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Several weeks ago I started a series about the Cars Piston Cup racers with an article on Mood Springs... In this article, we'll continue with a look at another one of the Piston Cup racers and his team - Eugene Carbureski, better known as Tank Coat #36.
One of the earliest boxed sets and at the time of release the most expensive boxed set was the Speedway of the South set... Limited to a run of 1000 pieces, the SOTS set went on sale in May 2008... To be eligible to purchase the SOTS set you had to join the Hot Wheels Red Line Collectors club... I joined in April 2008, and bought one set when they went on sale.
One of these days I'll put the Cars in the display box and put it out on display... For various reasons, many collectors did not purchase the Speedway of the South set when it went on sale... Several of the Piston Cup racers had already been released and they didn't want to purchase Cars they already had... they wanted to purchase just the Cars they needed at the approximate $4.00 price of a single... Unfortunately, Mattel didn't cooperate with those hopes... most of the racers were released, but in various formats and with other Cars or accessories that you might or might not have wanted... In this article, we'll take a look at another one of the Piston Cup racers and the other members of his team - Tank Coat.
Tank Coat - soothes upset tanks... notice the pink - the same color as Pepto Bismal... based on the Leakless body.
As you'll see in this article, there have been very few releases of Tank Coat.
Launchers
Here's the cardback of the International Tank Coat launcher:
The first appearance of Tank Coat with plastic tires outside the Speedway of the South set was as a Pit Row Race-off launcher in the Race O Rama series... it was case B which included 2 Vitoline, 2 Shifty Drug, 1 Tank Coat, and 1 Chick Hicks... I'm trying to remember if I ever bought this case through an online Mattel retailer - I don't think I did... This case was fairly plentiful at many retail stores... Tank Coat was hard to find as it was only one per case and pink... Most of us already had Chick Hicks from other sets... I no longer have the US carded version of the Tank Coat launcher - I think I sent my last one to Wales earlier in 2012.
Even though Tank Coat is named Eugene, my granddaughter likes playing with this racer because it's pink...
Tank Coat Pitty
Tank Coat Pitty was released in the Race O Rama series... it was one of the last pittys to be released as a single, and included the toolbox and the tires... I liked the single pittys that came with a Toolbox and tires; notice how Tank Coat Pitty comes with 2 of the thicker tires (tyres) - some of the earlier pittys came with 4 thin tire... the thicker tires look more like tires in my opinion.
The Tank Coat Pitty I have left is from the International cardback series... Here's the cardback:
I like the International carded series... it talks about the actual Car on the back, and not another Car from the series.
Kmart 5: Tank Coat
The only other release of Tank Coat was as one of the Kmart 5 Piston Cup racers... October 23, 2010 was the day of the event... There were 2 Tank Coat racers in the case of 24.
The Kmart 5 Cars were released in Australia 5 weeks before the Kmart 5 event... I actually traded 20 Final Lap Cars to someone in Australia for 20 Kmart 5 Cars; I got them 3 weeks before the Kmart 5 event:
You can see Tank Coat in with my complete set of Kmart rubber tire racers (the Apple is a custom):
I was also fortunate that my friend Chad, CptnMorgan_1972 found this error Car for me - Kmart 5 Tach O Mint on a Tank Coat cardback:
In Conclusion - Team Tank Coat
Here are some photos showing opened Tank Coat team members:
Tank Coat Pitty:
Tank Coat Racer and Pitty:
Tank Coat Launcher:
Tank Coat Mini (came in a 2 pack with No Stall):
You might think that a team consisting of a racer and a pitty isn't much of a team... you won't get much of an argument from me... however...
During the Petersen Cars exhibit of late 2011, we saw photos of several unreleased Cars items... prototypes... including a Tank Coat Hauler... Here's a photo from one of my friends who attended:
(Photo used by permission of a good friend who attended the Petersen Museum exhibit)
I don't know about you, but I want that Tank Coat Hauler (and the other unreleased haulers)...
Images of the Tank Coat Hauler may appear on the Cars Blu-Ray finder game - I need to look at mine, sometime.
That wraps up this installment of Respect the Classics... 8 Piston Cup racers done... 28 to go... As always, thank you for reading... I appreciate your comments.
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