How Much Is That Doggy in the Hot Wheels Package?

I'm a sucker for dogs of all shapes and sizes. Always have been. Most of the pictures I have of myself as a young child show me surrounded by stuffed dogs. I loved dogs even when I was afraid of them. Heck, I was born in the Year of the Dog, so it's probably destiny. Therefore it goes without saying that I was curious as to whether Hot Wheels had ever made a cssting based on a dog. They've certainly made enough creature cars based on other things. So it was with great joy that I happened across the white and black "Supdogg" a few months ago (shown above). It was a 2008 model (Hot Wheels 40th Anniversary), which made it even more appealing. The casting features a mock-studded collar and a front end that resembles the scowl of a bulldog. Which is, of course, absolutely adorable. There was never any question as to whether or not I'd be buying this one. Upon looking it up online later that night, I only had one lament -- that I would proably never find the brown "New Model" version, which had been introduced in 2007. I could count on one hand the number of 2007 cars I had happened across that were still languishing on store shelves for whatever reason in the summer and fall of 2010. Finding any additional 2007s so close to the debut of the 2011 offerings seemed highly unlikely at best.

Fortunately for me, I'm always lucky when it comes to dogs. I had found the first Supdogg at a local target that has been good about mysteriously offering older model Hot Wheels from time to time. But in recent months I've been paying more attention to stores' two-pack sections. I started doing that when I discovered a 2006 "Track Stars" Cul8r inexplicably packaged with a 2010 Ford Shelby GT-500. No, it's probably not as desirable as the singular, carded models, but beggers can't be chosers. And it was in such a two-pack that, lo and behold, I found my brown Supdogg. Once again, it was in a Target. God love 'em. I didn't even care that the package was damaged (the hook at the top was off and the store had attached one of those clear plastic pieces with a hole for hanging. The car that came with it was also something I didn't have yet -- a blue, gold, and silver "Flathead Fury" from 2007. But make no mistake; it was the puppy dog in the clear plastic window I was after.

Interestingly enough, about about a month before that, I had stumbled across another Supdogg -- a Color Shifters Creature Car version that still hasn't been added to the online collectors' sites I frequent. It turns blue when hot. Trouble is that at both room temperature and freezing it looks more or less purple. Not a lot of change there. And no, neither purple nor this shade of blue is even remotely realistic. Unless, of course, it's just come from one of those dog grooming places in Japan where they dye the pups in all sorts of ridiculous colors. You'd think a bulldog would be too dignified for that.

Now that we've had the Supdogg and the Rig Dog, what Hot Wheels really needs to make is a car based on a greyhound. It could chase their Easter Egg-sclusives that are decorated with rabbits around the track.