Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Respect the Classics: Shiny Wax

Collapse
X
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Respect the Classics: Shiny Wax




    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 - Darren Leadfoot... better known as Shiny Wax, #82.

    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 - Shiny Wax ...


    Kmart 1: Shiny Wax with plastic tires
    Shiny Wax was one of the Piston Cup Racers released during the first Kmart Cars Collector Event on October 18, 2008...



    Here's the cardback:


    These racers were exclusives within the US at Kmart for quite a while... later, they appeared in the UK on clip strips at Tesco's... In fact, the Car shown above is from Tesco's (thank you, Rippers)... For some reason I thought I didn't have enough of the Kmart 1 racers so Paul and other UK friends sent me some more in trade...


    World of Cars 3 pack Gift Pack



    Cardback:


    During the World of Cars series, Mattel released a few 3 packs that consisted of a racer with plastic tires, crew chief, and pitty... Shiny Wax was one of the gift packs released... In the WOC days, the gift packs were packaged in a vertical style and hung from pegs at stores... The first release featured New Model printed on ribbons as you see above... The Shiny Wax pitty was named Nebekenzer Schmidt, and the Shiny Wax Crew Chief was named Senior Trax... in a later case, the Shiny Wax Gift Pack was released without the New Model on the ribbons... At one time I had both 3 packs carded - I'm not sure I do any more.

    I liked the WOC versions of the gift packs, but due to glue problems Mattel discontinued these after only a few had been produced... I have No Stall, Leakless, Shiny Wax, and the rarest one, Spare Mint, which I got from a friend in Singapore.


    Race O Rama 3 pack Gift Pack



    When the Race O Rama series started, Mattel released the 3 pack Gift packs in horizontal boxes... While these store better, they don't have quite the personality of their WOC counterparts... Instead of having names, the pitty was called Shiny Wax Pitty and the Crew Chief was called Chief Shiny Wax... Also, instead of releasing new race teams in this series, Mattel re-released the same ones... No Stall, Leakless, Shiny Wax, and Spare Mint...

    Here's the cardback:


    There were other 3 packs released, but none with Pitty/Racer/Crew Chief... and when the lenticular era started, that was the end of these team sets.

    The 3 pack gift pack was the only way to get the Shiny Wax Pitty... It was also the only way to get the Crew Chief until Mattel released Easter Cars...


    Shiny Wax Crew Chief

    Mattel repeatedly uses holidays to try to sell more (or leftover) Cars... In at least 2 years, they released a set of Cars in plastic Easter Eggs... One year they released the Piston Cup Pace Car (in a yellow egg), Lightning McQueen (in a red egg), Spare Mint Crew Chief (in a blue egg), and the Shiny Wax Crew Chief (in a green egg)... These were Target exclusives.

    Here's the Chief Shiny Wax Easter Egg... This might have been a 2009 release - the production code on the blister says 3378 EA.



    I'll have to go back and look at older pictures and e-mails to confirm the date... Since I don't have a local Target, I received a set from a friend in California and 2 sets from a friend in Alaska... I'm since down to one set plus an extra Lightning McQueen.


    Shiny Wax Launcher
    Mattel released several racers as Pit Race-off launchers... Several were released in the World of Cars series, several were released in the Race O Rama series, and 2 were released in the Night Skyline series... The Shiny Wax launcher was released in case D of the Race O Rama series along with Retread, No Stall, and RPM... Here's a picture of the Shiny Wax launcher:



    cardback:


    The production code of the Shiny Wax launcher is 0659 EA...


    Kmart 5

    The 5th Cars Collector event was October 23, 2010... one of the 8 rubber tire racers released during that event was Shiny Wax... There were only 2 Shiny Wax Cars in the case of 24.



    Cardback:


    The Kmart 5 racers appeared in Australia over a month before they appeared in the US... I traded with someone in Australia and got 20 Kmart 5 Cars a month before the event... I sold one set of 8 on eBay... as of today, that is still my only eBay sale.




    Shiny Wax Hauler



    Announced and pictured in the 2009 Cars Collector Guide but never released... This hauler has been listed for sale on the Toys R Us website at least twice... My friend Conrad (cvc1968) ordered 4 so we'd each have two... I was excited... and then this is what was delivered...



    The invoice even said Shiny Wax Hauler:


    Do they not know the difference between Shiny and Shine? 74 and 82? Green and Yellow? Come on...

    I also attended the State Farm Agents on a Mission Cars 2 event in Florence, Kentucky on April 1, 2011... There was a Toys R Us store less than 1/2 mile away, so I stopped... According to the store inventory system, there were 6 Shiny Wax Haulers in stock... Care to guess which hauler it was?

    Yep, once again it was Sidewall Shine.

    There may very well be Shiny Wax Haulers somewhere, but for now if you want one, you have to get a custom.


    Other releases

    I'm not sure Shiny Wax was released in any other formats... at one time, Target had released 4 packs of Piston Cup racers... I don't recall seeing it in that format... And I don't recall Shiny Wax being released as a Lightyear Launcher or as a lenticular racer.


    In Conclusion

    Here are some photos of my opened Team Shiny Wax Cars... I did not include photos of my opened rubber tire racer... Note the Shiny Wax pit box; my friend GotFrank sent me a CD containing the Pit boxes... I printed them all out; my wife folded 11 of the 36 for me.







    I hope you've enjoyed reading about Darren Leadfoot... Shiny Wax... 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; 11-24-2012, 02:48 PM. Reason: date correction


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

  • #2
    Great article as always, I really enjoy reading these. Good job!
    Does anyone has a real Shiny Wax hauler?

    Comment


    • #3
      shiny wax is 1 of only 2 of the sots racers that i own that is loose in my collection.he was also the first launcher i purchased.
      he's an awesome looking car and can't wait to complement him with his team.it is really a shame that the hauler was never released,but you never know,cars 3 may see a return to the speedway of the south scene and give mattel the incentive to continue the line.

      Comment


      • #4
        Nice info Chris as always

        Comment


        • #5
          Great article Chris

          Comment


          • #6
            Another great article. Cac1959 is almost single-handedly keeping us afloat here, as there is a big black hole where conversation of new releases should be. Thanks Chris. I very much appreciate these.

            Comment

            Working...
            X