Hot Wheels Used Five Non-Fantasy Cars in the 2020 Treasure Hunt Series, Take Your Pick

It's not always clear how rare the Treasure Hunt items are these days. Most collectors will agree that there's one such item per every case delivered from Mattel, but some feel that they're not quite as common as that. To give you a perspective on the whole thing, you'll normally see two or three units of each mainline casting in a single case (for instance, Case A).

But it may be that it's going to show up again in one or two more cases (for instance, Case B and Case C). Things have changed quite a bit since the inception of the Treasure Hunt series in 1995, when Mattel would issue 10,000 TH collectibles at most.

If you've been following this space for the past few months, you might have noticed our reviews of Hot Wheels cases that made their way into stores across the world this year. So you're probably aware that from an adult collector's perspective, most Treasure Hunt cars aren't that exciting.

That's because Mattel uses a lot of fantasy/non-licensed castings for this series, and kids will probably love these regardless of their nature. All things considered, you'll still see people struggling to find certain TH models from time to time. And we can only hope that our trip down memory lane will uncover at least a few of these highly desirable items. As we've already looked at both the 2022 and 2021 series before, today we'll start with the 2020 line-up of cars.

As usual, Mattel released 15 cases that year, so there are 15 Treasure Hunt cars to look at. Just five of these are replicas of real-life vehicles, and this will be our starting point for this story. The Mercedes-Benz Unimog 1300 showed up in Case B of 2020 and featured a black paint job with SWAT/Police graphics.

Dmitriy Shakhmatov designed this truck for its release in 2019, so there had been just two prior iterations before the Treasure Hunt model came along. There are just eight of them in total, and most of the time, you'll see them sitting on Beadlock Off-road wheels. Searching for the TH on eBay will reveal prices between $4 to $22, so do yourself a favor and don't pay more than $5 for one.

The car we're going to look at next is the 2013 Hot Wheels Chevy Camaro Special Edition that came inside Case H. This casting was launched as a SEMA exclusive back in 2012, and it made it to the Super Treasure Hunt series in 2014. The Regular TH had a decent-looking green paint job but lost points due to the TRAP5 wheels. One eBay user is asking $55 for both the Short Card and Long Card versions, but you can always be on the lookout for more affordable items going for less than $10.

Case K delivered a rather interesting Custom '56 Ford Truck that sort of reminds us of the Volkswagen Polo Harlequin in a way. This is, without doubt, one of the more appealing Treasure Hunt models, and the Aerodisc wheels might have played a role in that too. This casting was introduced in 2007 as part of the Ultra Hots series, and you can find quite a few premium iterations of it, some of which will cost up to $100. As for our more basic entry here, you can buy a whole lot of 10 cars for $50. Spread some joy for Christmas, will you?

Mattel revealed another pickup truck in Case P that year. During its first years of existence, the Chevy Silverado had a sports bike in the back. But you'll have to look for one of those early models if you're fond of that idea. Still, the 2016 Car Culture: Trucks series paid homage to that initial design by using the same concept one last time.

The lowered, light green Silverado featured Trackside Emergency Response decals, and you could easily spot the TH logo on the rear quarter panel and the hood of the truck. We've noticed one ambitious seller on eBay asking $150 for this item, but let's face it: this is not a Super Treasure Hunt! Get one for less than $10 and move on to the next item.

The TH model for the last case of 2020 was the Dodge Viper RT/10. This is one of the older Hot Wheels castings, as it was first introduced back in 2013. Of course, the TH is a retooled version of that original design. Race Team Blue is a classic color scheme for Mattel, but it doesn't necessarily make the car any more desirable. With any luck, you can pick a Viper up for less than $5; it's still nicer than the fantasy cars we'll look at next.

Batman fans were probably happy to see that Case E featured the Arkham Asylum Batmobile TH, but most adult collectors aren't fond of these cars anymore. The Dodge Charger Daytona in case G would have been a formidable TH if it wasn't a Tooned model.

And Mattel decided to feature The Beatles Yellow Submarine in case N for some reason. All three of these were eclipsed by the fantasy Circle Trucker TH in Case F. At least this NASCAR-inspired truck stood out of the crowd and didn't just look like another boring toy car.

If you insist on getting the complete 2020 Treasure Hunt collection, here are the fantasy cars we haven't talked about in this story: Bubble Matic (Case A), Grass Chomper (Case C), Buns of Steel (Case D), Power Pistons (Case J), Dune Daddy (Case L) and Tricera-Truck (Case M). Any 5-year-old will probably be happy to get any of these, but adult collectors will most likely choose to ignore them. We'll be back soon with our analysis of 2019's Treasure Hunt models!