First Look: Hot Wheels Holiday Hot Rods '85 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z & '12 Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca...

For the auto-obsessed minicar collector, Hot Wheels yearly release of holiday-themed models has not been something to get too excited about.  Since the series debut in 2006, the decos have been fun, the packaging clever, and the theme festive.  But casting-wise, it has been slim pickins for those who like castings of real cars.

With one stellar exception: 2011.  That year, we saw a wonderfully diverse mix of castings representing cars from all over.  Cadillacs, Vipers, Lamborghinis, Datsun Z's, and on and on.  In fact, look for a feature on those later in the month.

It was a great year for the holiday series, but sadly it was an anomaly.  Like it was before 2011, the Holiday Hot Rod series has mainly been a release of generics that doesn't generate too much buzz.

But 2013 seems to be a slight improvement.  Yeah, Hot Tub and Spider cars don't excite us, but take a look at the list:

Seems to be somewhat the same fare, with two glaring exceptions.  Yes, Hot Wheels can't be Hot Wheels without Camaros and Mustangs, but at least we have two excellent castings of real cars in the lineup.  We know the Rodger Dodger, or Dixie Challenger, is a collector fave, and we know that currently collectors are obsessing over the Sandblaster TH, but the two models that stand out are the '85 Camaro and '12 Mustang.  So let's show them off, get a few of you excited enough to buy a few, and maybe Mattel will continue to put real cars in the holiday lineup...

(If you like what you see, you can always find the 2013 Holiday Models here, and while you are at it, have a gander at the 2011 models.  Many are worth checking out.)


Hot Wheels '85 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z (2013 Holiday Hot Rods):

Hot Wheels '12 Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca (2013 Holiday Hot Rods):

DLMer's view of the Hot Wheels Easter Ford Focus RS, '65 Chevy Malibu, and '65 Ford Ranchero...

We buy a lot of models here at Lamley, but not all the models.  The Hot Wheels Easter models are a great example of this.  We like things to be about the models, not the sets, so when I encountered the Easter models at Walmart, only three came home with me.

One model, the Focus RS, I will always buy.  The Ranchero has slowly grown on me, and that Malibu, with its metal base and low profile, is hard to pass up.  So here they are, in all their Easter glory.  Hallelujah.

These holiday models keep getting better.  A few years ago they might just have a big basket of eggs on the side.  Now you might see a subtle bunny somewhere, or a baby blue car with a purple interior (like the Malibu, which I really like), and maybe even an egg behind a logo.  But they still pass as cool-looking cars.  These are not Spongebob cars, thank goodness.

A few observations on these three:

While the Focus is my favorite casting of the three, the best model of this batch is the Malibu.  The purple interior is great, as is the color and design.

Was the Ranchero meant for Halloween?  Call this car a Halloween exclusive and no one would question it.  Even the eggs behind the logo look like a jack-o-lantern.

The Focus must love the Christian holidays.  It was a Christmas model a couple of years ago, and now celebrates Easter.  Mazel tov.

(Find the Hot Wheels Easter cars for sale here...)


Hot Wheels Easter 2013:

Ford Focus RS:

The holiday duo:

'65 Ford Ranchero

'65 Chevy Malibu:

Exclusives? Mainlines? A look at the Target Easter Speedsters 5-packs...

Hot Wheels holiday exclusives are not models that are high on my "anticipation" list.  Of course I am always curious to see what models are being used, but normally they are not models I collect.  There are obvious exceptions, like last year's Easter VW SP2, and the Christmas set from 2011 that featured a Focus RS, Cadillac CTS, Lamborghini Gallardo, and a Datsun 240Z.

While the carded exclusives continue, Hot Wheels has changed their strategy on holiday multipacks.  Gone are the holiday-themed models, and in are a slew of models used elsewhere.  Last year it was all mainlines, with a vari or two thrown in.  This year it looks like a mixture of mainlines and multipack exclusives.  When the Target packs arrived, several of the models had not been seen previously, so there was an assumption that some were exclusive.  It appears that none of them are.  Those models that haven't been seen will probably show up either in the mainline or in multipacks.

Which leads to a mix of convoluted thoughts:

Hot Wheels appears to be doing more multipack exclusives - models that appear only in 3-packs, 9-packs in the US, and 10-packs internationally.  And now apparently holiday 5-packs.  It does make acquiring these models a little easier, that is if they don't show up in 3-packs.

While the past two years have featured these exclusives, this year is slightly different.  Previously the exclusives were castings used solely for the multipacks.  This year it appears to be mainline models that have been used the last couple of years, only recolored.  Some might not be terribly happy with that, wanting instead separate castings.  Me?  I like it.  Many of these models were New Models that got one or two recolors only, and for the castings I collect the more models the merrier.

It looks like the approach to the Easter 5-packs is similar to what we see in the 9- and 10-packs.  There is no exact pattern, like with normal 5-packs.  I have been to several Targets, and each store had a different mix of packs, and there were different models in many of them.  For example, I only found the Ford Falcon Race Car at one store.

Here the packs I came across:

Target #1:

Target #2:

Target #3:

And I bet you noticed a couple of things in that pack:

Variation alert?

Nope.  Just an error alert:

Another error alert:

So we bought a handful of packs, in order to get these exclusives:

Ford Falcon Race Car, recolor of 2012 New Model:

COPO Camaro, recolor of the 2012 version:

Corvette Z06, recolor of the 2012 version:

Infiniti G37, recolor of any previous version of the Infiniti:

Ford Ranchero, recolor of the 2011 version:

Mercury Cougar, recolor of the 2012 version:

Acura HSC, recolor of the 2012 multipack exclusive, which is a recolor of the 2007 (yes, 2007) Exotics 5-pack:

And in case you were wondering, the green Vette is a mainline recolor of the 2013 version:

And one very minor variation.  Glossy black Aventador vs flat black:

We will show a few of these models in more detail in the coming days...

So, will you pick these up for the multipack exclusives?