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Metal Mini-Haulers. Would you like to see them? Can we get more?

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  • Metal Mini-Haulers. Would you like to see them? Can we get more?



    I collect the Mattel Metal Mini Racers. Of course, to get the rare Primer Lightening McQueen, I had to purchase the plastic 15-car Mack Hauler. But he's big and of unrealistic proportions when compared to the minis he's designed to haul.

    I saw that Eli offered a 'mini-hauler' scaled to compliment the Mattel Metal Mini Racers. After about 6 months, I decided to buy him. The Cab is Metal... The Trailer chassis is Metal and the Box is plastic. Really high quality construction available from Takara Tomica Tomy in Japan. In fact, the box itself is about 98% japanese characters.

    They also sell a Gale Beaufort (Jackson Storm Hauler) as a mini-hauler as well. It might be a bit different, as I think the back opens up?? I know that it's about 1cm longer, per the specs, than the Mack truck. As soon as Eli gets it in stock, I will order it from him. Meanwhile, I'll post an old photo from when he had them in stock (and I should have bought it) with a Jackson Storm Mini-Racer for size comparison..

    Anyway, It got me thinking about the Haulers. I see there is a ton of activity around customizing generically available haulers (eg. Walmart hauler) into other haulers for the 1:55 series cars. But no such activity exists for the Mini-Racers. Understood, as we don't even have a single Pitty (where's Guido?), so no one is in a hurry to build 'haulers' and 'pit crews' for the Mattel Metal Mini-Racer series.

    That said, there are really only 5 basic formats for the Haulers:

    PeterBilt: This is based off of an older PeterBilt Cabover. Characters like Gil and Jerry (recycled batteries use this format). They always have really basic straight rectangular trailers.

    Mack: This is a based off of an older Mack Semi. So far the only character to use this format is, well Mack, McQueen's hauler. He has a little bit of aerodynamics to the rear of this trailer.

    AeroLiner: This is based off of the late 90s early 2000s aerodynamic Freightliner/Kenworth trucks, but not quite so 'ant-eater' in appearance. Every single Piston Cup Stock Car uses this hauler. They have a trailer very similar to Macks.

    Iveco: This is the 'uni-body' cab-over hauler used in Cars-2, based off of an Iveco/Isuzu design. Characters like Karl (hauler for Victor Hugo) and Saul (hauler for Francesco) were based off this format.

    NexGen: This is based of a new highly aerodynamic Volvo type Design. All next Gen racers (Storm, Danny, etc..) use this format. The trailers are highly aerodynamic and flow with the cab.

    Tomica Takara Tomy gives us a good headstart with the Mack and Gale haulers. However, they don't have anything that is too suitable for the AeroLiner, which is where the bulk of the hauler customizations would come from. The Missing PeterBilt and Iveco formats aren't a huge deal either as PeterBilts are never 'race-car' haulers.. and 'haulers' weren't really a big part of Cars 2 at all (sans Karl Haulzemoff - crime boss Victor Hugo's personal hauler).

    What I'm not sure of, is what is the scale of the two formats that we have available? Most of the Tomica cars appear to be 1:64 scale (smaller than the standard disney 1:55 series or 1:43 series cars). I don't know the scaling of the Mack and Gale Beaufort mini-haulers.

    Any thoughts?
    Mack Metal Mini-Hauler from Takara Tomica Tomy Gale Beaufort Metal Mini-Hauler from Takara Tomica Tomy
    Last edited by FischAutoTechGarten; 03-12-2020, 12:19 AM.

  • #2
    Great post, FischAutoTechGarten... There were a few hauler released in the Mini Adventures series... I would have bought them all had Mattel continued to make them and sell them... same thing with the regular 1:55 scale haulers... I would also buy the Mini Racers haulers if Mattel would build them and then sell them... even though it would probably turn out to be another product line that Mattel starts and does not complete.


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

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    • #3
      Perhaps if Takara Tomica Tomy would make just a few haulers based on the Aeroliner and Iveco platforms, fans would customize them to fill in the missing ones. Fans seem pretty willing to build these hualers, providing they have the correct truck format (those Chinese copies where everything is based on Mack is not a proper truck format) .

      Yeah, I saw the Mini-Adventures resulted in a few plastic-haulers... It's just that the chubby looking Mini-Adventure series is a bit on the ugly side... (one man's opinion)

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      • #4
        Originally posted by FischAutoTechGarten View Post
        Perhaps if Takara Tomica Tomy would make just a few haulers based on the Aeroliner and Iveco platforms, fans would customize them to fill in the missing ones. Fans seem pretty willing to build these hualers, providing they have the correct truck format (those Chinese copies where everything is based on Mack is not a proper truck format) .

        Yeah, I saw the Mini-Adventures resulted in a few plastic-haulers... It's just that the chubby looking Mini-Adventure series is a bit on the ugly side... (one man's opinion)
        I agree that the diecast Mini Racers products look better than the plastic Mini Adventures products... I bought only the Mini Adventures items that I liked... I did not buy very many of the Micro Drifters products either... My preference is and has always been the 1:55 series Cars.... but how I wish they'd have made complete sets of every Piston Cup team (racer, crew chief, pittys, hauler, cab, fans, mini, etc)... there's my Cars OCD kicking in again.


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

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        • #5


          I received the Gale Beaufort Metal Mini-Hauler made by Tomica-Takara-Tomy. It's even higher quality than the Mack because even the trailer box is metal (with Mack the trailer base is metal but the box is plastic). I snapped this foto to showcase the mini-racers where the NexGen Cars replaced the StockCars.... OctainGain,SputterStop, and Apple (ok the Mac I-Car and J.P.Drive are Jo Mini customs)...

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          • #6
            Wow - those are awesome! Thank you for sharing! I may have to consider buying those Tomica-Takara-Tomy haulers.


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

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            • #7
              There are just two of them, so you won't break the bank getting all of them.

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              • #8
                I think the Mini haulers are great idea and I wish they would finish making them in 1:55 scale and then start on the mini racer scale. Back when TRU was the best place to shop for Cars I collected the mini racer series and the haulers were just so cool. Like the Tomica series there were only 2 to collect which were Mack and King Hauler. I never found the King hauler at retail but found a few of the Mack. They are perfect scale for mini racers as well as the mini adventure series. I would have liked to have seen more of these as they are really well done.

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                • #9
                  I've seen a number of those plastic Mini Adventures haulers.... They actually went on to make a number of them (I remember seeing a black one, yellow one, green one, as well as Mack and Grey in an Ebay auction once. I should have bid it.... but I'm staying away from MiniAdventures and MicroDrifters for the time being and just going with Mattel Metal Mini Racers.) The Tomica Mini-Haulers ae much nicer than the plastic MiniAdventure haulers.... I really wish Tomica would do a Grey.... Then we have a basis for allot of customizations!

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                  • #10
                    Yes I agree the Tomica diecast are better quality and size. Hopefully with next -gen haulers being released in 1:55 scale we may see more from Tomica. We shall have to wait and see!

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