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A letter in the mail from Hot Wheels... what could it be?
Here's the letter with Certificate of Authenticity for a genuine Speedway of the South set...
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 6 more of the Piston Cup racers from the Motor Speedway of the South set.
This set was originally advertised to be numbered as a limited release... when they shipped, they were not numbered and there was no certificate of authenticity... Due to the threat of lawsuits, Mattel did mail letters containing a hologram with the number on it... Mine is 283 of 1000... I'll add photos showing the letter and envelope that it came in.
The Box
The Speedway of the South set came in a large box:
The display box from the Speedway of the South set is huge... I finally took pictures earlier this week - over 4 years after I got mine...
The thin brown box underneath the display box contains the 2 trays containing the 36 Cars.
Here are close ups showing the back of the box:
Side of box:
Other side of box:
Piston Cup Racers
Of the 36 Piston Cup racers in the SOTS set, Apple was only released by Mattel one time, in this set... This is currently also the only official release of Tach O Mint with plastic tires... At one time, there was a prototype of a Tach O Mint launcher... if they ever release Tach O Mint as a Pit Row Race-off launcher (or Lightyear Launcher) I will buy it.
The rest of the plastic tire Piston Cup racers have been released again as either singles, Lightyear Launchers, Pit Row Race-off launchers, or in multi-packs... in fact, some of them are being released on the new 2013 cardback - King, Chick Hicks, and Nitroade come to mind.
We'll look at photos of the 6 remaining racers (out of 36) from the SOTS set in this article... as far as the order, I picked the ones in order starting with the tray on the left side in the earlier picture.
Spare Mint #93
Each Piston Cup racer in the SOTS set came in a baggie... prior to taking photos for this article, I'd never opened 31 of the 36...
Here's a photo showing the production code, 2637 EA:
I much prefer the name Spare Mint to Spare O Mint... With plastic tires, it's been released many times - as a single (Kmart 1), Pit Row Race-off launcher and Lightyear Launcher (Night Skyline cardback)... in a boxed set with pitty and crew chief (both vertical World of Cars cardback and horizontal Race O Rama cardback)... The crew chief was also released as an Easter Egg Car... We've not seen a hauler or semi... Spare Mint was also released as a rubber tire racer during the Kmart 4 event
Revolting #84
Here's a photo showing the production code, 2777 EA:
Revolting has not been released very often... you might find that revolting... It was the rare Car in the first Target 4 pack (with McQueen, King, and Chick)... We saw a prototype of a Pit Row Race-off launcher... No crew chief, pitty, hauler, or semi has been released yet... Revolting with rubber tires was included in the Kmart 3 Cars Collector event...
Sputter Stop #92
(Sorry for the reflection from the flash)
Here's a photo showing the production code, 2707 EA:
Sputter Stop with plastic tires was released as a single as part of the Kmart 1 event... It was released as both a Pit Row Race-off launcher and a Lightyear Launcher on Night Skyline cardback - in fact, the Lightyear Launcher may be available on the Toys R US US website... It was released in a Target 4 pack... It is scheduled to be released as a single... Sputter Stop with rubber tires was released as part of the Kmart 4 Cars Collector event.
Vinyl Toupee #76
Here's a photo showing the production code, 2637 EA:
Vinyl Toupee with plastic tires has been released a few times... It was a UK promo Car... it was in the Dinoco 400 boxed set... we saw a prototype of a Pit Row Race-off launcher... it was released as a Lightyear Launcher... A Vinyl Toupee haulers was released, but no pitty or crew chief or semi... Vinyl Toupee with rubber tires was released as a single during the Kmart 3 event.
[SIZE=4]Tach O Mint #101/SIZE]
(Sorry for the glare on the rear spoiler)
Here's a photo showing the production code, 2637 EA:
The Speedway of the South version of Tach O Mint is the only official version of Tach O Mint with plastic tires that's been released... we saw a prototype of a Pit Row Race-off launcher... A factory custom of Tach O Mint with plastic tires consisting of the Vitoline rear window and tires came out in 2011... Tach O Mint with rubber tires was part of the Kmart 5 collector event... In fact, there were some error versions of Tach O Mint on a Tank Coat cardback that were released - one of my friends found 3 and sent them to me... I'll add a picture.
No other members of Tach O Mint's team have been released.
The King #43
Long live The King! Named The King because that was Richard Petty's NASCAR number... in fact, Richard Petty was the voice of The King in the Cars movie...
Here's a photo showing the production code, 2777 EA:
The King with plastic tires has been released many times.... It's been a single... it's been in Movie Moments 2 packs... it's been in a 3 pack with hauler and pitty... it's been in a 4 pack with crew chief and 3 pittys... It's been released as a Pit Row Race-off launcher... it's been in boxed sets... The most recent single releases of The King are in the Toys R US Radiator Springs Classic series and in the 2013 singles series in case B...
The King with rubber tires was released during the Kmart 6 Cars Collector Event.
In Conclusion
My wife was not happy with me for buying a Speedway of the South Set... with shipping, membership in the Hot Wheels Red Line Club, and the one set, I spent about $362.00... Within a week of receiving my set, she wanted to know why I didn't buy 2 of them... Limited to 1000... some have been broken up and sold as individual singles...We've not seen as large a boxed set since then...
It may seem that most of the Cars in the set have a production code date of 2777 EA... but others were made on different dates... if I remember right, 17 or 18 of them were 2777 EA... many built on the Leakless body style have a production code of 2637, the same date as on my box.
I wanted a complete set of Pit Row Race-off launchers; Mattel released 19 and GotFrank made me the other 17 as customs... I wanted a complete set of haulers and still do... same goes for the team crew sets with crew chief and pittys.
I have not assembled my Speedway of the South set... if any of you have and would like to post a picture showing the fully assembled set, I'd appreciate it.
As always, thanks for reading... I appreciate your comments... This completes the 6 article series on the Speedway of the South set - the largest, most expensive, and best Cars boxed set.
Chris
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