It turns out I’ve known about this toy for kind of a long time. The story starts a while back at the Walmart up by the mall. They’d long since had the elusive Yoda and R2-D2 All Terrain (AT) cars on the shelf, and it actually surprised me that they’d hung around for so long. The R2 gradually slipped from sight but the Yoda persisted, every single visit. At some point my kid was with me and noticed the Yoda – I told him basically what I just said above. Being the observant fellow that he is, he quickly pointed out that this Yoda had black lettering instead of the original yellow. As I was busy putting the pieces together, he’d found 3 black label AT’s (Yoda, R2, & Chewy), inspected the back, and was busy waving it in my face and going on about why didn’t I have that Boba Fett AT yet.
Well that was pretty disappointing. I had explained to him how a lot of these things were packaged when they were shipped to their eventual retail destinations and he was quick to surmise that the AT’s had shipped in units of 4, the 4 being Yoda, R2, Chewy, and of course Boba. I can’t be 100% sure of when the black labels hit the shelves, but I do remember R2’s absence and then reappearance. One reason I was so upset is because I’m fairly sure I’d been there a few days prior, noticed the reappearance of R2, but completely ignored it. Is it possible Boba had been snatched up back then? Sure. But I definitely felt like I’d missed out since I knew it’d hung around for at least a couple of days, ripe for the picking.
I went a little nuts trying to find this thing for like, 3 weeks. Finally I was at the local Walmart early one morning. They hadn’t stocked yet, but they had all the boxes out, and I actually spotted the box of AT’s. The tape had been split, so I whisked it over from the pallet to the shelf, snatched up my Boba Fett, and was outta there by 6 am. Interestingly enough, that was also the day they got in their shipment of Disney Series 3 which, while exciting, I’d procured about a week prior on the other side of Raleigh.
These All Terrain trucks are what they are…basically glorified monster trucks with the “Character Car” label. I actually think they’re pretty cool – they’re well-built, lots of metal and good, dense plastic, and certainly leaning more towards collectible and less towards gimmicky than their Marvel Flip Fighters counterparts. The color is spot-on and the distinctive Mandalorian helmet has been lengthened to make for a decent looking cab. A lot of small but recognizable details have been worked in as well: his jetback is worked into the design of the back of the truck, the rangefinder is included (looking something akin to an antenna), the noticeable wear and tear has been integrated into the paint job, and even the Fett Family crest is embossed on the rims.
Part of me rolls my eyes at the thought of the All Terrain cars in general, simply because I don’t see the need in creating a larger Character Car line alongside the “normal” line, but redundant as it is, I’m glad that Hot Wheels took some time to make this a standout piece…even if it has been released in a bit of a void. (I guess it’s because a lot of people missed out on the initial offerings of Yoda and R2 under the Solo branding…) Now, if only someone would take a minute to refocus on that whole second Solo-wave of Battle Rollers (Sebulba, Tallie, Hux, Darth Maul, and on and on and on)….
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