Ferrari 599XX Was the Spotlight of the 2015 Hot Wheels Super Treasure Hunt Series

What's the thing that you remember most about 2015? If we're to refrain from discussing politics, perhaps we can think about some of the movies that came out that year: Furious 7, The Avengers: The Age of Ultron, Mad Max: Fury Road, Straight Out of Compton, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

If you'd prefer the musical throwback instead, think Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, See You Again by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth, or perhaps The Hills by The Weeknd.

But diecast enthusiasts will remember 2015 as the last year they could go into a store and buy a Hot Wheels Ferrari. That's because, at the end of 2014, the company lost that license to rival brand Bburago.

Seeing as the 2015 mainline series started hitting stores in 2014, that meant Mattel still had time to sell a few more replicas of Italian supercars. But we'll get to that in a moment. The good news about the 2015 Super Treasure Hunt collection is that even though it featured four fantasy cars, only one or two of those felt completely uninteresting.

The year started with the Surf Shop Kool Kombi, a casting that you'll find most collectors are completely crazy about. This casting was designed by Tony Martino for its release in 2013. It's essentially a tricked-out replica of a Volkswagen van, a vehicle that was tied to the West-Coast surfing culture back in the day.

There are almost 30 different variations of it on the market, and the STH one doesn't even come close to being the most expensive one. 262 people voted for the Kool Kombi in the Lamley Group Awards in 2015, making it the third most popular Super Treasure Hunt of the year. Pricewise, we've seen quite a few listed for around $200, which is still a fraction of what you'd have to pay for an RLC model.

Case B was disappointing with its RRRoadster STH, so we are going to skip that altogether. If you insist on buying one, you'll be surprised to see that most people have listed it for less than $20. Case C provided a nice comeback with the Toyota AE-86 Corolla, although the five-spoke wheels would have looked better in a different color.

This Jun Imai-designed casting has been around since 2006, but it has only been used twice since its STH appearance. Some collectors would rather have the Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno casting designed by Mark Jones instead. But if you're keen on getting the 2015 Super Treasure Hunt, that one will cost you about $90. Finding the Short Card version might increase that value five-fold, so don't say we didn't warn you.

And now, it's time to look at one of the best Super Treasure Hunt items of all time: the Ferrari 599XX. This would be the last STH replica of a Maranello-built supercar, and God knows if Mattel will ever be able to get the license back from Bburago. The standard model was equally impressive, and you might struggle to find one of those for less than $15.

But if you want the rarer Spectraflame Black item with Real Riders 10-spoke rims, you'll notice that most of the carded ones are listed for over $100. We'd like to point out one more interesting aspect of this casting.

It had a 2012 Super Treasure Hunt release too, and you can pick both these cars up for about $350! If you do that, you might as well start looking for the remaining seven variations to complete the collection.

It comes as no surprise that the 599XX was the most popular STH in 2015, and the next item on this list came in a close second. The '69 Ford Mustang Boss 302 showed up in Case E, and a Hot Wheels enthusiast we interviewed recently pointed out that this is his favorite casting of all time.

Since its introduction in 2012, it has been retooled twice! And that's even though there are 13 variations of it ever created. The Spectraflame Orange collectible felt like a big improvement over the standard model, so it's no wonder why some people are asking as much as $300 for a mint-condition one!

One of the variations we enjoyed seeing in recent years was the 2020 Black RTR model, which was a replica of the car that Vaughn Gittin JR built a few years ago. We still have 10 more Super Treasure Hunt items to look at, so keep an eye out for part two of this story coming out in a few hours!