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Hot Wheels at 50: the world’s best-selling toy fast becoming a collector’s dream
![Hot Wheels cars](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2018/08/03/TELEMMGLPICT000170625147_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqOK35Pmo_71NUIP0XXuiGodSGOtrhbR0jMc32Wrz-PXA.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Legend has it that Elliot Handler, co-founder of Mattel toys, exclaimed “Those are some hot wheels!” when he first saw one of his company’s metal cars roll effortlessly across the floor. That was in 1968 when, along with colleagues, Handler set out to create the fastest 1:64-scale toy cars around, not to mention make them stand out from the competition with custom designs and bright colour schemes.
The resulting original “Sweet 16” range of Hot Wheels cars was an instant hit, kickstarting what over the past 50 years has become the world’s best-selling toy, with 6 billion cars produced to date, many of which appear to have ended up on my five-year-old son’s bedroom floor.
Just as extraordinary as the volume of cars, which retail for a couple of pounds each, is the variety. Indeed, with 130 new designs introduced each year there’s a good chance that every example you see will be different. “There are generally two types of designs: licensed replicas and Hot Wheels originals,” explains Ted Wu, who heads the Hot Wheels design team at the company’s headquarters in California.
“Some fans like collecting replica vehicles they could see on the street while others gravitate toward some of the more outrageous designs that our team dreams up.”
With so many different cars, it’s no wonder the brand has a huge fan base that emcompases not only those who buy the cars for play, but also some very serious collectors. Among the most prolific is Bruce Pascal of Washington in the USA, whose collection runs into the thousands and includes more than 150 rare prototypes, all of which has been valued at more than $1 million.
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Closer to home, on the south coast of England, we paid a visit to Marc Lewry, 38, whose stash might not be as extensive as Pascal’s, but at 4,000 cars with an estimated value of £13,000 is still truly amazing.
As with many collectors, Lewry has a favourite, in this case the Nissan Skyline. “I’m up to 509 of them now,” he says, pointing us towards a custom shelving unit where many of them are displayed, both boxed and unboxed.
The level of detail evident on such cars is impressive, especially considering their modest retail price when new. The design process is not simple either. Wu: “When we create the Hot Wheels version of an OEM [real] vehicle, people often think that we can just shrink the design, but the funny thing is that vehicles don’t quite look right if you simply shrink it down 64 times.
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“Our designers must make sure to not only capture the essence of each car, but also ensure it has that signature Hot Wheels look, and then figure out how to make it perform on track to complete a jump or loop.”
One such car that didn’t pass that final test has since fallen into Hot Wheels legend. Known as the Beach Bomb Rear Loader, it was a pre-prototype from 1969 of a pink Volkswagen Kombi. Brilliantly intricate, it features two plastic surfboards that slot in through the back window, but the design was too narrow and top heavy to work on a Hot Wheels track, and so was modified for production with a side-loading system for the surfboards to make it wider.
Finished in lurid pink, the Rear Loader is thought to be the rarest Hot Wheels car of all, which (possibly) helps to explain why Pascal paid $72,000 USD to add it to his collection.
![Hot Wheels Beach Bomb Rear Loader](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2018/08/03/TELEMMGLPICT000170338753_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqsf8r3k56huxel9rnqZUyMbl3exeipXwUcQGVxYkJGJo.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Not that you need such crazy sums to track down a potentially valuable car. Instead you can keep an eye out in shops for a Treasure Hunt or Super Treasure Hunt model, which are produced in limited numbers and sent out at random with – and sold for the same price as – normal Hot Wheels cars. However, a combination of rarity and features such as treaded rubber tyres and bespoke packaging make Treasure Hunt cars highly sought after and, according to Lewry, worth upwards of £25 each to a collector.
Along with the many and varied special editions from the past 50 years, it’s all part of what makes the cars so appealing. And why Lewry admits to barely being able to pass a toy shop or supermarket without feeling the urge to search the shelves. “When a store gets new stuff in you’ve got to get there, because if you’re not quick the rare or special stuff will go,” he says.
If that seems too much like hard work, you could instead join one of the vibrant online communities where cars are sold or traded, or buy direct from a specialist. One such operation is Modelmatic, set up three years ago by Jon Irvine, a web designer who wanted to learn more about the various model cars available for his son.
![Hot Wheels - 1967 Plymouth Barracuda](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2018/08/03/TELEMMGLPICT000170338762_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqXOPkdY-Nwgtbm83UuymTEeZNcBDjPlluX7PIzlQK3Y0.jpeg?imwidth=350)
“When I set up the site I didn’t realise at the time how popular the market for die-casts was,” he explains. “It now takes over the majority of my time, and I’ve moved from a small office to a warehouse in order to house all of my stock.”
Rather than relying on random parcels of cars as a supermarket would, Irvine sources his Hot Wheels from the US, where there’s much more choice and a far greater selection for collectors. Not that it’s all plain sailing, even for a serial buyer. “I’ve bought probably 100 cases and I’ve still never found a Super Treasure Hunt car,” he complains.
As for what to look for now, Irvine says that the Hot Wheels Car Culture series is very popular, selling at about £10 a piece. Lewry’s advice meanwhile is to “collect what you want to collect, and spend what you want to spend”. Here’s hoping my five-year-old is happy with the cheaper options for a few more years to come.
hotwheels.mattel.com; facebook.com/hotwheels
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