I picked some up today at a Hot HWeels show with a variation. I am pretty sure this is a new mold. I know form looking there seems to be much more Firebird stuff out there but little Camaro.
The 2012 IROC is here.

 

So I had one of these with a bad package, took it out, tied a ribbon on it and put it on the Christmas Tree without anyone detecting it! Pretty cool ornament.

 

you wanna sell me one?

 

They are all over eBay. They are selling well. I went to 5 places here and could not find ONE. I bought all mine except for the one on the tree at a Hot Wheels show. They just came out but by far the best and only TURE IROC Hot Wheels has ever made.
I cannot sell mine, keeping them for the heck of it. If I find more maybe.

 

It's either a new mold, or they modified the lame "Blown Camaro" mold. The Blown Camaro has side mirror housings, a 82-84 Z front bumper, and retarded side pipes. The high res pics of the new 85 Iroc, (http://www.hotwheelscollectors.com/L...k-HWC&sid=3385) show it has a different front bumper, and different tail lights. The seats in the picture look like the seats in my 87... Didn't the 85 and 86 Iroc get the earlier style upholstery? Oh well, it's definitely a huge step up from the old Camaro...

 

Even the 30th anniversary set used the "Blown Camaro" body for the Thirdgen...


I'm still a little pissed I didn't buy the "Police Squad" set in 1998... But again, it was the stupid side piped, hillbilly jacked up rear end, Blown Camaro body.

 

I've got a couple johnny lightning 1/64 scale irocs from a few years ago. 1black,1blue.

 

All the HW I have use the blown Camaro body, I have the blisters back to 86 and I just look for 3rd gen camaros but also end up with Firebirds once in a while. Just my little display cars to look at. Starting collecting them a whole 2 months ago - there are plenty out there.
Good news, there is this new place called EBAY - you should try it.. Ha ha.
Here is your set.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Police-Squad...item23120f385c

 

$22 is a little rich for my blood... It was a $6 set in 1998. LOL I felt the $6 was too much for a set with only one car I wanted. Kind of like when I came across the 30th Anniversary set at a toy show. Dude wanted $20 for it, so I let him keep it.

I don't get too serious about collecting toy cars. I figure they'll sit out on a shelf for a couple weeks before they get filed in the cardboard box in the closet. After being filed, they only come out once every couple years when I refresh my memory about what I've bought. I only buy them when they're cheap, in the stores. Once in awhile I buy a slightly more expensive special edition, or whatever, but if I started stalking Ebay for thirdgen collectibles, I think I'd get carried away.

 

Other than the horribly huge wheels that new Z looks nice!
What do they have 4 the birds??

 

I only have a couple. I will have to look. I do have one RAce 1;24th scale diecast, bought it thinking it was a Camaro, I didn't look closely since it was a 3rd gen. Actually pretty nice car. I am waiting for a replacement phone (my digital camera) and when it comes, I will shoot some pictures.

 

yes! i seen that to for 75 cents, got it asap!

 

The Hotwheels 80's Firebird is almost as goofy as the old Camaro body. It's a t-top body, but the center bar is far too wide, so it looks silly. At least the paint jobs are more realistic. Most of the HW Camaros seem to have easter egg type paint jobs with silly graphics, etc.



That's one of the 80's Firebird finishes from a couple years ago. There's one out right now in the "Hot Ones" series with red/gold paint and a 2nd gen hood chicken. It's kind of cool if you can look past the issues... The pics suck, but you get the idea...




Also Johnny Lightning has had a few 80's Firebirds recently. In the last year or two I've picked up about four different versions. I think most are labeled as 84 Firebirds, they have the bulge hood, and one has the bulge hood with 85-up fog lights, so they're kind of mix and match too. At least the markings are correct and the paint is usually realistic. A couple even have bowling ball hubcaps.

Green Light still has the widest variety of thirdgen birds. The body looks to be a base Firebird or Formula body with multiple different paint jobs. I still haven't found any locally, but they're all over ebay and toy shows.

 

This is the firebird I have.
Soeaking of Greenlight, I just bought two 1/8th scale TTA the other day, one form 08 and one from 09. I have heard they made 1550 of each of these too. Greenlight makes some decent ones but nothing for Camaro - only TTA and GTA. They never made an IROC yet.... Hopefully someone does.

 

this is not my complete collection, but a recent pic. there is three blown camaro variations and the iroc z28 nt pictured

 

Bitchin' ornament!!

 

Cool, but they have the headlight recesses black in the picture and not on the car? Stupid!

 

That can be fixed with a little model paint Just ordered myself 3 of these - 1 to keep packaged, 1 to play with, 1 for inside the camaro, haha.

 

Why did they put dubs on it?

 

any body have the black johny lightning iroc

 

You mean this one?

 

Here is just a few that I have out. All the other 2,000 plus are still in their boxes, in a tub, on a shelf in my garage. lol

 

ya thats the one.mine is opened and always wanted to buy a unopened one but ebay has been no help with that.

 

will the 2012 IROC be released in the stores or is it a limited item to be purchased at a select site?

 

I'm just going to hit the stores and see what I can find. Ebay had one for 13.99 buy it now. Crazy!!!

 

That's 87 interior alright, not 85. I like these things but I really wish someone would make a correct IROC-Z model already, preferably 87 of course. It seems that the stripes, coloring, and wheels are always just wrong. The closest thing is the Revell model I built and I'd never want to do that again. Something cast that is spot on is what we need.

 

i gotta get a few of those

 

Yes, you can find them at the store but most HW guys are selling them for higher price. I did find one in the store but it was messed up - that is the one I took out of the pack. The other 5 I bought at a Hot Wheels show, the only reason I went. One is an error with the IROC stamped on the ground effects. There are some other errors out there, like a light color red.... I might buy erros but for now sticking with the ones I have. I bought 3 for $5 and two for $4. They will come down in price on eBay. Wait two months when they can't give them away.

 

I bought 3 on ebay yesterday for 8 dollars shipped - just find the right deal.

 

I just bought 5 of the new 2012 3 rd gen camaro from the wal mart here in town for .97 cents a piece. I may go back in the morning and ge t10 more just for the future

 

You are correct about the finish, this Avon cast is the only one with sailpanel birds and with the hood decal and lower stripes is the closest representation of a 84 Recaro Edition. Not even close to being in the same class as the Blown Camaro, cleaner lines, etc. It also would have to be impossible the replicate the T-Top, the casting would collapse with Billy's first play session as the the bar would fold. BTW I have just about every 80's Firebird casting made, including the French and India ones. Im going to pass on the reincarnation of the Hot Ones, why they continue to cofuse the tampo designs is beyond me.

 

I actually worked on this toy. Hopefully I can help give some useful info on it.

First and foremost, they are 1$ cars. As such, there are limitations on materials, the shape itself, deco, paint, etc to keep the cost down. That's why the headlight buckets aren't black and the stripes don't fully wrap around. If this casting is ever used in higher end lines, it'll have an opportunity to receive more deco.

For the package art- they take liberties with the illustrations on these. You'll notice things added like side mirrors, tinted windows, or even drivers, etc. Sometimes we can get a color break by adding part of the car in a different part. The hood louvers are a good example of this. This car is lucky to have both this and the front area.

Hot Wheels vehicles are, for the most part, performance based. They have performance standards so they can function on track, and are styled to accentuate this. That's why they have larger wheels in back, big engines, exhaust, etc. This is also why things like municipal vehicles, etc are on the Matchbox line. If such a vehicle is in the HW line, it's hot rodded.

As for the interior, I thought I was referencing an '85 IROC for that pattern. Pretend it's a custom If it helps I made sure the IROC label was in the right section of the door...

I also worked on this third gen coming out for 2012. This website has pics of it already:

http://t-hunted.blogspot.com/2011/12...r-maquina.html

I hope this helps.

-Brendon

 

Very cool - Maybe this will work?

Thursday, December 22, 2011

CHRISTMAS MEGA BOMB! KITT, the Knight Rider Hot Wheels is here!



The T-Hunted.com closes the year with a bombshell, UNPRECEDENTED , EXCLUSIVE and you will be happy to be first in the WORLD to see! Only here at T-Hunted.com you will see first hand the photos of one of the most anticipated cars for 2012: KITT, better known among us as the "Knight Rider" series of the same name for 80 years!


We had already confirmed this model in the series of 2012 Hot Wheels here , and now you have the photos will look like this beautiful Firebird Trans Am series. This same model will have a larger scale version of the Elite series of Hot Wheels in 2012, and will probably be the thumbnail exclusive Comic Con 2012.


It comes with a very detailed panel, the red display in front of the car and license plate with the name "Knight" of "Knight Rider", which is the name of the original series. In other words, it was pretty perfect, and will be hotly contested in stores.


As always, this information is something you only see here in T-Hunted.com , and we will be more bombastic as these in the coming days or weeks: Superizeds new, new T-Hunts mainline and new models of Hot Wheels drooling!


So if you have not enjoyed the T-Hunted page on Facebook , do so now by clicking the "Like" here below on the right, directly or enjoying our there on Facebook , or follow us on Twitter at this address .


This is the early Christmas present to you that has accompanied us in the last almost 3 years!

 

Wow tuske427, pretty cool to talk to someone that worked on it. Thats some good insight on how Hotwheels works. I have to say though, that with things I often like to think do it right or not at all. Don't get me wrong, I like the model and am probably gonna be getting one, but I just want a correct, nicely scaled, cast IROC-Z. It's frustrating at this point. So everytime I see another product come out with inconsistencies, it's often just more disappointment. At least the model has an IROC body this time around and isn't just an early Z28 though!

 

No worries, and I can appreciate that. I too share a similar work ethic. I'm not even on the basics team, but they let me help out with a few cars probably because of such. (I currently work on the Monster Jam team)

I can also relate to the difficulty in finding accurate replicas of a particular 3rd gen. As someone who owned a 1984 Trans Am with the W-62 aero package for 17 years, finding decent 1984 Trans Am toys are few and far between. I'm not even aware of any 1:64 diecast of them. Nikko once made an RC car of the '84 T/A, which is probably the best I've ever seen of an '84:

http://www.firebirdtoys.com/nikko.htm

-Brendon

 

Yeah, that has to be difficult. That's a one year kinda thing being an early style Trans Am with the GFX and all. But really, the IROC-Z is basically the iconic Third Gen. One company a few years ago came out with early Z28s and another recently did GTAs. It's like come on already! People like the IROCs so much! Stop giving us this tiny stuff and do a real model! When I used to go to shows more, the people selling model cars said that people asked for accurate IROC-Zs all the time but never heard much from the companies. A few years back another company released a pro-street style "IROC-Z" that was also inaccurate. What is the deal?! Wake up model makers!

 

Oh I gotta get this!!! Add to my collection!

Sorry for the crappy pics..

 

You do bring up a good point. one would think that someone would have offered up a realistic IROC model by now. There is enough similarity to get a couple of model years out of it with little or no tooling changes (depending on the years and options added to it) Is there a good 1:18 out there?

What do you guys think of the dealer promos?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1987-CHEVY-C...-/380395266659

 

I could never have a display like this. My boys would destroy it in seconds. hehe Very nice collection.

 

Got 3 Irocs this morning at the local toys r us.Havent seen them anywhere else yet.According to what Ive read they are found in the "D" case which also contains a green 1973 firebird

 

Promo's are cool. Western has a nice IROC. http://www.ebay.com/itm/WESTERN-MODE...item19c47c438f

 

Yep, it's a good year for f-bodies in Hot Wheels. The following is either out already, or pics can be seen online:

2012 ZL1 camaro in basic, NYTF, and SEMA exclusive. (The latter two have a metal chassis)

1985 IROC

1981 Camaro

KITT (season one)

1973 SD455 T/A

 

I went into O'reilly's the other day for a hose...this little kid and his dad were checking out beside me and the kid (about 4-5 yrs old) brought up a hot wheels toy and said "daddy look its a cool red car!" - It was the '12 Red Iroc Hot Wheels...I managed to catch a glimpse of it. The kid proceeded back to the Hot Wheels stand and placed the car back on the shelf. I went over to it after making my purchase and said "Hey this looks just like my car, color and all" I snagged it up and bought it. The dad and kid were walking to their car as I walked to mine and the kid said "Daddy look its just like the toy!" as he pointed to my car...The dad smiled and waved as they drove off, the kid staring fixedly at my car.

I'll never forget this...=)

 

^^^ thats a great story, he will never forget it

 

we are so starved for accurate models. I have already bought 7 of them with plans to buy any more I see on the shelf.

 

ither these things are going like hotcakes or they havent hit here yet. i have been watching the local walmart and toys r us and they have alot of the 11 models out and few of the 12s out.

 

Hey Tuske427, could you see if you could get this model made into a Treasure Hunt?

 

That wouldn't be my call. I'm actually on the Monster Jam team, and help out with a few of the basics (Hot Wheels cars).

If you haven't done so already- I recommend you join the HWCollectors.com site (free membership) and post your request on there. Both design and marketing (the ones that could make that happen) check the boards there and would see this, especially if other members chimed in.

I hope that helps.

-Brendon

 

just drop it in the suggestion box lol. Maybe write it on a piece of paper and leave it on the break room table. I'm just spitballing here.

 

Pshhh Camaro-shamaro..............The world wants to know when is the 2012 basic line KITT coming out ????