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Respect the Classics: Vinyl Toupee

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  • Respect the Classics: Vinyl Toupee



    A few weeks ago I started a series about the Cars Piston Cup racers with an article on Mood Springs... In this article, we'll take a look at another one of the Piston Cup racers and his team - Crusty Rotor... better known as Vinyl Toupee, #76.

    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 my favorite racers and the one other member of his team - Vinyl Toupee...


    UK Promo
    The first Piston Cup Racer released as a Promo Car was Vinyl Toupee... The Vinyl Toupee promo was a UK Promo; you bought 4 Cars and called a number; Mattel mailed a Vinyl Toupee Promo Car in a baggie and a collector's poster:







    The Vinyl Toupee promo was in effect during the last 3 months of 2007... While it was the first Promo Car, it was the last one I added to my collection; I won one during an eBay auction in March 2011... My Vinyl Toupee UK Promo Car has a production code of 2357 EA.


    Dinoco 400 set



    The Dinoco 400 set was a Target exclusive that contained 8 racers... 5 of them were common: Lightning McQueen, Chick Hicks, The King, Leakless, and Nitroade... 3 of them were first releases outside of the Speedway of the South set in the US: No Stall, Octane Gain, and Vinyl Toupee. If I remember right, the Dinoco 400 set was $29.99... The production code for Vinyl Toupee from my opened Dinoco 400 set is 2637 EA... Vinyl Toupee from the Speedway of the South set has production codes of either 2637 EA or 2707 EA...

    As the changeover from the Supercharged series to the World of Cars series took place, many Target stores that had this set still in stock cut the price to $17.99... I saw 4 of them at that clearance price at one Target while my wife and I were on vacation in Florida during the summer of 2008; because I didn't have room in my suitcases I only bought 1... I picked up another one as part of a 4 boxed set during a Cars Cares auction that I won in 2010.


    Kmart 3

    The third Cars Collector event was October 17, 2009... one of the 7 rubber tire racers released during that event was Vinyl Toupee... As there were only 2 Vinyl Toupee Cars in the case of 24, it was one of the more hard to find and expensive Cars.



    Here's a picture showing the opened case of 24:



    Vinyl Toupee Hauler

    The only other Vinyl Toupee team member released besides the racer was the Vinyl Toupee Hauler on the Night Skyline cardback... this was a very hard hauler to find in the US; I only saw it at a couple of Kohl's stores... the case had 2 Shifty Drug Hauler and 1 Vinyl Toupee Hauler - that was why the Vinyl Toupee Hauler was hard to find... Here is a photo showing the unopened Shifty Drug and Vinyl Toupee haulers:




    Here's the opened hauler:


    Here's the hauler with the Kmart racer inside:


    Here's the hauler showing the trailer opened:


    I find the side of the hauler very interesting... Vinyl top in a can... she'll never notice.


    Lightyear Launcher

    Vinyl Toupee was also released as a Lightyear Launcher on the Night Skyline cardback... it was released in Canada before it was released in the US; I needed one, so when I found out Canadian friends of mine had found it, I contacted stukatso and toughenoughallnightlong and they bought it and Easy Idle for me and mailed them to me... within a month of getting them in the mail, it turned up in a few stores in the US... I am not sure I have a photo of the unopened launcher as I had them send them to me opened as I needed them for a Poor Man's Speedway of the South set.

    Here's the opened Vinyl Toupee Lightyear Launcher (shown with Easy Idle)



    Other Vinyl Toupee releases

    We saw a prototype Vinyl Toupee Pit Race-off launcher during one of the SDCC shows... It was supposed to be released... but it never was... However, my good friend GotFrank created a custom set of the 17 unreleased Piston Cup Pit Race-off launchers for me and I now have a custom Vinyl Toupee Pit Race-off launcher...





    Lightyear and custom launcher:



    No Vinyl Toupee pitty or crew chief has officially been released... my friend cvc1968 did make fantastic customs of those...


    In Conclusion

    I hope you've enjoyed reading about Crusty Rotor... Vinyl Toupee... We'll take a look at other Piston Cup team sets in future articles.

    Thanks for reading... as always, I appreciate your comments... and if you've got photos showing the Lightyear Launcher or the hauler unopened and would like to share those, please do so.

    Chris
    Last edited by cac1959; 11-24-2012, 02:49 PM. Reason: date correction


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

  • #2
    Lovely article, Cac1959. I think I've got a VT LYL in it's package around here somewhere if you'd like to get a pic. Man, I've never been much of a hauler guy, but I sure wouldn't mind picking up a Vinyl T one. I never actually saw one in a store.

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    • #3
      We were quite lucky and found two Vinyl Toupee haulers, One is open and the other is still boxed.
      We really struggled to find a Vinyl Toupee car, In the end we got a loose one off ebay.

      Ive seen people selling custom Vinyl Toupee pittys and crew chiefs, i think theres one on ebay.co.uk at the moment.

      Love the articles that you do, They are always full of great info.. will wait patiently for the next one

      Comment


      • #4
        I love the VT hauler, I wish I had one even more now.

        Comment


        • #5
          although not really a very masculine colour,his team (also one of my wife's favourites)is quite a striking model to have in your collection.i also have found 4 VT haulers in the last couple of months.
          great article again chris.thank's for your efforts in doing so and looking forward to the next article already.

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          • #6
            i didn't realise there were as many releases of VT

            Only got the Hauler and RT racer myself

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            • #7
              Vinyl toupee must be embarrassed to be pink!




              http://carstoys.wikia.com <--My wiki

              http://flickr.com/carstoys/ <--My Flickr

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              • #8
                Originally posted by iopl3887 View Post
                Vinyl toupee must be embarrassed to be pink!
                Why is that? I don't hesitate to wear pink shirts on occasion... for one thing, pink shows support for those with cancer... and we've had birthday parties for my granddaughter where she's asked everyone coming to wear pink... and as a grandparent, I do things for my granddaughter (and my grandsons).

                But Vinyl Toupee is more of a light purple color than pink... Shifty Drug Hauler and Tank Coat - they are pink.


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

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                • #9
                  I agree with cac... there's nothing wrong with pink. Tank Coat, Chuki and Hamm are all pink.. I don't see the problem with it.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I give props to any male that can pull off pink. It's not an easy job. I certainly can't lol.

                    IMO, I think a big part of male characters getting a pink colour scheme is part of societies drive to move away from gender association/classification.

                    Transformers for Trade
                    Feedback: pixarcarsdiecast.com; cybertron.ca; tfw2005.com; ebay.ca

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