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Respect the Classics: Mood Springs

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  • Respect the Classics: Mood Springs



    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 one of my favorite racers and other members of his team - Chuck Armstrong... better known as Mood Springs... I really like the blue.


    Kmart 2: Mood Springs with rubber tires



    The second Kmart Cars Collector Event was Saturday June 20, 2009... Unlike the first Kmart event (October 18, 2008) which featured 5 previously released racers with plastic tires, the second event featured 9 racers with rubber tires and a few new Cars (Todd, Patti, Chase Mario Andretti)... Many people feel this case was the best case assortment Mattel has ever produced... 2 of the 18 Cars in the case were Mood Springs with rubber tires - today this Mood Springs may be the most expensive Kmart 2 Piston Cup racer.

    Mood Springs is one of the 4 Piston Cup racers featured on the Cars Collector Event store poster.




    Mood Springs launcher

    Mood Springs was released as a Pit Race Off launcher with plastic tires in case C... The case consisted of Mood Springs (x2), Easy Idle (x1), Fiber Fuel (x2), and Nitroade (x1)... As I mentioned in a previous article, case C came out not only after case B but also case D... This was the first and only release of Mood Springs with plastic tires outside of the Speedway of the South set.

    Here's a photo of the international cardback Mood Springs launcher:

    (Photo used by permission of djjd21 - thank you, Jason)

    Here are a couple of photos of the opened Mood Springs launcher:




    Here's a photo of an error Mood Springs launcher - the launcher is actually a Nitroade launcher:


    The cardback shows the proper Mood Springs launcher:


    I purchased 5 of the C cases... all 10 Mood Springs launchers were correct... one of my trading partners had bought 3 C cases - all 6 of her Mood Springs launchers contained the Nitroade launcher... As I'd started collecting error Cars a few months earlier, she asked me if I'd be willing to trade her a correct launcher for the error launcher... I still have the carded error Mood Springs launcher but no longer have a carded correct Mood Springs launcher - I believe I sent at least one of them to a friend in the UK.

    The carded Mood Springs launcher is currently one of the most expensive Pit Race-Off launchers on eBay... Once other Piston Cup racers were released in Target 4 packs or as Lightyear Launchers, they came down in price.


    Mood Springs Hauler

    Mattel started releasing the Cars haulers product line... after over-saturating the retail market with too many of the early releases (doesn't that sound familiar?), they finally released new haulers... towards the end of 2009, they released hauler #14: Mood Springs Hauler.




    Here's the Mood Springs Hauler cardback:


    The Mood Springs hauler is one of my favorite haulers... I like the blue, and I like how the number 33 is comprised from springs... I opened my Mood Springs hauler over a year ago... this past week I found one at a small town Walmart store on clearance for $7.40 and bought it - it had been way too long since I'd purchased a new Car in a store.


    Final Lap Race Damaged Mood Springs

    One of the Cars many of us really looked forward to was Race Damaged Mood Springs... Many collectors purchased this Car loose on eBay before it was released in Final Lap Case E.

    Here's Race Damaged Mood Springs:


    Race Damaged Mood Springs is one of the more expensive Final Lap Cars... this is partly due to the uneven case distribution at Target stores... Target was the sole US source for the Final Lap (non-lenticular) singles... unlike many items which are distributed to all stores (or all stores within a retail chain such as Target or Kmart or Toys R Us), Final Lap Cars did not show up at every Target store... and since the closest Target is 50 miles away, I usually had to rely on friends to help me out.


    The unreleased Mood Springs Pitty

    Mattel released the 2009 Cars Collector Guide with the Night Vision Lightning McQueen collector Car... one of the few announced but unreleased Cars is the Mood Springs Pitty.



    For whatever reason, Mattel felt that customers did not want to purchase single pittys... I don't know if they felt consumers felt ripped off by paying full price for a small Car (the pitty) or if they decided they'd release more expensive sets with crew chief and 3 pittys (and we know how well that ended up due to the over-saturation of the first few sets)...

    A few months ago I saw a loose Mood Springs Pitty for sale on eBay... while I really wanted this Car in my collection, it rapidly became too expensive for my budget.

    Wouldn't this be a fantastic Mood Springs team set? Fabulous custom pitty and crew chief by cvc1968!


    (Photo used by permission of cvc1968 - thank you, Conrad)


    In Conclusion - Is Opened Better?

    My grandchildren used to ask me if I would open Cars so they could play with them... I also decided that I would enjoy the Cars more if I opened them for display purposes... I currently have 4 Carney Plastics display cases mounted on a wall and 3 smaller display cases... and believe it or not, I need at least 1 or 2 more.

    Here are some photos of opened Mood Springs Cars:

    Mood Springs Hauler, Mood Springs with plastic tires, and Race Damaged Mood Springs:


    Mood Springs Hauler, Mood Springs with plastic tires, Mood Springs with rubber tires, and Race Damaged Mood Springs:


    The Cars in Team Mood Springs are one of my favorite Cars diecasts... I hope Mattel will release the unreleased Mood Springs Pitty or even better, a team crew set with crew chief and pittys... but I'm not going to hold my breath... My friend Conrad (cvc1968) has made some fantastic custom Cars for his custom Speedway of the South diorama - that includes a Mood Springs crew chief and pittys.

    We'll take a look at other Piston Cup team sets in future articles.

    Thanks for reading... as always, I appreciate your comments.

    Chris
    Last edited by cac1959; 03-06-2012, 02:03 AM. Reason: Added photo


    I am cac1959... I am a Cars-a-holic... and a proud supporter of Nathan's Playroom

  • #2
    Another great article. My son loves the part of the race where Mood Springs is wrecked and wants to go back out on the track. When he saw that the wrecked Mood Springs car actually existed while looking through one of our T5AD checklist magazines, he decided he had to have it. Luckily I was able to get one loose from one of the board members here for a pretty fair price.

    signature courtesy of BomBom77
    http://www.pixarcarsdiecast.com/foru...ars-for-trades

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    • #3
      Great article! I always called my Mood Springs "Crash" because I did not know that his name was officially "Chuck Armstrong" for a while. I also named the tragically unnamed hauler "D'Brickashaw Dynamo"

      No car goes unnamed around here.

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      • #4
        Great article as always Chris.
        Mood springs has to be in my top six cars.
        I see that you can buy a Mood Springs vinyl sticker on ebay from Australia I think.

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        • #5
          Great read Chris

          You may want to check what cars you say are in your 14th picture int he article (no mention of RDMS)

          Mood Springs is one of my favourite racers too

          Comment


          • #6
            Good catch, Jon... Would you believe I did that on purpose to see if anyone would catch it? No, I didn't think so.

            I also added the name of Mood Springs (thanks Bumper Save) and a picture from Conrad showing his custom pitty and crew chief.

            I wonder what racer will be featured next? Tune in to find out.


            I am cac1959... I am a Cars-a-holic... and a proud supporter of Nathan's Playroom

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            • #7
              The Mood Spring racer is the only numbered racer that I'm still missing (besides the Apple car of course ). For some reason, Mood Spring design was very rare in Hongkong. Bumper $ave, Leakless, Nitroade, Fiber Fuel, RPM, TankCoat were much more popular here.

              Comment


              • #8
                mood springs

                please could someone remove these mood spring pics from the home page, every time I see them it really hacks me off, - due 100% to fact that Idont have mood springs, either damaged or undamaged, nor am Ilikely to get em either, unfortunately

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