Supposedly "Last Run" 77 308 GTB Hotwheels in stores

Yes. That Ferrari is in the Final Run series this year. After they finish casting however many they will, the mold will be destroyed and there will never be anymore produced.

Each year they do 6-12 castings as final runs due to the introdution of so many new castings. For example, in 2004 they introduced 100 completely new castings.

 

Yes, that would be Hot Wheel 2004 #134, Final Run series 2 of 5, Ferrari 308 GTB in blue metallic or blue enamel, available in the US on both standard full length cards or "international" short cards, often found at SuperTargets on the pegs by the checkout stands. Not available on a 2005 card. Old stock at this point. Nonmetallic blue enamel version quite rare. Rumors of a purple version.

Although supposedly the tooling is broken up after these editions, Final Run castings have appeared in other series long after the Final Run production runs expire. A notable example was the old '55 Chevy casting that showed up in at least two "premium" and one "generic" dollar-toy area version a couple years after the Final Run version. But of course, no guarantees.

There is also a Hot Wheels 308 GTS casting, completely different, which in fact derives from an old Corgi tooling set Mattel acquired when they bought Corgi. The Corgi casting 308 GTS is still "around" even if it's not used very often. For reasons which escape me, the HW 308 GTS is one of the castings usually found in double packs at supermarkets and drug stores, the vehicle on the lower half of the card usually a truck carrying the livery of the seller, and the vehicle on the upper half of the card something else. If you find one of THOSE, grab it. Some of the 308 GTS versions are exceedingly rare and were found only on those grocery store cards, notably HEB and Albertsons, in the company of an unremarkable white box van truck...

- Eric

 

Actually, if you will look very closely at the two castings, you will see slight differences. That is due to there being two different casts. The mainline casting was destroyed while the premium casting is still in use. Also, the mainline was a '57 Chevy and the premium is a '55 Chevy.

 

No no. Not "premium" as in black box or barrel boxed or some of the premium carded, but "premium" as in regular line HW as compared to the generic Mattel HW products that showed up in some Target and WalMart stores. Sorry for the confusion. I'm not even counting the real "collectible" or "100% HW" '55, '56, and '57 castings. The mainline HW '55 Chevy that went Final Run a few years ago showed up on shelves as a Mattel blue box generic two years later. It was an ugly car, black and red, bad paint, with 3-spoke wheels.

As for the '57 casting, that's alive and well -- both versions, the plastic with the metal base and the metal with the plastic base. I don't do the Tomarts numbers.... just pack away the ones I find.

 

I had one of these on my seat when my car was delivered after its major service.