Tracking peg warmers around the country
All peg warmers are not created equal.
I found out with the City Connection race that the castings that are peg warmers here in Ohio are not necessarily the ones hanging on the wall in Michigan, Colorado, or California. It just depends on the stock a store has and which castings are popular (or not popular) in that town.
I thought it might be useful (and a bit of fun) to try and track the peg warmers around the country. I think it'd be neat to see where the overlaps are (call them the Universal Peg Warmer) and where there's a big difference. Maybe that castings you can't find in your town is all over the place in Terre Haute, who knows?!
What's a peg warmer? A peg warmer is any mainline casting that is always at the store, seemingly no matter when you go. It's the casting that no one is buying and thus just sits on the peg at the store.
I go the stores in my area maybe every other week or so to see which cars they have and most of the time it's the same ones. But even within that inventory, there's a clear pattern as to which cars are still selling (albeit slowly) and which aren't.
The next time you're at the store(s) where you usually buy your cars, take a mental note as to which castings are always there and not selling...then come here and share a quick note about it.
Maybe we'll find that 2 Jet Z is only a peg warmer in Ohio...or maybe it's a warmer everywhere!
Discussion
Carrollton/Owenton Ky area.. Aka the Bermuda triangle of Kentucky.
Those are my nearest towns to me here in Perry Park.
Carbonator, Forward Force, Croc rod, that Turbone car, Zoom ins, Silouette, mystery models, Deora 3.
Shockingly... Fart and Furious 5 packs,
Its the land of misfit toys when it comes to fantasy cars around here.
- The F&F five-packs were all that my local Dollar Tree had on the peg. — SpyDude
- I'm guessing the fast and furious fad may finally be over. — CrazyEights
- Tons of Zoom Ins here in south Central Ohio too. Way too many. — redlinederby
- Maybe if its wide spread across the board that's your cue for a zoom in race. — CrazyEights
Marchbox: it's the food trucks and those black British taxis.
Hot Wheels: Geoterra, almost all 2020 Olympic cars, 2JetZ, Formula Solar, Skull Shakers, Deora III, and #1 is prob Ratical Racer. There's more but these come to my mind first
It might be interesting to have a "Peg Warmer Grand Prix" where all the cars would be the same casting and an open set of rules to see just how much speed could be extracted from these orphans.
- Rust Belt Diecast Racing is doing that currently. Cars were due about a month ago, though. I wish Josh would list their events on here, but he only uses Facebook announcements for their events now. Doesn't seem to hurt his participation numbers, though. — GenX_VintageRacing
My status has changed. We ran to town last night and there's now 2021 C case cars on the pegs plus a 3 slotted bin full of C case. Any remnants of old cases are gone. I hope they didn't trash them. Walmart is known to do that with old unwanted stock.
Clip Rod is all over the place here. Ratical Racer is, too.
Side note: Who thought a money clip with wheels was a good idea?
- What's really maddening about that is it's not the only one! There's also the Fast Cash, kind of a hot rod armored truck. At least that one looks like, y'know, a vehicle and not, like you say, a money clip on wheels — Spirit_Of_64
Around here in Lawrence, Kansas the Matchbox sections consist of literally nothing but the food truck and the self driving bus, at both big box stores. I haven't found a pattern to the HWs yet, other than there are very few 2020 castings left anywhere.