Hot Wheels


Hot Wheels is a brand of die-cast toy cars introduced by American toy maker Mattel in 1968. It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until 1997, when Mattel bought Tyco Toys, then-owner of Matchbox.
Many automobile manufacturers have since licensed Hot Wheels to make scale models of their cars, allowing the use of original design blueprints and detailing. Although Hot Wheels were originally intended for children and young adults, they have become popular with adult collectors, for whom limited edition models are now made available.

History

1968

The original Hot Wheels were made by Elliot Handler. Hot Wheels were conceived to be more like "hot rod" cars, as compared to Matchbox cars which were generally small-scale models of production cars. "Sweet 16" There were sixteen castings released on May 18, 1968, eleven of them designed by Harry Bentley Bradley. The first one produced was a dark blue "Custom Camaro". Bradley was from the car industry and had designed the body for the Dodge Deora concept car and the Custom Fleetside,.
In 1968, the first production line of Hot Wheels Cars is known as The Original Sweet 16, which is the first of the Red Line Series, meaning the tires have a red pin stripe on their sides.

Racing track set

In addition to the cars themselves, Mattel produced a racing track set. Though it would be updated throughout the years, the original track consisted of a series of brightly colored orange road sections, with one "super chargers".An important feature here was Hot Wheel's use of wide, hard-plastic tires that created much less friction and tracked more smoothly than the narrow metal or plastic wheels used on contemporary Matchboxes; Hot Wheels cars were designed to roll easily and at high speeds, which was a great innovation at the time.

1969

As it turned out, the Hot Wheels brand was a staggering success. The series completely disrupted the whole industry for small die-cast car models from 1968 onwards, forcing the competition at Matchbox and elsewhere to completely rethink their concepts, and to scramble 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 1967 line was solidified and consolidated with the 1969 releases, with which Hot Wheels effectively established itself as the hottest brand of small toy car models in the USA. 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.
The initial prototypes of the Beach Bomb were faithful to the shape of a real VW Type 2 "bus", and had two surfboards sticking out the back window, in a nod to the VW's perceived association with the surfing community and the slang term for a person who spends much time surfing - a 'beach bum'. During the fledgling Hot Wheels era, Mattel wanted to make sure that each of the cars could be used with any of the playsets and stunt track sets. Unfortunately, testing showed that this early version 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 the Side-loader by collectors, this was the production version of the Beach Bomb.
The Rear-Loader Beach Bomb is widely considered the "Holy Grail", or ultimate pinnacle, of a serious Hot Wheels collection. An unknown number were made as test subjects and given to employees. 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, ranging from $70,000 to $120,000. The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles had a pink RLBB in its Hot Wheels exhibit, displayed alone on a rotating platform under glass. 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 a very successful year for Hot Wheels, so Mattel came up with a new advertising slogan for the cars: "Go With the Winner". 43 new cars appeared this year. This was also the year that Sizzlers and Heavyweights lines 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 models. Wood agreed, and by the end of the week, Wood was working at Mattel. His first design would be the Tri-Baby. After 36 years, Wood still works for Hot Wheels.
Another designer, Paul Tam, joined Wood and Gilford. Tam's first design for Hot Wheels was the Whip Creamer. Tam continued to work for Mattel until 1973. Among the many fantastic designs Tam thought up for Hot Wheels, some of the collector's favorites include Evil Weevil, Open Fire, Six Shooter, and the rare Double Header.
The year 1970 introduced "the Snake and the Mongoose", a manufactured 'rivalry' between two professional drag racers calling themselves "the Snake" and "the Mongoose" for the purposes of publicity. This was notably drag racing's first major non-automotive corporate sponsor, and the beginning of the NHRA’s booming popularity with large-budget teams and championships. 1970 also introduced the first 'Silver Series', which contained three silver-painted models: the Boss Hoss, the Heavy Chevy, and the King 'Kuda, which were only obtainable through a mail-in offer that included a membership to the Hot Wheels Club. These three cars featured "supercharged" engines without hoods, and open exhaust headers, after the style of drag racing cars of the era. Popular among children, these 'Silver Cars' were considered faster than the rest of the Hot Wheels lineup, because they were supposedly heavier than the other gravity models, but the accuracy of this claim has never been tested under scientific conditions.
However, 1972 and 1973 were slow years. Only seven new models were made in 1972. Of the 24 models appearing for 1973, only three were new models. Also the cars changed from Mattel's in-house Spectraflame colors to mostly drab, solid enamel colors, which mainstream Hot Wheels cars still use today. Due to low sales, and the fact that the majority of the castings were not re-used in later years, the 1972-3 models are known to be very collectible.
In 1974, Hot Wheels introduced its Flying Colors line, and added flashy decals and "tampo-printed" paint designs which helped revitalize sales. As with the lower-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 1977, the 'Redline Wheel' was phased out, with the red lines no longer being printed on the wheels. This cut costs, but also reflected that the prototypical "red line tires" popular on high-speed-rated automotive tires during the era of muscle cars and Polyglas tires were no longer popular. During this period, there was a trend away from wild hot rods and fantastic cars, and a move to more realistic cars and trucks, like the competitor Matchbox.

1977–1988: The 'Blackwalls' era

In 1981, Hot Ones wheels were introduced, which had gold-painted hubs, and claimed to have thinner axles for greater speed, along with additional suspension compliance that older production Hot Wheels lacked. Ultra Hot Wheels were introduced in 1984, and looked something like the cast alloy wheels found on a 1980s-era high-trim Renault Fuego or a Mazda 626, with three parallel dark lines cutting diagonally across the flat chrome face of the wheel, all three broken in the center to form six individual shorter lines. These new "Ultra Hots" claimed further speed improvements. Hot Wheels started offering models based on 1980s-era sports and economy cars, like the Pontiac Fiero or Dodge Omni 024, in addition to their typical 'hot rod' and muscle car style offerings. In 1983, a new style of wheel called Real Riders were introduced, which featured real rubber tires. Despite the fact that they were very popular, the Real Riders line was short-lived, because of high production costs. In the late 1980s, the so-called Blue Card blister pack color scheme was introduced, which would become the basis of Hot Wheels colors still used today. The former were able to change color on exposure to hot or cold water, and there were an initial release of 20 different cars, available as sets of three vehicles. The latter were vehicles with a panel that, on contact, would rotate to reveal a reverse side which appeared to be heavily dented. Variations in crash-panels included front, rear and side panels, the last of whose mechanism has proven to be the most durable.
In the 1980s, Hot Wheels had gotten into a controversy with General Motors' Chevrolet Motors Division. In 1982, the Chevrolet Corvette had ended the curvaceous "Mako Shark" body-style that had been in production for almost 15 years, and GM announced that the Corvette would be redesigned. In 1983, Chevrolet started to produce the all new C4 Corvette but had assembly line problems which pushed production back 6 months causing GM's Marketing Department to label all 1983s as 1984s once they got production perfected so it would seem to the public that the all-new C4 Corvette came out early rather than late. But Hot Wheels saw what the new model of Corvette was going to look like before GM's official unveiling, and they designed a die cast version of the 1984 Corvette. GM was angered and almost pulled its licensing with Mattel, but this controversy helped Corvette buffs see what the new Corvette was going to look like. The 1984 Corvette production ran for 1.5 model years covering half of the remaining 1983 model year and ending on time for the 1985 model year.
In conjunction with Epyx Software, Mattel released a computer game edition of Hot Wheels for various 8-bit platforms in 1985, as part of the Computer Activity Toys series.

1989–1994: The collector number era

In 1989, Mattel released collector numbers. Each car had its own number. The cards were all blue, for all blister packs released from 1989–1994. Numbers included went as high as 274; however, these were skip numbered, and numbers such as 48, 61, and 173 were not used.

1995–1999: The Treasure Hunt era

The year 1995 brought a major change 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. 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 with another program also introduced that year called the Bonus Car program, causing stores across the nation to have shortages. Purchasing the four car sets and sending in the packaging backs plus a handling fee gave you the opportunity to collect the bonus cars, 1 each released for each quarter of the year starting in 1996 through at least 2000. Several new wheel designs were also introduced in the 1990s.
Mattel bought Tyco Toys in 1997. Along with the purchase came old competitor Matchbox. Arguably the two dominant companies in matchbox-sized cars were now under one roof.
In 1998, Mattel celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Hot Wheels brand by replicating various cars and individual packaging from its 30-year history and packaging these replicated vehicles in special 30th Anniversary boxes. In 1999, Hot Wheels Interactive was launched.

2000s

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 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.
In 2001, Mattel issued 240 mainline releases consisting of 12 Treasure Hunts, 36 First Editions, 12 Segment Series with four cars each, and 144 open stock cars. Popular models that debuted include the Hyper Mite and Fright Bike.
For 2002, the mainline 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 GT-R. Some cars from the first editions series are the Backdraft, Overbored 454, Vairy 8, and Super Tsunami.

2003

Hot Wheels celebrated its 35th anniversary with a full-length computer animated film 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.

2004

In 2004, Hot Wheels unveiled its "Hot 100" line, comprising 100 new models. These new models included cartoonish vehicles such as the 'Tooned, Blings, Hardnoze, Crooze, and Fatbax. Fatbax models include Toyota Supra and a Corvette C6. 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 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 supposedly reduce friction dramatically, resulting in cars that are called the "Faster than Ever" series. 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, a continuation of the movie Highway 35 called Hot Wheels AcceleRacers was created, taking place two years after the events of Highway 35. It is featured in four movies and many short segments where the drivers. All of the shorts and previews of the movies were placed on a temporary website that was deleted shortly after the last movie.

2007 and 2008

In 2007, Mattel released 36 New Models, 12 Treasure Hunts, 12 'Teams' of 4 cars each, 24 Code Cars, 12 Track Stars, 24 Mystery Cars, and 24 All Stars. In late 2006, a new package design for 2007 was released. Some 2006 cars and all 2007 cars are packaged on a blister card with the new design. Hot Wheels released a series called Modifighters, which are similar to Transformers except for the fact that they were originally cars and were modified into robots. The Modifighters names are: Streetwyse, Skullface, Live Wire, Bedlam, Nightlife, Mr. Big, and Quick-Tyme.
In 2008, all the series and vehicles were relatively similar to 2007's cars. approximately 180 to 200 new vehicles were released.

2009 and 2010

In 2009, Mattel released 42 New Models, 12 Treasure Hunts, 12 Track Stars, 24 Mystery Cars, 10 Segment Series of 10 cars, and introduced the Indy Car Series drivers.
Mattel released its first ever 3D CGI animated episodic television series called Hot Wheels Battle Force 5. The US-version of the series was debut on Cartoon Network on August 29, 2009..

2011

2011 saw the release of 244 cars beginning with the 2011 New Car Series which includes the Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera, Custom 2011 Camaro, and the DeLorean time machine from the Back to the Future series. This was followed by the 15-car Treasure Hunt series with 1957 Chevy and 1958 Chevy Impala, 15 Track Stars including the 2010 Formula Street series, the 10x10 series, the Thrill Racers series, and 22 HW Video Game Heroes which were packaged with codes for an internet computer game. The new series "Team Hot Wheels" appear in the late 2011.

2012

2012 saw the release of 247 cars, beginning with the 2012 New Car Series which includes the Lamborghini Aventador, Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca, KITT from Knight Rider, and the ever-popular Scooby Doo Mystery Machine. 2012 also released two vehicles from the Angry Birds video game consisting of the Red Bird and the green Minion Pig.

2013

2013 saw the release of 250 cars including Stunt, Racing, Imagination, City, and Showroom, all of which contain sub-series. 2013 also saw a change in the look of the packaging cards which includes a quartet of helmeted motorcycle riders standing behind the flame logo and the Treasure Hunt series cards no longer marked with a treasure chest. Some of those cars include: Rodzilla, Fangula, Twin Mill III, Bone Shaker and Baja Bone Shaker.
General Motors also released a special Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels Edition, which was a blue convertible which offered various Hot-Wheels themed decorations throughout the car.

2014

2014 also saw 250 mainstream cars released with similar segments to 2013. Various playsets and other non-car merchandise was also released this year. The end of 2014 also the marks the end of the license agreement between Mattel and Ferrari, meaning the 2014 release of Ferrari 5 Pack would be the last for Mattel, and the 2015 black Ferrari 599XX being the last Ferrari model appearing in mainstream, both regular model and its Treasure Hunt variant.

2016

2016 lineup was similar to 2015 and 2014 in terms of segments, and the design of the card was overhauled. Some car names were TBD or 2016. They're now divided into mini collections with their corresponding segments and their icons printed on the card. Some of them include: HW Showroom, BMW, HW Screen Time, and HW Snow Stormers. New models include: Cruise Bruiser, Side Ripper, and Grass Chomper, 16 Acura NSX, while other models first see their release in the mainline series, such as the 52 Hudson Hornet.

2017

This year saw a major change in casting numbering. Since that moment, recolors are named with a different number than the original, thus causing the number limit of cars to expand to 365. The idea of numbering a casting with a number corresponding to their own series was also aborted. There were also some new mainline series introduced, such as Experimotors, Holiday Racers, Factory Fresh and Camaro Fifty.

The "Sweet 16"

The Sweet 16 is the first production line of Hot Wheels for the year 1968. The lineup consists of the following:
Through the years, Hot Wheels cars have been collected mostly by children, but since the late 1990s, there has been an increase in the number of adult collectors. 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. Most believe the collecting craze started with the Treasure Hunts in 1995. Mike Strauss has been called the father of Hot Wheels collecting; he has organized two collectors' events each year in some form since 1986. The first event was the Annual Hot Wheels Collectors Convention, normally held each year in the fall. The convention occurred in various locations around the country until 2001, when the first Annual Hot Wheels Collectors Nationals was put together. Since then, the Conventions are held each year in southern California. The Hot Wheels Collectors Nationals rotate among cities outside of California during the spring. Strauss has also published the quarterly Hot Wheels Newsletter since 1986 and was one of the first to unite collectors all over the world. He also writes the Tomart's Price Guide To Hot Wheels, a book listing history, car descriptions and values, which is used by almost every collector to learn more about the hobby and their collection. Strauss sold his collection in 2011 and retired from the Hot Wheels Newsletter.
There are hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of web pages dedicated to Hot Wheels collecting. Collectors are seeking everything related to Hot Wheels, from only new castings to only Red Lines and everything in between. For the most part it is a relatively inexpensive hobby, when compared with coin collecting, stamp collecting or Barbie collecting, with mainline cars costing about $0.97-$1.08 at retail. The price has not changed much in almost 40 years, although in real terms the models have dropped significantly in price. After the cars are no longer available at retail the cost can vary significantly. A common car may sell for less than retail, while some of the more difficult cars can sell for many hundred or even thousands of dollars. The highest price paid for a Hot Wheels car was close to $70,000 in 2000 for a pre-production version of a Volkswagen Rear Loader Beach Bomb. The Beach Bomb is a VW microbus with a pair of surfboards poking out the rear window. This design failed initial testing, proving to be top-heavy and not functional with the Power Booster track accessory. A widened version with the surfboards mounted in side slots was designed and released for the 1969 model year, making the "rear loader" version a rarity and very sought-after piece. As of 2018, there are about 50 "rear loaders" known to exist.

Dates on cars

The date on the base of a Hot Wheels car is a design copyright date, not a manufacturing date..
The date is the copyright date for the casting of the car, not a production date or release year. The date is usually the year before the car was first released, but not always. Sometimes it is the same year, but there are a few cases where the copyright is several years before a car's first release. For example, a car in the 2001 First Editions series called Evil Twin, was released in 2001 but the year dated on the bottom of the car is 2000. The copyright date will usually not change through the lifetime of a casting. For example, the Twin Mill, first released in 1969, still has a 1969 copyright date on 2019 releases of the car. If the tooling for a car has a major change at some point in its life, the copyright date might be changed or amended to reflect the change. For example, Quick Bite, first released in 1984 as the Good Humor Truck, had a tooling update before 2018, so its date reads 1983, '17 on the base of the 2018 release. There are a few exceptions where the copyright date applies only to the base of a car instead of to the entire car. Those exceptions are mostly funny car castings where the same base was used with various different bodies over the years.
Since the year 2008, Hot Wheels cars have a code stamped into the base. This is a "base code". This base code can be used to identify exactly when an individual car was produced in the Hot Wheels factory.
The code begins with a letter, followed by a two-digit number. The letter for the year 2018 was "L". The letter is then followed by two numbers, which represent the week of that particular year the car was manufactured. For example, a car with the date stamp of "L42" was produced on the forty-second week of 2018.
Some cars have 4-digit date codes. These date codes are more specific than the 3-digit codes as they indicate the day a car was made instead of just the week. For the 4-digit codes, the first 3 digits indicate the day of the year and the last digit is the year. A date code of 1987 would indicate the car was made on the 198th day of 2017. A code of 0250 would be the 25th day of 2010.
Mattel reuses many models of Hot Wheels cars, both as part of the regular line and as "commemorative" replicas. As a result, a car with the date 1968 on the base could have been made at any time between 1968 and the present, like the Custom Ford Mustang. One of the easiest ways to tell the difference between a genuine 1968 car and a replica, is to check if it has a base code..

Hot Wheels Classics

The Hot Wheels Classics line was an immediate hit with enthusiasts everywhere. The new line focused on muscle cars, hot rods, and other offbeat vehicles, many from the company's first ten years of production. The series is also used to debut several different castings, such as the 1965 Chevy Malibu or the 1972 Ford Ranchero.
Series 1 from 2005 consisted of 25 models, each with all-metal body and chassis, decked out with Spectraflame paint, in packages similar to those used from 1968 to 1972. Each car had a retail price of about three to four dollars and each of the 25 cars were released with 7 or 8 different colors. Models included the 1957 Chevy Bel Air, the 1963 Ford T-Bird, and the 1965 Pontiac GTO.
There were also track sets in similar retro packaging, and Hot Wheels Classics. The Classics version of the Purple Passion was released with Real Riders tires at the San Diego Comic-Con. Mattel also produced a Classics Olds 442 in Spectraflame blue for the 2005 Toy Fair.
In late 2005, Series 2 now consisted of 30 models including the 1967 Camaro Convertible, the 1969 Dodge Charger, and a 1965 Mustang GT. There was also supposed to be a separate Mustang Funny Car but this was apparently changed to a Plymouth Barracuda Funny Car during production.
In 2006, a Series 3 line of Classics was introduced, again containing 30 models with multiple colors of each vehicle. Models included the 69 Pontiac Firebird, a Meyers Manx dune buggy, and the Richard Petty 70 Plymouth "Superbird".
In 2007, Series 4 debuted with just fifteen models. However, in recognition of the 40th anniversary there were two packaging versions available - models came with a collectible metal badge or were sold alone as in the previous three series. Models included a VW Karmann Ghia, a '68 Mercury Cougar, and the "Red Baron" hot rod. For its 40th anniversary in 2008, Hot Wheels celebrated the making of its four billionth car with the production of a diamond-studded model worth US$140,000. It had 2,700 diamond chips, a total of almost 23 karats, and was cast in white gold, with rubies serving as taillights.
In 2009, Series 5 has 30 models. For the first time, there are chase cars in the classics series. These cars feature Real Riders rubber tires. A few models included are Copper Stopper, 1970 Pontiac GTO, and Hammer Sled.

Special model lines

Hot Wheels has also released slightly larger, more detailed models, such as the original Gran Toros from 1970, and the Dropstars line. Also in this larger scale are the HIN, G-Machines and Customs lines. These lines were introduced in 2004–2005.
Hot Wheels has produced many replica scale models in the industry standard 1/43, 1/24 and 1/18 scales. In 2004, it released a 1/12 scale replica of the C6 Corvette.
Hot Wheels also in the early 1990s introduced a series known as the California Customs. A line of cars that had a California theme.
Other lines from Hot Wheels include: R-R-Rumblers & Chopcycles, Hotbirds, Sizzlers, XV Racers, Hot Tunerz and Stockerz.
Over the years, Mattel has also teamed up with other retail organizations to produce special models available through those retailers. The list of retailers includes Avon, Chuck E. Cheese, Dinty Moore, FAO Schwarz, Full Grid, General Mills, Getty, HEB, Hills, Hormel, Hughes Family Markets, JC Penney, JC Whitney, Kay-Bee Toys, K-Mart, Kellogg's, Kool-Aid, Kroger, Lexmark, Liberty Promotions, Little Debbie Snacks, Malt-O-Meal, McDonald's, Mervyn's, Otter Pops, Rose's Discount Stores, Shell, Target, Tony's Pizza, Toys-R-Us, Union 76, Valvoline, Van de Kamp's, WalMart, and White's Guide to Collecting, as well as several Major League Baseball franchises to name a few.
In 2016 Hot Wheels released a special collection for the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ 1966 song “Yellow Submarine.” The collections includes five cars, a VW microbus and a yellow submarine.

Made by other companies

In some cases, Hot Wheels dies have been sold or acquired by other companies once Mattel has finished using them. One example were early dies that made their way to Argentina and were reproduced as Mukys, though not with spectra-flame paints or the same quality as seen in Mattel's products.

Hot Wheels Elite and Hot Wheels Mattel

Hot Wheels have a series called Hot Wheels Elite and Hot Wheels Mattel. The Elite Hot Wheels are 1:18, 1:43 and 1:50 highly detailed diecast; the majority of them are based on Ferraris. They are more expensive than the Mattel models, which aren't as highly detailed. The Elite versions are licensed by Ferrari. The Hot Wheels Elite series have a "mini" series, which can be seen on the website. Two of the popular limited 1:18 Hot Wheels Elite series' are the Ferrari in Music and Cult Classics The music series features singers' and rappers' Ferraris, including Jamiroquai's Jay Kay's Black Enzo Ferrari.

Car Culture

In 2016 Hot Wheels started a new line of Collector's models, in a line called Car Culture.
Car Culture is Hot Wheels' line of Premium 1:64 models with metal bodies and bases, two-piece wheels with rubber tires, and more detailed decorations. Intended for adult collectors primarily, these models retail for roughly 6-7 times the cost of a mainstream 1:64 Hot Wheels model.
This line was kicked off with the release of "Japan Historics", a set of five Japanese sports cars. Every year at least four more sets are introduced.
All Car Culture sets have five cars, and often have new castings created for the sets. The number five spot in the set is usually reserved for the newest casting in the set.
Car Culture cars are typically based on real automobiles; however in 2018, Hot Wheels introduced a set called "Team Transport", which included some fantasy truck castings..
These cars retail for over three times the retail price of a "basic" car, and are produced in significantly fewer numbers.
In 2018, for Hot Wheels' 50th Anniversary, Car Culture card sizes were increased, along with the amount of decorations on the cars. A Hot Wheels "50th anniversary" logo was also placed beside the set's name on the packaging.

''Treasure Hunt'' series

Treasure Hunt is a line of Hot Wheels cars, introduced by Mattel in 1995. It consisted of 12 cars every year with one or two released per month. The original production run was 10,000 of each car worldwide; that number has since risen due to the increasing demand for and popularity of Hot Wheels as a collector's item.
Treasure Hunt vehicles are identifiable by a label on the package. The blister card said "Treasure Hunt" or "T-Hunt" on a green bar, sometimes with an illustration of a treasure chest. Since 2013, Treasure Hunts do not have the green stripe anymore; instead, the cars are recognizable with a "flame in a circle logo" on the vehicle and behind it on the card. The cars were decorated with flashy designs and special "rubber" wheels before 2007.
In 2007, Mattel introduced a two-tiered Treasure Hunt system. A regular Treasure Hunt will feature normal enamel paint and normal wheels like other Hot Wheels cars. The production of these is rumored to be greater than previous T-Hunts.
"Super" Treasure Hunts are much harder to find. Like Treasure Hunts of the past, a Super Treasure Hunt features premium wheels and Spectraflame paint, as well as, a golden-colored circle-flame logo printed on the card behind the car.
Many Hot Wheels collectors have noticed in recent times that the US Basic mixes are more likely to have a Super Treasure Hunt in them compared to International Mixes.
Before 2013, all 12 Treasure Hunt cars of a year were released in both regular and super versions. In 2012, Super Treasure Hunts came with special paint and wheels, but with series designation on the card. However, the regular T-hunts retained a special T-Hunt series card. Mattel stopped using special cards for all Treasure Hunts in 2013. Some U.S. releases in 2014 had the phrase "This symbol on the vehicle lets you know it is hard to find and highly collectible".
However, in 2016, this was changed to "Congratulations! This symbol means you just found a collectable treasure-hunt car!". This would be under a silver flame logo on the card for T-Hunts. In 2015, Supers featured a gold logo on the card. Generally, Hot Wheels has targeted both kids and adults with the T-Hunt series, focusing more on the adult collecting market with Supers.

Live action film project

On January 30, 2003, Columbia Pictures announced they had gained exclusive rights to developing a feature film based on the toy line Hot Wheels with McG attached to direct. Although unwritten, the premise involved a young man "trying to reconcile with his father. It's a kid who steals his dad's racecar and ends up going through a sort of Back to the Future portal into this world, and he has to reconcile his relationship with his father." In 2006, McG said that he dropped out as director and chose to produce instead.
In 2009, with no recent developments, the film was put into turnaround, and the rights were handed over to Warner Bros. Joel Silver took over producing with Matt Nix writing the script. The movie will be produced by Columbia Pictures, Flying Glass of Milk Films and Silver Pictures, under license to Mattel.
On June 17, 2011, it was announced that Legendary Pictures is developing a movie based on Hot Wheels due to the success of Fast Five by developing an edgier film. On July 10, 2013, Simon Crane and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo were named as the frontrunners to direct the film, with Art Marcum and Matt Holloway writing the film, intended to be more ' than The Fast and the Furious. On September 28, 2016, Justin Lin signed on to direct the film, which will be produced through his production company Perfect Storm Entertainment. On August 1, 2017, Lin revealed that the movie was still in development. It was speculated that the film will be released as a computer animated direct sequel to 2003's
' and will be receive additional animation development from Playground Games who collaborated with Mattel in 2017 to create the Forza Horizon 3: Hot Wheels video game. However the option expired and returned to Mattel.
In late January 2019, Mattel Films and Warner Bros. Pictures agreed to partner on a Hot Wheels film.

Sizzlers

The Sizzlers were a 1970s Hot Wheels spin off with a built-in motor and a tiny rechargeable battery. They were introduced in 1970 and became immediately popular. Sizzlers run on the regular "orange" Hot Wheels track, and Mattel created special race sets with U-Turns, multi-level spirals and loops to take advantage of the cars' electric motor. Two lane race sets such as the California/8 race set were developed that allowed Sizzlers to race side-by side, until Mattel created the black Fat Track which is three lanes wide with steep banked curves and designed to allow Sizzlers to run free. In action, Sizzlers supposedly display a unique, competitive "passing action" when running on the Fat Track, as if each car were piloted by an impatient driver trying to jockey ahead of the rest. The Fat Track sets included the "Big O", "California 500", and "Super Circuit" race sets, and accessories such as the "Scramble Start", "Lap Computer" four car lap counter, and "Race-Timer" stop watch.
Six cars were made in 1970, 12 cars were made in 1971, and 4 cars were made in 1972. The "Fat Daddy" Sizzlers were introduced in 1973. Mattel put the Sizzlers on a hiatus after that year, and in 1976 they created Sizzlers II. That next year, the Night Ridin' Sizzlers were created. Mattel permanently stopped Sizzlers production in 1978.They were replaced by another spin off named Scorchers.The Scorchers were "pull back" cars which would a clock spring when pulled backwards a short distance, which then propelled them forward for several feet.
Sizzlers were charged with four or two D battery chargers called the Juice Machine and Goose Pump respectively. Later, the Power Pit was introduced—which was an electric charger that plugged into any household AC outlet and resembled a race track garage or pit stop. A 90-second charge of the tiny internal NiCad battery gives up to five minutes of useful run time. It was claimed by advertisers that the 90-second charge time was "the longest minute and a half in a kid's life" as they waited impatiently for the car to charge sufficiently to get back into the race.
The Sizzler electric technology spun off into the Hotline Trains, which ran on track similar to regular Hot Wheels, and the Earthshakers construction vehicles. Both lines of vehicles were charged using the Sizzler Juice Machine or Power Pit.
In the 1990s, Mattel's trademark on the "Sizzlers" name had lapsed and toy company Playing Mantis released a line new Sizzlers line in NASCAR stock car models and copied the Fat Track as the "Stocker 400" and "Mach 500" track sets to capitalize on the booming popularity of NASCAR in that decade. The Juice Machine was renamed the "Mega-Charger" and incorporated a more efficient "trickle charge" rather than the "dump charge" of the original machines. Interest in the toys began to increase once again. They were taken off the market after Mattel filed a lawsuit against Playing Mantis. However, Sizzlers returned again in 2006, when Mattel struck an exclusive deal with Target stores to re-release Sizzlers cars, the "Big O" Fat track, Juice Machine and car carrying case—all in the original packaging from the 1970s. As of January 2009, the Sizzlers line has been discontinued by Target.
In 2011, Sizzlers have been re-released as Cars 2 characters, and were sold at Target stores. This line was called Charge Ups and released under the Mattel brand name but not as part of the Hot Wheels line.

Promotion and sponsorships

Hot Wheels appeared in the 2016 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Motorsports

Starting in 1970, professional drag racers Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen were sponsored by Hot Wheels, and later on, Hot Wheels created the Snake and Mongoose Drag Set in 1970. Later somewhere in 1972, the second versions of both driver's self-titled funny cars were released, when McEwen had the Mongoose 2, and Prudhomme had the Snake 2. The drag set remained the same. Then, Hot Wheels made rail-type dragster versions of them, based on the actual funny cars and was featured in the Wild Wheelie Set. Later in Hot Wheels' lifespan, the normal drag set with Snake and Mongoose were still being produced. The latest set with the Snake and Mongoose is in the Drag-Strip Demons lineup.
In 1992, Hot Wheels sponsored the Trans-Am car of Jack Baldwin as he went on to win that year's championship. Hot Wheels signed a sponsorship deal in 1997 with NASCAR driver Kyle Petty and the No. 44 PE2 Motorsports car and thus began making replicas of NASCAR stock cars. Three years later, Hot Wheels joined the Craftsman Truck Series team of Carlos Contreras and the No. 12 truck. In 2004, Hot Wheels sponsored the No. 99 car of Jeff Burton for one race at Darlington Raceway. Six years later, the company returned to NASCAR to sponsor the No. 7 JR Motorsports car of Danica Patrick at Michigan International Speedway.
In 1999, Hot Wheels partnered with five Formula One teams to manufacture scale model Formula One cars. In 2016, Hot Wheels opened the Race to Win exhibit at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis to promote the 100th Indianapolis 500.
During 1999—2018 Hot Wheels had a Monster Jam license to release monster truck diecasts and had a real-life trucks competing in the shows. After the partnership ended, diecast production have stopped and Hot Wheels' team have retired. Soon, Hot Wheels created the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks line and the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live show with non-Monster Jam owned Bigfoot truck as a competitor. Monster Jam claimed this as a plagiarism, which caused a controversy
At the 2002 Le Mans 24 Hours, Hot Wheels logos appeared on the sidepods of the pair of MG-Lola EX257 prototypes entered by MG Sport & Racing.
Hot Wheels is a partner and sponsor of Australian stunt rider Matt Mingay's Stuntz Inc team, and also sponsors him in the Stadium Super Trucks. After Mingay suffered serious facial injuries at the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix in 2016, Robby Gordon drove the No. 2 Hot Wheels truck at the Townsville Street Circuit. Hot Wheels and Castrol returned to support Mingay when he made his racing return in 2020.

Video games

Various video games based on Hot Wheels have been released for numerous consoles.
A coin-operated pinball machine based on Hot Wheels cars and the Hot Wheels City YouTube series was released by American Pinball in June 2020.