Hot Wheels of the Day

’17 Ford F-150 Raptor

2021 Collector Edition (Dollar General Mail-In Promotion)

RELEASE YEAR: 2021 • CASTING DESIGNER: Ryu Asada

With an already impressive family of the Hot Wheels #’17 Ford F-150 Raptor, the collection grew by a couple more in 2021. One of those was this — call it “spectraflame aqua green” — Raptor which was a #Mail-In for a Dollar General promotion earlier this year. There isn’t a Dollar General anywhere near my home or work so I ventured to the other side of town, only to stop at several stores to hopefully find the #Dollar General Exclusives. All I found were empty pegs. Soon, my dreams of finding the exclusives were dashed as I found a store with 42 cars, and another collector already rummaging through the pegs. Thankfully, he grabbed 20, I grabbed 20, and we were both happy to be able to mail-in for the Raptor.

I tell this story not as a complaint, but as an example that some of these #Mail-In promos at smaller retailers have a level of difficulty involved. Suddenly a “free” car has a opportunity cost that adds up: time and money finding a store with on-hand quantities, plus $20 for the cars, $7 for shipping & handling for Mattel to send you your free mail-in vehicle, $4 in postage to send your package of 20 cardbacks & original store receipt across country to East Aurora, New York, and months of waiting. If you’re factoring in the money you pay to obtain one vehicle, you’re easily into it for over $30. So naturally, collectors are going to want to see these maintain some sort of value or else, its 100% easier to let someone else do the work and buy from a secondary source online.

Color (material): Spectraflame Aqua Green (metal)
Chassis (material): Unpainted (metal)
Windows: Smoke
Interior: Black
Deco: Hot Wheels Racing Deco
Wheels: Chrome #KRRDD
Country of Manufacture: Thailand
Toy# (SKU): GTD72

CURRENT MARKET VALUE (Carded, August 2021)

$36.41 ▼

The price of the 2021 Collector Edition #’17 Ford F-150 Raptor is down about $2.67 on average over the last two months, but the value is still holding over that initial cost of $30.

Fans of the Hot Wheels #’17 Ford F-150 Raptor will know that this is the premium tooling that was used for this release — basically, the mainline casting with a metal base. Despite the cost associated with this one, some collectors were disappointed to find out that this is NOT the RLC tooling of the casting which features an opening hood and a tailgate that drops.

Will this release be highly sought after in the future? Doubtful.

Most #Mail-Ins from the Collector Edition era don’t carry a value that exceeds the initial cost to participate in the promo. Plus, some international markets are able to buy promo cars outright from retailers for about $5 USD, further saturating the market. The Hot Wheels deco is a tad worn out — yes, a race team collector is saying that — however, the assortment of castings year-over-year is usually pretty good.

No production numbers have ever been released on Collector Editions. You have to imagine though, promos for the smaller retailers must have smaller runs or participation numbers — at the very least — then say a promo for Walmart or Target. Look how hard it was for me to even find a Dollar General with enough cars to buy. That could be a big reason as to why the value stands where it does today.