Hot Wheels Hunting

Treasure Hunts
’37 Ford, No. 5/12
It’s not an apparition and it’s not a ghoulish figure, it’s a real phantom, and one you can pick up for only a buck.
Ford, of course, made woodies through 1951, and from 1949 until the end, those woodies were two-doors, but it never made a 1937 two-door station wagon.
Following the fad of creating two-door wagons where only four-doors were offered, Hot Wheels has unleashed its own take on the phenomenon with its ’37 Ford in the coveted Treasure Hunt series. This nearly all-metal casting was offered earlier in the $3 range as an upper-level Ultra Hot before joining the “basic” series’ Treasure Hunt line. At $3, this was a pretty good score, but for $1, it’s a down right steal. Unfortunately, that bargain price comes with a challenge: finding a Treasure Hunt is, literally, like finding a needle in a hay stack, plus your timing ought to be impeccable to beat someone to this car.
For Treasure Hunt duty, the ’37 Ford has a metallic blue body (fenders, hood and all) with a wood-colored plastic body. The inner woodgrained panels are a darker brown than the framework, and to take your imagination back to “Surf City,” there’s a black roof panel with a central red stripe down the middle with delicate pinstriping accents of the Von Dutch style, perhaps gleaned from a customized Malibu surfboard. The wheels on this standard Treasure Hunt are the handsome five-spokes, but if you like the fancier (and cooler) whitewall Real Riders found on some Hot Wheels, and you like a challenge, look for the Super Trea$ure Hunt$ version. The wheels for the Real Rider tires have red centers and the body paint is a bit darker on the Super Trea$ure Hunt$, but you’ll be glad you found it.

2009 New Models
Custom V-8 Vega, No. 23/42
If you like your Chevys light and mighty, then you’ll bond with this Vega. Hot Wheels breathed more life (and cylinders) into what, in my opinion, is the best-looking Vega: the early, split-bumper models that look like a chip off big-brother Camaro.
Hot Wheels version adds an early-‘70s-style Camaro chin spoiler and ‘Vette-type hood scoop, but the rest of the subtly (and tastefully) modified car looks all Vega, and just the way Chevy built it.
This 2009 newbie is shown in a metallic teal with the front and rear side lamps appropriately painted with black tampos for the hood scoop accent and side stripes, which incorporate the Hot Wheels banner. The body is all metal, and the chassis is chromed plastic to match the Ferrari-type grille.
If you like your Chevys light and nimble, here’s a chance to catch a Vega the way Chevy should have built it – with V-8 power.