The randomness of the hunt is always surprising. Sometimes you go in a store and find something unexpected and cool, sometimes the racks are filled with peg-warmers. But this is the first time I’ve come across a massive drop of just *one* casting...
So of course I picked one up. Turns out these are overstocks of an exclusive gold HW premium - the Hi-Tech Missile - from 2017, which was a reward for mailing in bar-codes from the back of cards to Mattel. From what I can discover, this was a European (and possibly Australian) market exclusive. Hmm. Maybe I should bank a dozen for trading...
Pretty much everything is *golden* on this! The tampos reference “Dorado Racing” (as in the lost city of Gold, El Dorado), “79” (gold’s atomic weight) and “Au” (gold’s symbol on the periodic table). The 4th tampo reads “Group 77”, but I’m wondering if that’s a mistake, because gold’s chemical element group is actually 11. There’s also an interesting detail on the backing card, which isn’t visible in the photo - the image of the car has a special coating on it to make it more shiny...