Cars - Hot Wheels

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	Cars - Hot Wheels

Hot Wheels is a popular brand of toy automobile, introduced by U.S. toymaker Mattel in 1968. It was the primary competitor of Johnny Lightning and Matchbox until 1996, when Mattel acquired rights to the Matchbox brand.

Most Hot Wheels cars measure about 6 cm in length, and are approximately 1:64 scale. A majority of castings are diecast metal, however some are cast in plastic.

Aside from their popularity as toys, Hot Wheels cars are also popular collectibles. Mattel estimates that 41 million children grew up playing with the toys, the average collector has over 1,550 cars, and children between the ages of 5 and 15 have an average of 41 cars. A 2004 episode of Antiques Roadshow valued a late 1960s collection of Hot Wheels cars in their original packaging at roughly $100 each, with some of the more rare models worth $200-$300 each. Since 1998, Hallsguide has been an accurate source of pricing and information for Hot Wheels online.

Mattel also sold plastic track under the Hot Wheels brand on which the cars rolled and which could be placed to make interesting jumps and loops. Motive power was by means of gravity, with the starting end of the course placed higher than the end by means of an included C clamp. A dual set of tracks could be set up and using a starting gate a race could be conducted. Later sets had both a plastic starting gate and finishing flag which would be tripped by the first car although a visual ascertainment was usually sufficient.

Other sets included a Supercharger that had an electric motor and foam covered wheels that propelled the car around a loop of track as the cars passed through. Accessories included a lap counter and a speedometer. Sizzlers had a built in motor and a tiny rechargeable battery. Fat Track was black (in contrast to the regular track's orange color), about four times as wide as regular track, and was intended for Sizzlers.

1968

Elliot Handler, co-founder of Mattel, decided to produce a line of toy-diecast miniature cars for boys. Although his executives thought it was a bad idea, the cars were a big success. There were sixteen cars (or castings) released in 1968. All of the cars were designed by Harry Bentley Bradley, with the exception of the Custom Volkswagen which was designed by Ira Gilford. Even though Harry Bentley Bradley was from the car industry, he didn't design the full-fuctioning versions of the real cars. However, the Deora, which was directly based on the Dodge Deora concept car, was his original design. He had previously worked with Chrysler Corporation on designing a concept car which was built by Mike and Larry Alexander. The Custom Fleetside was also his original design, based on his heavily customized '64 El Camino.

Cars released in 1968

Beatnik Bandit (designed by Ed Roth)
Custom Barracuda
Custom Camaro
Custom Corvette
Custom Cougar
Custom Eldorado
Custom Firebird
Custom Fleetside
Custom Mustang
Custom T-Bird
Custom Volkswagen
Deora
Ford J-Car
Hot Heap
Python (designed by Dean Jeffries)
Silhouette
Classic '32 Ford Vicky

All of the cars featured Spectraflame™ paint, delrin bearings, redline wheels, and working suspension. The Spectraflame™ paint was a transparent, "candy" color paint, that when viewed through polished metal, looked like a dazzling, bright custom paintjob. Because Hot Pink was mainly considered a "girls color", it is the most rare color of cars to find and can mean a big difference in price. A car in lime green for instance may fetch 1/4 of the price of the same car in pink.

In order for the cars to go fast on the plastic track, Mattel picked out a cheap, durable, low-friction plastic called Delrin to be placed in between the axle and wheel. The result was cars that could go up to 200mph at 1:64 scale.

A symbol among collectors, the Redline wheels are what gave this era of Hot Wheels its name; redlines. Just a simple stamped-on redline around the face of a wheel, the redlines were on Hot Wheels cars until 1977.

The working suspension for the cars was simple, but flawed. The axles were bent into a weird "C"-like shape that was connected to the chassis. When the child pushed down onto a car, the axles would bend like a real car. However, the axles were hard to install on the chassis while being assembled and would break off the chassis if very hard pressure was applied. The suspension was redesigned in 1970.

Packaged along with the cars was matching metal buttons, that could be attached onto a belt so a fellow collector wearing the buttons could show off what cars he had.

1969

As it turned out, the Hot Wheels brand was a staggering success! Unfortunately, Harry Bentley Bradley didn't 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 just had just left Chrysler, quickly accepted the job of designing the next Hot Wheels models. Some of Hot Wheels' greatest cars, like the Twin Mill and Splittin' Image, came from Ira Gilford's drawing board.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Hot Wheels ]

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