you can see how the cars are folded down. When I found two battle damaged Enterprises, I knew it had been untouched. That is when I found this...

It looks like the bed doesn't properly line up, but I'm not going to complain. I'm thankful I found one. I found another battle damaged Enterprise after finding this Super. Considering how many of those things I have found now, I decided to put all three on the outside of the display so that hopefully a kid walking by will be able to pick them up before a scalper comes and takes all three. I will have to post pictures later of those opened up and surrounding the Vengeance.

I'm not a Toyota fan at all, but this Super is really cool! The wheels in particular are pretty epic!

I need to head to bed, long day ahead of me tomorrow! Hopefully some good hunting to report on if I can make it to any stores on my lunch break :)

I will leave you with this picture of a Treasure Hunt I found at a Target that had just been stocked. It is one of my favorite Treasure Hunts for 2013 despite several other collectors claiming it to be one of the ugliest.

Good night all! As usual...

Until next time,

Derek Twigg

John 3:16

You gotta be persistent

One thing I have learned from being a collector where I live is that you must be persistent. I don't care what the manager of the store tells you, if you fail to keep checking, you will miss out on finding what you have been looking for. Way way too many times have I missed out on Supers and normal Treasure Hunts because I listened to the manager or thought a store wouldn't be refreshed anytime in the near future. Here is an example that just happened today. A Target manager told me that they were not getting anymore cars in stock for awhile because they already had their "magic" number (usually 400-500 cars). Some stores this hold true (Toys"R"Us being the worst). Despite what he said, the store is only a mile away from where I live and I drive by it to get home. It is just too hard not to pass up when I don't want to fight traffic at the intersection I have to turn at. Instead I can just go the opposite way and have no traffic and just relax looking through Hotwheels (even if I have done it almost every day and know what they have).

Today, it paid off. A Treasure Hunt I have wanted more than any other Treasure Hunt in the history of my collecting, a Subaru Treasure Hunt. I found it, a 2014 Subaru STi WRX Treasure Hunt.

I just could not believe how hard this thing has been to find! I heard from one collector that he had found enough to start giving them away and here I was with zip, zero, nadda. That changed today, woo hoo!

This Treasure Hunt is for those who claim they can't find the logo. Hotwheels decided to not just put it in one place, but three!!! You can see the first one right above STi, the second above the front wheel, and the third is on the hood above STi.

So there you have it. If you want to find a car you have been hunting for, you have to ignore the employees of the stores and keep hunting! Though in some cases they can actually be right. Toys"R"Us must have the worst schedule when it comes to getting new cars. I'm guessing they get one big order each month and do not order anymore until they are almost completely wiped. Ugh, oh well. That is what makes the hunt so exciting I guess, haha. Just never truly know when a store is going to get a box in. Just gotta keep hunting and have fun at it. I have had countless days where I didn't even find a basic car that I wanted. Sometimes you get a streak going on, then other times you will find nothing. Have fun, it isn't the end of the world if you don't find what you are looking for. If you put all of your burden of having fun on finding a single car, you will never truly have fun being a Hotwheels collector.

Until next time,

Derek Twigg

John 3:16

A Hotwheels rant

One of the biggest drawbacks of being a collector is that the world around you doesn't understand your passion. Surprisingly many do not even know what you are talking about when trying to ask where the Hotwheels are located in their store. I've lost track of how many puzzled faces I've seen. It would be nice if all stores had a convenient layout for their Hotwheels so I didn't have to ask all the time, but sadly this is not the case. For example, Publix. They are the absolute worst when it comes to track down where they hide their Hotwheels cars. One store in particular that really bugged me was that they hid the one Hotwheels car they had by putting it with the school supplies. No other toys in sight, just randomly blending in with the other items hanging up.

I have found a answer to finding help quicker than before. I can usually find one Hotwheels car pretty quick and once I have done so, I will take it with me to ask for help. I can show the person what I'm looking for and at least 3 out of 5 times they can help. The other two, well...I think some employees should stick behind the cash register and not be on the floor trying to help people find things. Even when showing them the car, they still look at you confused and then will take you to a section with other random toy cars or even the 5 packs despite you asking for the basic single pack.

Another fun one to deal with is when you go to a Walgreens, CVS, or Rite-Aide. I think they all three have the same hiring manager that trains them as they all three have a word for word knee jerk reaction when asking if they have any more Hotwheels. It goes along these lines, "We do not have any in the back, all of the cars we have are already out." I finally got a worker to give me an explanation that they only order two cars at a time. I'm not sure how they do that, but I believe she was speaking the truth. She even asked how many I wanted and she would order them. Based on where that store was located, I doubt I will be back there anytime in the foreseeable future and didn't request any.

My least favorite experience is dealing with employees who feel the employee is always right and the customer has no say. A Wal-mart employee is the perfect example of this. For their sake, I will not mention the store, but I believe it is safe to say I will not return to that store for a long time. I've been to it a couple times and the first, the pegs were almost completely empty. I asked the employee if they were getting more, with an attitude, she told me that they had no intentions of putting out anymore until the dump bin was empty. Being curious, I visited the store a week later and the bin had been filled again. The last time I was there, the bin was gone and so I asked if they were getting more to the same employee (unfortunately). This resulted into a lecture about how they will not put out another box until the pegs are almost empty like before. Fortunately their are several other stores that can keep me occupied to help me stay clear of this location.

I am done for tonight, I could go on, but sleep sounds pretty amazing right now! Though I do want to post one more blog, I have some new Treasure Hunt finds to report on!

Until next time,

Derek Twigg
John 3:16

New collector friend?

On lunch today, I ran to the Target closest to where I was at. As I'm walking up to the Hotwheels display, I see another person standing there going through the cars and holding a few. What do I see in his hands? The '07 Ford Mustang Super, a RX-7 Regular Treasure Hunt, and two battle damaged Enterprise models. If I had been there one minute sooner, I would have been able to pick those up. But it wasn't meant to be. He had been looking for the Mustang and I already have one, so I believe it went to the right person :)

I got to talk to him for awhile and enjoyed getting to know him a little better. He recommended that I go to a collector show coming soon. I'm thinking about it, he is the second person to tell me I should go to this event. We shall see.

Fortunately today was not a complete loss! I finally found a Treasure Hunt I've been hunting for awhile. The Dodge Challenger Drift Car Treasure Hunt, BOO YAA!!! I didn't find any Supers, but there is never a guarantee of finding them. I also found another Custom Dodge Van Treasure Hunt. Guess today was a Dodge collector day!

The logo on this TH blends in with the other logos. Not as bad as the custom Dodge Van, but still pretty good.

I actually saw the back of the first one before the front and knew instantly it was a TH since it is the only Dodge Challenger released this year. After having a let down of being beat to the Mustang Super, this definitely made up for it and then some!

Until next time,

Derek Twigg

John 3:16