Wal-mart 2017 "Fast and Furious" set

2017 was the year that Mattel pushed way too much specialty series at Wal-mart.  Basically it's monthly special sets, and sometimes bins, that would appear under the same price as the mainline cars.  Problem is that there is too much of it and some of them have a hard time selling off, clogging shelf space for needed mainline releases and floor space with worn-out large bins, the latter causing Wal-marts to avoid putting out those bins for most of the year (at least until holiday time).  Still, there are a few sets that are so popular they have no problem clearing space out early.  Later on i'll show the Lamborghini set, which is one of them, while the other is the "Fast and Furious" sets.  These sets are always popular for the movie fan and for collectors alike, especially with the explosion of JDM cars.  Now the sets tend to be redundant with similar models produced last year or the year before, so I only focused on what is new for 2017.  Here are four examples.

Toyota Supra Turbo

The most popular car and cleanest of the set is also the one that brought us tears at the end of the seventh movie in honor of the late Paul Walker.  Hot Wheels created this Supra casting in 2013 to be designed as the movie car as well as the stock car.  Obviously some side effects do happen when trying to be a two-in-one vehicle.  Still it's a pretty decent casting.  The all pearl white looks good on this car and matches perfectly with the BBS lace wheels.  The front-end has detailed headlights, the rear taillights and Supra badges.  That is it!  You will see the annoying Universal copyright name just below the rear spoiler and it will be frequent on these castings.  The interior has the proper Supra layout, and it performs quite well on the track.  This is one of my favorite cars of this set and will likely be the cleanest look you'll see on this Hot Wheels Toyota Supra.

Honda S2000

In 2016 the Honda S2000 finally arrived to the Fast and Furious line to represent Suki's pink S2000 from the "2Fast2Furious film.  For 2017 the S2000 returns but this time as the one from the first movie done in black with snowflake pattern across the sides and hood.  The interior is red and the wheels are 10-spoke.  Unfortunately the taillights are not as detailed as the first release of this casting.  This is a great casting, though a tad bit on the tuner look, but after a while you get used to the look and I describe is as the GT3 RS version of the stock S2000 line in the same way to the Porsche 911 line.  It has the stock look that is still retained even though the large rear wing, hard top, and ground effects.  It took a while but now the JDM fans have caught on and any version of this car is in high demand.  This S2000 release is just another one of them.

1970 Plymouth Road Runner

In the seventh Furious film Dom drives this Road Runner to go after the bad guy in the Maserati Ghibli.  He gets the guy even if it pays the price for the two cars to collide head-on!  The Road Runner was one of my favorite castings when it was introduced in 1998 as I like the stock look and excellent details; no wild rear rake or anything.  Over the years the casting has aged with the front wheels sticking out a bit past the body, but it still looks good stock.  Just like the Supra it has a nice, clean gray finish with side hockey stripes that have HEMI at the ends, though the Universal trademark on the right-side door ruins the stock look.  The blacked-out PR5 wheels look out-of-place on this car, 5-spokes would be better, but at least the interior has a nice shade of orange.  It would be nice to see a tooling change to the base to make the front wheels fit flush with the body, but until the tool breaks that might not happen anytime soon.  Either way this is another great stock-looking Road Runner to add to your collection.

Porsche 911 (996) GT3 Cup

For a surprise visit, and one that has to be the best deco of this model, the 996 GT3 Cup makes a return in 2017 for the Fast and Furious line.  I do not remember seeing this car in the last few movies, so maybe it was a brief cameo appearance.  It is one nice-looking design for a car that spent most of its life in racing deco's or with some graphics splashed across the sides.  The light blue paint catches your eye and leads down to the GT3RS stripe on the lower sides and to the lace wheels.  It's an awesome look!  Even more so is the details on a casting that was released back in 1999: clear L-shaped headlights with detailed lenses, side lower rocker panels, detailed base with flat-six motor at the rear, and even a rear spoiler that is still a separate plastic component at the rear.  Inside the interior has a race car setup with a rollcage, a driver's seat only, and a detailed stock dashboard with shifter in the stock location.  It's been a while since this casting made an appearance and timing couldn't be perfect with Porsche popularity on the rise at Hot Wheels, the Porsche brand anniversary, and Hot Wheels own anniversary.  It's nice to see this one back in a stock deco for a change!

Bonus: 1970 Dodge Charger "Ice Charger"

I have not seen the latest film, but one of the stars is yet again a Dodge Charger.  This time it is tuned out for escaping the bad guys on ice.  The Ice Charger starts with a 1968 Charger for a change with the detailed quad round taillights in the back and exposed headlights up front to a mesh grille design.  After that this is a totally custom beast with flared fenders, side exhaust pipes, hood with scoops and lock pins, windows with rivet edging, filler nozzles in the left-rear quarter window and on the right rear fender, and a rear spoiler.  The interior has seating for one with a dashboard layout that looks more race car than stock Dodge Charger.  The powertrain is not found under the hood (though the car props for the movie likely had a V8 under the hood), but at the rear where it looks like a flux capacitor from a DeLorean; turns out this is the twin jet motors that allows the car to get past the bad guys with excessive speed.  I hope there's spiked tires on all four as this amount of power would cause the car to skate crazily over the ice.  It's a cool ride, but not my taste, and for those who dig it there's a new variation for 2018 that may look similar to 2017 except for one thing: bullet holes on the left-front fender.