Here is something fun to read

I stumbled on this article and wanted to share it with DSZ in what others think or feel about Mattel employee factory workers...

Now this was not written by me as I had to translate it to English from Portuguese and it may sound a little off key in how it was written.... I know I had to add a few words and take away a few words to make sense of it, but as you keep reading it, you will start to understand it ....

Here it is and you will have to click on the link to see the picture.... t-hunted.blogspot.com/2013/10/t-hunts-e-outras-miniaturas-sendo.html#links


T-Hunts and other miniatures being diverted by Mattel itself?

Not today you hear stories about deviations of the thumbnails most sought after Hot Wheels and other brands. As is common in all industries, some items are made purposely or not, in smaller quantities, and end up becoming more difficult to acquire, or even becoming rarities. And with the industry and miniature replicas is no different.

Mattel launched in 1995 a series called "Treasure Hunts" ("Treasure Hunt"), and has since produced some thumbnails with different details, and has placed these thumbnails outnumbered inside the boxes arriving in stores. She is not the only one to do this, since other manufacturers have followed suit: Greenlight (with "Green Machines"), Johnny Lightning ("White Lightning"), M2 (with thumbnails "Chase") and even rookie Auto World (with "Super Reds"). In addition to these special miniatures, Mattel produces other miniatures highly sought after by collectors, also in small amounts, and while a standard miniature comes in a quantity of 3 or 4 units within each box with 72 miniatures, others come in just one unit, seriously undermined their acquisition by all who seek it. An example is the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 which was released in 2010 and only appeared in one batch (15 of that year), and a maximum per unit came in a box acquired by the tenants.

High demand and low supply generates speculation, and is not today, and we know we hear stories of "collectors" that combine with vendors and store managers so they separate the thumbnails more valuable, so that you can later sell on the Internet or meetings of collectors. Sadly this is not unique in the world of miniatures, and it happens in any other collection.

But a story told by the reader Eduardo Salvatore Di Mattina brought new doubts about how far will this kind of speculation. We already know that some thumbnails are diverted from Mattel's factory in Asia, both on the production line and in the packaging, and we have seen boxes of tapes suspicions coming from Mattel of Brazil. And now we have this photo taken by Eduardo to open a box in a store: inside the box someone wrote the number "67", which can be an identification of the Super T-Hunt Lot, the '67 Camaro . The box was sealed by Mattel.

It would be just a coincidence? Or a way to identify and remove the most valuable boxes thumbnail? Edward opened the other boxes and noticed that lacked them also USS Enterprise , one of the most sought after by collectors miniatures this year. Were the employees of Mattel Mattel Asia or Brazil doing these tags? What is your opinion on this?