Sunday, 10 August 2025

Barbie 1956 Corvette Collectors Set



Barbie – The Movie was a 2023 live-action film based on the Mattel doll line. Naturally, Mattel promoted it heavily, and there were die-cast models of the 1956 Chevrolet Corvette featured in the film, from Hot Wheels.

These came in various colours – pink, pale blue, and grey with flames. All were Mainline models, and sold in NZ for anywhere between $3.50 and $5 (£1.55 to £2.20).

There was also a boxed set with all three standard models, plus a special yellow version only available in this Collectors Set. Obviously, the collection was going to be a lot more than the combined price of four regular models.

I never saw this set in the shops, although I was looking out for it. There was an example at the most recent Auckland collectors fair, on a specialist Hot Wheels table – for $130 NZ.

That works out to £57.69, or $77.30 US. A lot more than I was willing to pay.

So it is not just vintage toys going for insane amounts of money. Even this 2023 Corvette set is heading in to the stratosphere.

Photograph from Worthpoint.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

7 comments:

  1. Why does Barbies Corvette have a back seat?
    So Ken has someplace to sit.

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    1. Hee hee. I like this set. Like a box of cakes. I can see it being stored away for posterity by a lot of collectors. Thanks Paul.

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    2. I bought one single car off the pegs as a novelty for 1.25. If it was anymore I would have passed. No need for anymore.

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  2. I have to say I am not a fan of these "new" franchise toys in general, they seem to start off high, and always go higher. Then again, Barbie is not a top interest to me! But even those new promotions like "Build Your Own Dalek" for an extraordinary amount of $$$ seems kind of greedy to me. But to each his own! SFZ

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    1. Yep, collecting is a broad church SF. The blog too. It used to be entirely devoted to Project SWORD toys in the beginning but our growing boomer nostalgia is so much broader than that and I gladly cast a much wider net on MC nowadays.

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  3. Hey Paul, I'm off to the Hurstville Collectables Fair in Sydney Australia at the end of the month. Maybe I can find a more reasonably priced set... What's a $NZ price more in your range?

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