"Man, those are some Hot Wheels!"

Welcome to our second post about the exciting world of die cast cars!  Here's the scoop on those hot rods we all know and love - Hot Wheels!



Elliot and Ruth Handler



Hot Wheels were the brainchild of Elliot and Ruth Handler (co-founders of Mattel). They wanted to develop a die-cast car for their Hawthorne, California plant that would also capitalize on the success of Matchbox cars. When Elliot saw designer Harry Bradley’s classic Southern California Hot Rod in the parking lot he said, “Man, those are some hot wheels!” - the rest, as they say, is history. The hot rod theme with new suspension and wheel designs along with exciting paint jobs, body detailing, and “mag” wheels became the hallmark of the Hot Wheels brand. They were an instant success.



Original 16

Mattel introduced the first 16 cars in 1968 for 59 cents each! They had redline tires (the older models are called red lines because they had red sidewall tires - they were replaced with black wall tires by 1977), spectra flame paint, a metal collector button, and some had black painted roofs to resemble vinyl. The Chevrolet Camero was the first car and it was quickly followed by the Corvette (the most popular car in the history of Hot Wheels sales). Fun fact: the Hot Wheels Corvette was actually released before GM released the actual car!



Real Riders





1970 was also an important year for Hot Wheels. It saw the introduction of the Snake and Mongoose cars as well as Mattel’s first promotional cars for Jack in the Box restaurants. The Hot Wheels Saturday morning show premiered as well. The Chopcycles were featured in 1973 with the Mighty Zork, Blown Torch, Speed Steed, and Bruiser Cruiser ($35 loose, $75 MIB). The 2^nd series was introduced in 1974 with the Ghost Rider, Rage Coach, Riptide Sourkraut and Triking Viking - this series is harder to find and worth more ($400-$900 MIB). Hot Wheels started putting the name of the car on car bottoms in 1980 and from 1983-1987 a special line of cars was introduced that featured Goodyear tires call Real Riders. 1989-1990 saw the California Customs that had Real Rider tires but without the Goodyear lettering.

Today, several of the original 16 are considered very collectible and very rare - valued at almost $1000.00! Since 1968, over 2 billion Hot Wheels cars have been sold and every model has had little variations and kept up with trends in the car industry, including: futuristic cars, muscle cars, trucks, racers, and even military vehicles. In general, if you find cars in near mint condition (no package) they are worth 50%-60% less than mint/in box. Excellent condition are worth 65%-75% less.

The above information was compiled from the following sources:

Huxford, Sharon and Bob, eds. Shroeder's Collectible Toys: Antique to Modern Price Guide. 7th ed. Paducah: Collector Books, 2001.

www.hot-wheels.mlmoments.com/History.htm