Two For One

Last Saturday, I was perusing the Hot Wheels display of a local superstore, looking for something -- anything -- to catch my eye. In recent days, I haven't been finding much that is unique or different and new 2011 cars are sometimes there, sometimes not. I have all the ones that have been there. But you never know when an amazing find might materialize. I especially like finding older models since I am new to all of this and missed them the first time around. But it was difficult to muster the enthusiasm to dig all the way to the wall on each peg on this particular night. It was obvious halfway up the display that I wasn't going to find anything. What was the point? I paused to rearrange some of the two car packs that were in my way when... Gasp! Be still my beating heart. What is THAT?!!! There before me, packaged with a 2010 model '07 green and gold basic Ford Shelby GT-500, was the car shown above. I recognized it's model name -- "Cul8r" -- from looking at lists of Hot Wheels past. One look at the checkerboard stripe and ice blue detailing against a stunning gray metalflake paint atop a real metal base, and I was hooked. I wasn't sure what year it was from, but I knew it wasn't a 2010 or 2011 casting. That wasn't shocking in itself. While I had never seriously considered buying a two-pack before, I had glanced at enough of them to know that sometimes a car from the previous model year is packaged with a current one. The problem was always that if I did find a car I wanted in a two-pack, the other vehicle was inevitably something I already had or didn't want. That was the case here as well. I already had a green and gold '07 Shelby, though the one I bought had "Faster than Ever" wheels. Goodness knows I didn't want or need a basic version too. But oh mama, did I want that Cul8r! I went round and round about it, with the fact that the two packs were on sale finally convincing me just to go ahead and buy the darn thing. Once I was safely home with my treasure, I looked it up online. Holy smoke! It's a 2006 model! What the heck is a 2006 car doing packaged with a 2010? Suddenly I was envisioning a treasure trove of loose older model cars that had fallen off the conveyor belt at the Hot Wheels factory and somehow gone unnoticed for 4 years. I suppose I'll have to pay more attention to those two packs in the future. As it is, I'm happy. I have a great car (from 2006!) to add to my collection. Making unexpected finds like that is what it is all about.