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1968
-Elliot Handler, co-founder of Mattel, decided to produce a line of
die-cast toy cars for boys. His idea was to capture a portion of the
huge market for small car models dominated at that time by the
British company Lesney Products with their Matchbox cars. Although
his executives thought it was a bad idea, the cars were a big
success. There were sixteen castings released in 1968, eleven of
them designed by Harry Bentley Bradley, with the first one produced
being a dark blue Custom Camaro. Although Bradley was from the car
industry, he had not designed the full-functioning versions of the
real cars, except the Dodge Deora concept car, which had been built
by Mike and Larry Alexander. Another of his notable designs was the
Custom Fleetside, which was based on his own heavily-customized '64
El Camino.
All sixteen of the cars featured 'Spectraflame' paintwork, bearings,
redline wheels, and working suspension. Because 'Hot Pink' was
considered a "girls color", it was not used very much on Hot Wheels
cars. For most castings, it is the hardest color to find, and today
can command prices ten times as high as more common colors.
In order for the cars to go fast on the plastic track, Mattel chose
a cheap, durable, low-friction plastic called Delrin to use as a
bushing between the axle and wheel. The result was cars that could
go up to scale 200 mph. The bushings were phased out in 1970. The
early years of Hot Wheels are known as the Redline Era as until 1977
the wheels had a red line etched around the tire rim.
The "Torsion Bar" suspension was simple, but flawed. Inside the car,
the axles followed a "C"-like shape that was connected to the
chassis. When pushed down, the axles would bend like a real car.
However the axles were hard to install on the chassis while being
assembled and would become detached from the lugs on the baseplate
if very hard pressure was applied. The suspension was redesigned in
1970. Packaged along with the cars were metal badges showing an
image of the car so fellow collectors could identify each other and
compare collections.
It was the combination of all of these ingredients — speed via the
low-friction wheel/axle assembly and racing tires, looks due to
Spectraflame paint and mag wheels, plus the inclusion of very
American themes such as hot-rod designs based on true American
prototypes not seen in great numbers in the competition's product
lines — that laid the groundwork for the incredible success story
Hot Wheels were to become.
1969 As it turned out, the Hot Wheels brand was a staggering
success. (This accomplishment must be put in its historical
perspective: Basically, the series "re-wrote the book" for small
die-cast car models from 1968 onwards, forcing the competition at
Matchbox and elsewhere to completely rethink their concepts, and to
scamper to try to recover lost ground.) Harry Bentley Bradley did
not think that would be the case and had quit Mattel to go back to
the car industry. When the company asked him back, he recommended a
good friend, Ira Gilford. Gilford, who had just left Chrysler,
quickly accepted the job of designing the next Hot Wheels models.
Some of Hot Wheels' greatest cars, such as the Twin Mill and
Splittin' Image, came from Ira Gilford's drawing board.
The success of the 1968 line was solidified and consolidated with
the 1969 releases, with which Hot Wheels effectively established
itself as the most important brand of small toy car models in the
USA.
The Splittin' Image, Torero, Turbofire, and
Twin Mill were part of the "Show & Go" series and are the very first
original in-house designs by Hot Wheels. Althogetherm 24 new
vehicles were released.
The initial prototypes of the Beach Bomb were faithful to a real VW
Bus's shape, and had two surfboards sticking out the back window.
During the fledgling Hot Wheels era, Mattel wanted to make sure that
each of the cars could be used with any of the play sets and stunt
track sets. Unfortunately, testing showed that this early version
(now known as Rear-Loader Beach Bomb, or RLBB) was too narrow to
roll effectively on Hot Wheels track or be powered by the Super
Charger, and was too top-heavy to negotiate high-speed corners.
Hot Wheels Designers Howard Rees and Larry Wood modified the
casting, extending the side fenders to accommodate the track width,
as well as providing a new place on the vehicle to store each of the
plastic surfboards. The roof was also cut away and replaced by a
full-length sunroof, to lower the center of gravity. Nicknamed
"Side-loader" by collectors, this was the production version of the
Beach Bomb.
The Rear-Loader Beach Bomb is widely considered the Holy Grail of
any Hot Wheels collection. An unknown number were made as test
subjects and given to Mattel employees, and today there are only
about 25 known to exist. A regular production Beach Bomb may be
worth up to $600, depending on condition. Market prices on RLBBs
however, have easily reached the five-figure plateau. Within the
last decade, one of two existing hot pink RLBBs sold for reportedly
above $70,000 to a well-respected and widely known Hot Wheels
collector. The Hot Wheels Collectors Club released a new, updated
version of the rear loading Beach Bomb in 2002 as a limited edition.
1970s -1970 was another great year for Hot Wheels. This was
also the year that Sizzlers appeared. Howard Rees, who worked with
Ira Gilford, was tired of designing cars. He wanted to work on the
Major Matt Mason action figure toy line-up. Rees had a good friend
by the name of Larry Wood. They had worked together at Ford
designing cars. When Wood found out about Hot Wheels at a party Rees
was holding, Rees offered Wood the job of designing Hot Wheels. Wood
agreed, and by the end of the week, Larry Wood was working at
Mattel. His first design would be the Tri-Baby. After 36 years,
Larry still works for Hot Wheels.
Another designer, Paul Tam, joined Larry and Ira. Paul's first
design for Hot Wheels was the Whip Creamer. Tam continued to work
for Mattel until 1973. Among the many futuristic designs Tam thought
up for Hot Wheels, some of the collector's favorites include Evil
Weevil (a Volkswagen with two engines), Open Fire (an AMC Gremlin
with six wheels), Six Shooter (another six wheeled car), and the
rare Double Header (co-designed with Larry Wood).
1972 and 1973 marked a slump for Hot
Wheels; few new castings were produced, and in 1973 most cars
changed from Mattel's in house "Spectraflame™" colors to less-shiny
solid enamel colors, which mainline Hot Wheels cars still use today.
Due to low sales, and the fact that many of the castings were not
re-used in later years, the 1972-3 models are known to be very
collectible.
In 1974, Hot Wheels began using the slogan "Flying Colors", and
added flashy decals and tampo-printed paint designs, which helped
revitalize sales. As with the low-friction wheels in 1968, this
innovation was revolutionary in the industry, and — although far
less effective in terms of sales impact than in 1968 — was copied by
the competition, who did not want to be outmaneuvered again by
Mattel product strategists. In 1975, Hot Wheels introduced its first
motorcycles.
In 1977, the Redline Wheel was phased out, with the red lines
being erased from the wheels. This cut costs, but also reflected
that the red lines popularized during the era of muscle cars and
Polyglas tires were no longer current.
1980s - What happened in the 1980s for
Hot Wheels sent them in the path of what they are today. In 1981,
Hot Ones wheels were introduced, which had gold-painted hubs and
thinner axles for speed. McDonalds first released Hot Wheels in
their Happy Meals and the same year the Hot Wheels production plant
was moved to Malaysia. In 1983, A new style of wheel called Real
Riders were introduced, which had real rubber tires. Despite the
fact that they were very popular, the Real Riders line was
short-lived, because of high production costs. Mexico and France
begin production of Hot Wheels. Ultra Hots wheels, which looked like
the wheels found on a Renault Fuego or a Mazda 626, were introduced
in 1984 and had other speed improvements. Hot Wheels started
offering models based off of 80's economy cars, like the Pontiac
Fiero or Dodge Omni 024. In 1985, Hot Wheels first appeared in
Kellogg's cereal boxes. In the late 80s, the Blue Card was
introduced, which would become the basis of Hot Wheels cars still
used today. Also, the first Hot wheels collector's convention was
held in Toledo, Ohio.
1990s - In 1990, Hot Wheels first introduced helicopters.
Later in the decade, in 1995, a major change was brought to the Hot
Wheels line, where the cars were split up into series. One was the
1995 Model Series, which included all of that year's new castings,
12 Models in the Model Series. 4-car series were introduced also. In
1996, the Model Series was renamed to First Editions. 1995 also saw
the introduction of the Treasure Hunt series. The rest of the series
included four cars with paint schemes that followed a theme. For
example, the Pearl Driver cars all had pearlescent paint. Sales for
the series models soared, causing stores across the nation to have
shortages. Several new wheel designs were also introduced. 1995,
1996 and 1997 featured 12 new releases each year, while 1998
released 40 and 1999 relaesed 26.
In 1996 Hot Wheels released one of the hottest surprise
castings to ever come out of Mattel's factory. The Volkswagen Drag
Bus designed by Phil Riehlman. if you look on the bottom, at the
rear differential, you'll see see his initials P R. This casting is
the heaviest casting made to date.
In 1999 Hot Wheels Racing signed a licensing deal with five
Formula 1 teams to manufacture scale model Formula 1 cars.[1]
2000 See also: List of 2000 Hot Wheels
A new generation of Hot Wheels Designers came in. Eric Tscherne and
Fraser Campbell along with former designer Paul Tam's son, Alec Tam,
joined the design team. Many still work for Mattel today. Tscherne's
Seared Tuner (formerly Sho-Stopper) graced the mainline packaging
from 2000 to 2003. The Deora II, one of only two Hot Wheels concept
cars ever made into full-size, functional cars, was also released
this year. The Virtual Collection was introduced the same year.
2001 During this year Mattel issued 240 mainline releases
consisting of 12 Treasure Hunts, 36 First Editions, 12 Segment
Series with 4 cars each, and 144 open stock cars. Popular models
that debuted include the Hyper Mite and Fright Bike.
2002 For 2002, the mainline the consisted of 12 Treasure
Hunts, 42 First Editions, 15 segment series of 4 cars each, and 126
open stock cars. Popular new models included the `68 Cougar and the
Nissan Skyline.
2003 Hot Wheels celebrated its 35th anniversary with a
full-length computer animated Hot Wheels movie called Hot Wheels
Highway 35 World Race. This movie tied into the Highway 35 line of
cars that featured 35 classic Hot Wheels cars with special graphics
and co-molded wheels. Another celebrating moment in the 35th
anniversary was the creation of a full-sized model of the Deora II
shown at the Hot Wheels Hall of Fame event at the Petersen
Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California.
Also in commemoration of Hot Wheels' 35th anniversary, recording
artist and Hot Wheels supporter Rick Tippe was commissioned by
Mattel to write a song about Hot Wheels. CD singles featuring the
song were given out in grab bags at the 35th Anniversary Convention
in California.
42 new vehicles were released this year.
2004 In 2004, Hot Wheels unveiled their
"Hot 100" line, comprised of 100 new models. These new models
included cartoonish vehicles such as the 'Tooned (vehicles based on
the larger Hot Tunerz line of Hot Wheels created by Eric Tscherne),
Blings (boxy bodies and big wheels), Hardnoze (enlarged fronts),
Crooze (stretched out bodies), and Fatbax (super-wide back tires and
short bodies). These vehicles did not sell as well as Mattel
expected, and many could still be found in stores throughout 2005.
Mattel also released 2004 First Editions cars with unpainted Zamac
bodies. They were sold through Toys 'R' Us and were made in limited
numbers.
2005 In 2005, Hot Wheels continued with new "extreme"
castings for the 2nd year, debuting 40 distorted cars, in addition
to 20 "Realistix" models. The distorted cars included Drop Tops (the
top of the vehicle is flattened), Blings (Returned for second year),
Torpedoes (Thin-shaped "torpedo" vehicles), and X-Raycers
(See-through vehicles). The rest of the line included the standard
12 Treasure Hunts, 10 Track Aces, 50 Segment Series Cars, and 50
Open Stock Models. Four Volkswagen "Mystery Cars" were offered as a
special mail-in promo. Each Mystery Car came with a special voucher.
Upon collection of all 4 vouchers, one was able to send away for a
special 13th Treasure Hunt, a VW Drag Bus.
Hot Wheels also unveiled its new "Faster than Ever" line of cars,
which had special nickel-plated axles, along with bronze-colored
Open-Hole 5 Spoke wheels. These adjustments reduce friction
dramatically, resulting in cars that are "Faster than Ever." The
first run of these cars were available for a limited time only, from
the beginning of October towards the end of November 2005.
Also, the continuation of the movie Hot Wheels Highway 35 World Race
called Hot Wheels Acceleracers was created, taking place two years
after Vert Wheeler won the World Race. It is featured in four movies
and many short segments where the drivers (old ones, gangs, like
Teku, Metal Maniacs, the evil Racing Drones, and the stealthy
Silencerz). All of the shorts and previews of the movies were placed
on a temporary website that was deleted shortly after the last
movie.
2006 The 2006 releases consisted of 38
First Editions (all realistically proportioned), 12 Treasure Hunts,
12 Track Aces, 60 Segment Series, 96 Open Stock Models and 5 Mystery
Cars. Some limited editions produced in 2006 include a Honda Civic
Si sporting a Dropstars logo that was only available at the 2005
SEMA convention and the CUL8R with Faster Than Ever (FTE) wheels
which was only available by mail. 2006 is also the year that
Sizzlers were re-released.
2007 Mattel is planning to release 36 New Models (formerly
First Editions), 12 Treasure Hunts (with a hard-to-find regular
version and even rarer "super" version of each),[2] 12 Teams of 4
cars each (formerly Segment Series), 24 Code Cars (codes imprinted
on underside of the car that can be used to unlock web content), 12
Track Stars (formerly Track Aces), 24 Mystery Cars (packaged on a
card with a blacked-out blister, so the buyer cannot see which car
is inside without opening it), and 24 All Stars (formerly Open
Stock). In late 2006, a new package design for 2007 was released.
Some 2006 cars and all 2007 cars released so far are packaged on a
blister card with the new design.
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