Super-Duper

What is it about Kmart Hot Wheels Collector Events? I've been to two of them now, and just before both of them I got extremely lucky in the Treasure Hunts department. This time, the only major grocery store chain in town was having a 77 cent sale on Hot Wheels, and I had been meaning to get out to as many locations as possible just to see what they had. Alas, it wasn't until the last day of the sale that I was able to go, so I decided to hit the five closest stores. I figured their selections would be picked over at that point, but it was worth a look anyway. As it turned out, one of those stores had closed its doors since I had last been there in early October -- the one in which I found the "Super" Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe I wrote about back in September. *Sniff*
But never mind that. I couldn't be too upset considering that at the very first location I did search, I stumbled across the regular Treasure Hunt version of the Baja Beetle. Then just a few pegs away, I found the "Super" version shown at the top of this post. As you can see, this is another car in which the two types are easy to distinquish. The antifreeze spectraflame paint on the "Super" looks more green than yellow unless you look at it in the right light. I had no qualms about the car itself, not that I wouldn't have snapped it up regardless of its appearance. I like Beetles. Always have. When I was little, we used to count them while on the road for family vacations. "Red bug!" "Blue bug!" "Uh... Sort of yellowish-green spectraflame bug?" Hey, why not. As before with the Shelby, I bought the "Super" and the regular. I left a second regular version for the next person to find. I just couldn't quite believe that I had found them on the last day of the sale.

After discovering the closure of the next store on my list, I moved on to the third location. I didn't find much there, though I did make a couple of other purchases. Then came the fourth store. Here, they had erected a huge four-sided box display in the Christmas aisle. The first side yielded nothing new. On side two, I immediately happened across another "Super" Shelby. I mean, it was right in front for all to see. What the...? And there were no regular versions to be found on the display -- just the "Super". Sure I already had it, but considering it's value, I'd have been a fool not to claim it for 77 cents.

On side three, I found another Treasure Hunt car -- the regular version of the Ford GTX1. In fact, I found several of them. Quckly setting one aside, I told myself, "Keep digging. Just keep digging." Sure enough on side four (wouldn't you know it?) I finally found the "Super".

Unlike the Beetle, this car's blue paint made it difficult to tell the difference under store lighting, though with closer inspection, one could see that the paint of the "Super" was more affected by changes in that light and looked very dark, for example, in shadow. But the tires were the real giveaway. There was no mistaking the higher quality wheels of a "Super". Once again, I had to wonder... Did I walk in 30 seconds after someone had put this display together or something? How in the heck did I get this lucky? Even though I left the final store on my hit list without making a purchase, it did leave me a little worried about the Kmart Collectors Event that weekend. I couldn't help but feel this was God's way of saying, "Look, you aren't going to get drawn for a box on Saturday, but here are some 'Supers' to make it all better."