1977 Hot Wheels #52 Army Green Aw Shoot Tank Japan Red Box REDLINE NEAR MINT

Minty box, car and instructional sheet. These don’t come up often and when they do they box and car are usually quite trashed. This box is in minty fresh.

In the late 1970's in Japan, Hot Wheels were sold and packaged in numbered red cardboard boxes. The 'Japan/Japanese Red Box' vehicles are identical to their regular counterparts, but the inclusion of the original packaging makes them hard to find and desirable. Although they are only numbered up to 80, a total of 89 vehicles were packaged this way.

There were two versions of the box, both had the Mattel Logo and 'ミニカ' (minika/minica). Some had a picture of the car with a printed number, and others had no picture but did have a small white box into which the number was stamped. On some vehicles, the picture was different to the actual one inside (example: Red Box #69 had an image of the Spoiler Sport in pink, while the vehicle inside was green).

Sometimes different versions of the same vehicle could be found in the box. For instance; Red Box #76 T-Totaller could be either the Black or Brown version, or a vehicle could come with Redline or Blackwall Wheels.