Diecast Chase Cars by brand

"BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion" (pbs) 01/04/2014 at 22:47 • Filed to: Diecast

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The Chase Car, that is, a limited edition model shipped among regular cars at random, is one of the oldest tricks in the Diecast manufacturer's handbook. The concept is simple; tool up a more detailed model, add rubber tires, special paint and insert at random on your basic line cases, and the chance of finding a car that costs the same as a regular release at the store, but holds a much higher value later on, will drive collector interest through the roof.

With the exception of Matchbox and Tomica, every major small scale diecast manufacturer has or has had at one point their own chase cars and, since diecast seems to be all I talk about this week, I thought a small guide of what to look for could come in handy for those interested.

Hot Wheels practically invented the Chase Car with the release of their Treasure Hunt line back in 1995. These limited edition cars were chosen among collector's facorites and would receive a nice set of Real Riders, special paint and com packaged in a green striped package. The Green Stripe would go on to cause a massive commotion later on, with "true collectors" claiming it made Treasure Hunts too easy to be spotted by "non-collectors" AKA Scalpers, who would scoop as many as they could and sell them on ebay at inflated prices. Mattel reacted in 2007 by dividing their line into two tiers, regulars, with plastic wheels and regular paint, and Supers, with rubber tires and Spectraflame, and again one or two years ago, by eliminating the line and inserting hidden "superized" versions of regular mainline cars. Nowadays, they still come in two tiers, Regulars, clearly aimed at children, are regular release cars marked by a small flame logo and no non-chase versions exist, and Supers, which aren't marked at all, feature the better paint and rubber tires, with non-chase versions also available.

Johnny Lightning was the second to buy into the Chase concept when they released their White Lightnings. Originally sold as a separate line only through specialized Hobby stores, WLs featured flat white body paint, tires and chassis, and came in a distinctive packaging. Once the concept proved popular with collectors, they were moved to the regular line, and both chase and non chase versions coexisted. The typical White Lightning would come in an unmarked package and would feature two or three items in the distinctive white paint. Even the plastic interiors and engines, usually not visible without opening the car, counted, which made these a lot harder to spot on the fly if you didn't know what to look for. Later on, JL Released even more limited editions, called Lightning Strikes, which worked much in the same way, but replaced the white paint for matching body and tires in high impact colors, such as flat pink and blue. It was the popularity of White Lightnings that led Mattel to change their Treasure Hunt line to what it is, despite the clear divide in opinion among collectors.

Greenlight's chase cars, called Green Machines, follow the White Lightning model almost to a fault, with the only difference being the use of emerald green paint instead of white. While this particular shade of green is reserved for Green Machines, it hasn't stopped Greenligh from issuing regular cars in green, which always seems to cause some confusion when those get the Green Machine treatment. GMs are, as far as I know, the only chase units to feature the production numbers on the bottom, allowing collectors to calculate how many of each exist (usually 2% of a model's run). Greenlight issues Green Machines of both their standard lines and budget-priced Motor World line

While M2 Machines never named their chase cars with anything fancier than "chases", they're definitely some of the fanciest models out there, usually distinguished by golden features where one would usually see chrome, or chrome paint where one would usually see body paint.

Auto World, despite being new to the market, already has two types of Chase cars available. The first one, most common, is called Ultra Red and, much like White Lightnings and Green Machines, these are regular models painted in a distinctive shade of candy red. The second type of Chase is called UltraRAW, and features completely unpainted cars, though the Tampo prints are still present. Both Ultra Reds and UltraRAWs are available on all three of Auto World's lines, Deluxe, Premium and Licensed Premium.

STREPITUS > BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion 01/05/2014 at 01:46

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I hate you. Now I'm going to spend all my time and money looking for these since I'm a sucker for exclusive models. Still have yet to find a TH or STH Hot Wheels in the wild (got some from my local Hot Wheels collectors exchange) but now I'll be looking for the others. For a second I thought my Greenlight SRT10 Viper was a chase car, but sadly no.

BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion > STREPITUS 01/05/2014 at 09:33

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Well, I suppose they're readily available on eBay, but most of the coolness about chase cars is finding them in the wild.... So get hunting! :]

jedimario > BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion 08/13/2016 at 15:53

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Matchbox actually had something like a chase back in 2000. A limited number of car in the mainline got a “Matchbox 2000" tampo stamp somewhere on the vehicle. They were not terribly hard to find nor particularly interesting, but were treated by some as chase cars at the time. They also did something similar with a 50th anniversary medallion on some cards for their 50th.

TheBellKing > BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion 08/13/2016 at 16:37

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I found this last week. I couldn’t believe my luck.

Pedro Salcedo > BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion 02/19/2020 at 12:09

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How about: Ertl, Jada, Tomica, and  Racing champions?