MINICARS: How to get your exclusive mail-in Hot Wheels Datsun 510 this weekend

If you like Hot Wheels and JNCs, you’ll want to get yourself to a Kmart this Saturday. On February 18 there is a K-Day event happening, and for every 20 regular Hot Wheels you buy, you’ll be able to send in your proofs of purchase for this exclusive Datsun 510 that won’t be sold in stores. 

If you don’t know what K-Day is, here’s a primer. In short, it’s a collector’s event that happens only at Kmart stores, in which exclusive colors not found anywhere else are offered. They happen several times a year, and you’ll typically have to compete with other collectors so your best bet is to get there a little before the 9am start time.

We’ve had a couple of JNC inkan‘ed cars of our own that were K-Day exclusives — the Datsun 510 Wagon and Datsun 620 from few years ago. Regular releases for the wagon were yellow, while the 620 was orange and red. The exclusive versions in black and blue, respectively, were only offered only at K-Day events and were mixed into cases with other regular main line Hot Wheels cars.

This 510 is a little different. It won’t actually be at the K-Day event, but you’ll have to buy 20 Hot Wheels cars that come out of K-Day specific cases with a special UPC (bar code). Then you must open them and send all 20 cardboard backings in, along with payment for shipping.

Here are very specific instructions from the official Hot Wheels website:

To get your Collector Edition Datsun Bluebird 510, just follow these instructions (but please read the Official Rules for full details):

1. Buy 20 selected 1:64 scale Hot Wheels mainline (basic) cars at participating Kmart locations and from Kmart.com from 2/12/17 to 3/31/17. Cars must be from the assortment numbers listed on the OFFICIAL RULES.
2. Mail the original cash register receipt(s), 20 blister cards (the entire cardboard piece, but not the car or plastic window) for each vehicle you order (limit of ten vehicles per household), and the completed order form, along with $3.50 US shipping and processing for each vehicle you order (check or money order only, made payable to MATTEL) to:

   Datsun Bluebird 510
   P.O. Box 1229
   East Aurora, NY 14052

Got it? If you want to be truly prepared, you can read over the official rules and seek out a participating Kmart store. And in case you’re wondering, here are the exclusive K-Day colors on four different models (none of them are Japanese).

On the Hot Wheels website, it also says that you can get the qualifying 20 cars by ordering cases from the Kmart website. However, those appear to be sold out already, while cases from a K-Day last November in which the mail-in car was a 1955 Corvette are still available. That should give you an indication of how sought-after the 510 will be.

You have been warned.

Images courtesy of Mattel.