It looks like we are taking the Super TH Experiment, my attempt to find all 2014 Super TH's during random visits to stores during normal hours, right to the end. We have another update, and this one may have been the most fun of all of this year's Super finds.
If you remember, last year my neighbor had the best beginner's luck I have seen, when she pulled a Toyota 2000GT Super in the early evening the first time she ever visited the Hot Wheels pegs. That was easily the best find of 2013. This one was similar.
A work partner of mine, we will call him "Chad" to keep things anonymous, has been following the blog. He is a bit of a car nut, but definitely not a collector. He has enjoyed my documentation of my Super finds on the blog, especially since he travels to the same places I do. Over the last few months, Chad has been trying to find a Super, just to say he did.
Every few days I will get a call or text from Chad, saying he is in a town and has a minute to look. He will ask what store to go to, and then call to see what model he is supposed to look for. Up to this point, he has had no luck.
That ended last night. And I got to be there to see it.
Chad and I are both seeing clients in Moab, Utah. We decided to grab some dinner, and afterwards thought it we should hit a couple of stores. There are no Walmarts, Targets, or Kmarts in Moab, but there is City Market, which is part of the Kroger chain. I have seen shippers in City Market before, but not too often. Considering it is the holidays, we thought there should be at least something.
We were surprised to come across this mammoth of a display:
Obviously my eyes lit up. We decided to split up. Chad took the three shippers, and I would tackle the 4-sided monster. Chad asked what to look for, and I honestly didn't know. There was such a random mix of cars, it was hard to tell if there was specific batch. After looking for a bit, it seemed to me that this was predominately Batch L and M, so either of the Corvette Supers would be the models to look for.
It was also quickly apparent that we were not the first people to the display. A Regular TH was nowhere to be found (we found one a little later), and it was clear that the bin had been filled with models that had been hanging in the store for awhile.
We kept looking, but I told Chad not to expect to find anything, as this one had been hit previously. He asked how I knew, and told him all the signs. But we kept looking. I finished the 4-sided shipper and moved to the three shippers to see if Chad missed anything. He had been moving through them from right to left, and was just about done with the third.
As I continued to pontificate about how this shipper had been hit, and I knew because of my vast diecast knowledge, Chad stood up from the lower part of the bin, looked at me, and told me he just found one. Then he held this up:
Wait, what?
How great is that? A full 4-sided shipper, plus 3 stand-alone alone shippers, and Chad pulls a Super in the second to last slot we checked. At the very back.
It was in the far left shipper, bottom row, behind a purple Mustang and green Mini Cooper:
He said he knew it was a Super because of the flames on the hood, remembering I had told him to look for that on the Impala a few weeks ago. Well done.
How fun was it to be there when Chad found his first Super? I was there, so this definitely counts as an Experiment find. He kept saying he would give it to me, I kept saying no. Chad has finally decided to keep it, and while his wife is probably praying that this doesn't start something, it should be a nice memento.
That in of itself makes this a great find for 2014, but add to that the fact that it was found in Moab. The more obscure the place, the better the find for us here at Lamley. Whether it was a Gran Torino in Glenwood Springs, an '07 Mustang in a highway gas station, or the Nova Wagon in the small town of Blanding near the Four Corners, we love finds like this.
So yeah, an 8 pm find in a Moab grocery store by a friend who doesn't collect? Awesome find.
The 2014 update:
Chevrolet SS - Found at a rural Walmart at 11:30 am
Sand Blaster - Found at a nearby Walmart around 4:30 pm
Camaro Special Edition - Found at neighboring town Walmart around 3 pm
'71 Mustang Mach 1 - Found on a Saturday afternoon grocery run at Harmon's Market (I found two)
'07 Mustang - found at noon on Labor Day in a Smith's one-sided shipper
'55 Chevy Bel Air Gasser - no luck
'70 Chevelle SS - Found at two different Walmarts on the same day (one at 10 am, one at 5 pm)
Twin Mill - Found at a rural Walmart at about 3:45 pm
'64 Chevy Nova Wagon - Found at 5 pm at a rural Alco
'83 Silverado - Found at Target at 1 pm
'76 Greenwood Corvette - no luck
'69 Corvette - Found 2 at Dollar Tree around 11:30 am
'65 Chevy Impala - Found at City Market in Moab, Utah around 8 pm
Harley-Davidson Fat Boy - Found at Walmart just before lunch
'71 Datsun 510 Wagon - Found two at Target at 6 pm
That means we have three weeks to find a Greenwood and Gasser to complete the entire set. The likelihood is rather small, but we might as well try...
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