Supervans

By 1975 the custom van scene was well established in the USA and was taking off here big time in the UK with clubs popping up all over the country. Like all good toy manufacturers Mattel were looking not only trying to keep up with the latest trends as far as vehicles were concerned and but if possible get ahead of it and with 1,000 of custom vans on the road it seemed the perfect toy to have in the stores. So the Hotwheels Supervan casting was born it took off with a bang in the USA as Mattel were into selling lots of track sets for kids to race Hotwheels and the supervan was a very heavy casting and even today can give any hot wheels car or van a good run for it’s money. The first version to be Used was a give away to top Mattel account customers for a 1975 toy show showing off the new castings for the following year, only 200 were made in White and silver chrome and they can bring up to £2000 each in mint condition today. Within a few months they were in the stores but from an early stage there was a problem due to the weight of the casting breaking the blister card This was a big problem and is reflected today as carded redline version on mint card can bring around $250.

If you collected die-cast at the time it was quite hard to keep up new castings from the USA let alone variations and in fact it was not till a year later when I went to the USA that I was lucky enough to find a mint blister pack version of this great van. For the first 5 years the casting was only made in Hong Kong and these are the hard variations to find, it was not till 1980 that the Malaysia base turned up on the white flamed van that could be found with both bases Malaysia & Hong Kong. Also in late 1975 a very rare Flamed Blue variation found in the Cut-Off Canyon Set was made bringing around $1500, at the same time a limited edition van was produced for Two Radio stations and a Herfy's Restaurants these came in bags with a headed card and not on normal card. In 1977 the redline wheels (w/RL's) were droped and black wheels were attached (w/BW's)  The casting was such a success with the kids This lead to Toys R Us doing a version in 1976 with there logo Giraffe & 'Geoffrey on the sides and only sold in there stores this has become very hard to find and brings around $350 on the card and $185 mint loose. The casting was produced in every year from 1975 to 1985 sometimes two variation turn up in the same year and with even the made in Malaysia versions now being very collectable the last variation was a van made as a Kellogg’s mail away item with a great picture on the van on the box. 14 Paint and colour Variations were made in 10 years but window and wheels changes made this up to 25 supervans to collect. Supervans are still cool. In fact they are so Cool that Mattel re-tooled the casting in 2003 and are using it as the moment for only there premium lines that are not for sale in the store but fingers crossed they may turn up soon in there regular line and we can all add to our collections with this great casting.

Chevy van

                                                                                                                                             

Variations include Wheels, window, Tampo, indicator lights front wing/fender, all early models have blue windows

 

Packaging

 Early flying colors card

y mint carded cards are on the wall in my toyroom so i took the best picture's i could.

 

Variation List

1975 Black, w/Red & Yellow flames on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Chrome base

1975 Black, w/Red & Yellow flames on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Unpainted base

1975 Black, w/Red & Yellow flames on sides, Black interior, Blue Tint Window, Chrome Base

1975  Herfy's Promo Black, w/Orange Stripe & 'KING Radio' on sides, Black interior, Blue Tint Window, Unpainted Base,

1976 Khaki Kooler Olive, w/White 'Military Police' & US Army logos on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Unpainted Base,

1976  Khaki Kooler Olive, w/White 'Military Police' & US Army logos on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Chrome base

1976 Toy "R" Us White, w/Orange, Black, & Purple tampos w/TRU Giraffe & 'Geoffrey' on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Chrome Base,

1976 Chrome, w/Red & Yellow flames on sides, Black interior, Grey Tint Window, Black Base,

1976 Chrome, w/Red & Yellow flames on sides, Black interior, Grey Tint Window, Chrome Base,

1977 Khaki Kooler Olive, w/White 'Military Police' & US Army logos on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Unpainted w/BW's

1977  Toys 'R' Us White, w/Orange, Black, & Purple tampos w/TRU Giraffe & 'Geoffrey' on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Chrome Base, w/BW's

 1977 Black, w/Red & Yellow flames on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Chrome Base, w/BW's

1977Chrome, w/Red & Yellow flames on sides, Black interior, Grey Tint Window, Unpainted Base, w/BW's

1977 Chrome, w/Red & Yellow flames on sides, Black interior, Grey Tint Window, Black Base, w/BW's

1978 Black, w/Red & Yellow flames on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Chrome Hong Kong Base, w/BW's

1978 Chrome, w/Red, Black, & Yellow Hot Rod & 'California Cruisin' on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Black Base, w/BW's

1979 Chrome, w/Red, Black, & Yellow Hot Rod & 'California Cruisin' on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Black Base, w/BW's

1979 Yellow, w/Red, Tan, & Blue tampos w/'The Mighty Thor'  on sides, Black interior, Dk. Tint Window, Unpainted Base, w/BW's

1975 Plum, w/Blue, Orange & Yellow tampos w/Motocross Rider on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Chrome base.

 1975 Plum, w/Blue, Orange & Yellow tampos w/Motocross Rider on sides, Black interior, Blue Tint Window, Chrome Base,

1975 Toy Fair Promo White w/Flames & 'Toy Fair' tampos, w/RL's

1975 Toy Fair Promo Chrome w/Flames & 'Toy Fair' tampos, w/RL's

1975 Hot Wheels Cut-Off Canyon Set Blue, w/Red & Yellow flames on sides, Black interior, Blue Tint Window, Chrome Hong Kong Base, w/RL's

1975  Herfy's Promo Black, w/Orange pinstripe, '62 KGW' & 'Radio' on sides, Black interior, Blue Tint Window, Unpainted Base,

1980 White w/Flames, BW's, Hong Kong Casting

1980 White w/Flames, BW's, Malaysia Casting Started

1982 Mtflk. Grey, w/Red, Black, & Yellow tampos w/Hot Rod & 'California Cruisin' on sides, Black interior, Tinted Window, Unpainted Base, w/BW's

1983 Red w/Flames w/BW's

1985 Black w/Orange Stripe, w/BW's (Loose Only)

1985 Metallic Blue w/Yellow, Red & White Flames & ""Super Van"" Tampo's, w/BW's

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