The recent release of the Hot Wheels Retro Style Series at Target had me feeling a little bit nostalgic as the line included a Sto & Go playset. While I had a couple Sto & Go playsets as a kid, my favorite would have had to of been the Hot Wheels Railroad one. Something about racing high-end sports cars through a railroad freight yard full of crates and machinery sounded appealing. With that playset on my mind, I was perusing eBay and found an auction for the 1986 Hot Wheels Workhorses release of the Peterbilt Tank Truck. It started at $3 with free shipping so I threw in a bid for it and with no one challenging me, I won it for that price. Sure, its a little loved but this thing is all metal and has hoses that extend out.

Hot Wheels Peterbilt Tank Truck from the 1986 Workhorses line (hoses extended)

Nostalgia had me thinking how good this 30-year-old truck would look on my Railroad Sto & Go. Fortunately, I have a mother that doesn’t throw away anything from my childhood so next time I am up in Wisconsin, I may have to bring that Sto & Go back with me to Arizona. That will be a picture show for another day.

Hot Wheels introduced three Peterbilt castings in the early 1980s — the Cement Mixer (1980), this Tank Truck (1981) and the Dump Truck (1983) — which all had the same base and cab, swapping out the payload pieces. This was hardly a new process for Hot Wheels as the brand had done the same with the Heavyweights a decade earlier. Production on the Hot Wheels Peterbilt Tank Truck ran from 1981 until 1994, which was shortly after Hot Wheels released a new Tank Truck in 1992 (that ran until 1999). Ask any adult that grew up in the ’80s and they will remember this heavy Hot Wheel that the “hoses came out of” — successfully registering this classic piece as part of Hot Wheels nostalgia.

RELEASE DETAILS: Red Enamel Body (metal). Tinted Windows. Black Interior. Unpainted Metal Tank. Black Extendable Plastic Hoses. Blackwall Wheels. Unpainted Metal Base. Made in Malaysia. Toy# 2547. Released in 1986 as part of the Hot Wheels Workhorses.