Store exclusive Hot Wheels are a big part of my collecting agenda. Every year I seek out any of them that come out, and pride myself on having a pretty complete collection of them from over the years, including all Zamacs from Walmart, all Target Reds, all Kroger cars, all Dollar General/Gamestop, and most of Kmart and Toys R us. For 2021, there was a wide variety of cars released, and here is a breakdown:
Walmart:
These are the cornerstone of the Store Exclusive arena. Zamacs have been going strong in Walmart stores since 2013, and this year was the hardest year yet to track them down.
The Best: 91 GMC Syclone, Nissan 300zx twin turbo, 80 El Camino
The Worst: Tooned Twin Mill, 1985 Honda CRX
Target:
This was a soft year for Target Red Editions in my opinion. They weren’t as hard to find as Zamacs, but still came and went quickly as Store Exclusive Hot Wheels tend to do. Still, I made sure to have all of them.
The Best: 32 Ford, Kool Kombi, Carbonator
The Worst: Triumph TR6, Toyota Off Road Truck
Kroger:
This year, Kroger introduced the ability to order cases from their site, as Kmart and then Gamestop has done. This batch was only available at a handful of stores locally, so I was glad I ordered a box.
The Best: 17 Nissan GT-R (R35)
The Worst: Eriknstein Rod
The Second batch of Store Exclusive from Kroger was somewhat easier to find in stores, and cases were again available online. Kroger had some good cars this year.
The Best: 87 Buick Regal GNX
The Worst: Lancia Delta Integrale
Dollar General and Gamestop
Sometimes, Dollar General can be tough to obtain Hot Wheels. The staff does the best they can, but diecast cars are not their focus. They receive cars in trays, which are often bought whole by greedy collectors. I was able to track this group down fairly easily but it took many trips until they finally hit. The cars then showed up at some Meijer stores.
The Best: 67 Camaro
The Worst: 20 Jeep Gladiator
This set is on 2022 Carding, but technically will be released in 2021, hopefully in November with a Gamestop mail in. It’s hard to judge these cars without seeing them in person.
Next round, I will be looking at the various sub-series that came out in 2021, such as Holiday Cars, Fast and Furious, and Batman.
Happy Hunting!
