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, former 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 to be for children and young adults, they have become popular with adult collectors, for
whom limited edition models are now made available.

Contents

 1History
o 1.11968
o 1.2Racing track set
o 1.31969
o 1.41970s
o 1.51977–1988: The 'Blackwalls' era
o 1.61989–1994: The collector number era
o 1.71995–1999: The Treasure Hunt era
o 1.82000s
o 1.92003
o 1.102004
o 1.112005
o 1.122007 and 2008
o 1.132009 and 2010
o 1.142011
o 1.152012
o 1.162013
o 1.172014
o 1.182016
o 1.192017–present
 2Hot Wheels Legends Tour
o 2.1Hot Wheels Legends Tour winners
 3The "Sweet 16"
 4Collectors
o 4.1Dates on cars
 5Hot Wheels Classics
 6Special model lines
o 6.1Made by other companies
o 6.2Hot Wheels Elite and Hot Wheels Mattel
o 6.3Car Culture
 7Treasure Hunt series
 8Live action film project
 9Sizzlers
 10Promotion and sponsorships
o 10.1Motorsports
o 10.2Video games
 o 10.3Pinball
 11References
 12External links

History[edit]
1968[edit]
The original Hot Wheels were made by Elliot Handler. Handler discovered his son Kenneth playing
with Matchbox cars and decided to create a line to compete with Matchbox. He suggested the line to
his wife Ruth Handler, but she was unenthusiastic, as well as Mattel’s directors. Hot Wheels were
originally conceived by Handler to be more like "hot rod" (i.e.customized/modified or
even caricaturized or fantasy cars, often with big rear tires, superchargers, flame paint-jobs,
outlandish proportions, hood blowers, etc.) cars, as compared to Matchbox cars which were
generally small-scale models of production cars.[2] He began producing the cars with assistance from
fellow engineer Jack Ryan.
"The Sweet 16"
There were sixteen castings released on May 18, 1968, eleven of them designed by Harry Bentley
Bradley with assistance from Handler and Ryan.[3] The first one produced was a dark blue
"Custom Camaro".[1] Bradley was from the car industry and had designed the body for the (full-
sized) Dodge Deora concept car and the Custom Fleetside, (based on his own customized
1968 Chevrolet C-10 Fleetside).
The first line of Hot Wheels Cars, known as The Original Sweet 16 was manufactured in 1968.
These were the first of the Red Line Series, named for the tires which had a red pin stripe on their
sides.[4]

Racing track set[edit]

In addition to the cars themselves, Mattel produced a racing track set (sold separately). Though it
would be updated throughout the years, the original track consisted of a series of brightly colored
orange road sections (pieced together to form an oblong, circular race track), with one (or
sometimes two) "super chargers" (faux service stations through which cars passed on the tracks,
featuring battery-powered spinning wheels, which would propel the cars along the tracks).[5]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. [6]

1969[edit]
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.[3]
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'.
[7]
 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 (now known among collectors as the 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 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.[8] 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[edit]
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".[9] 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.[10]
Another designer, Paul Tam, joined Wood and Gilford. Tam's first design for Hot Wheels was
the Whip Creamer.[11] 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 (a Volkswagen Beetle 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).
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
(featuring large Roots blowers) 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[edit]

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.[12] 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 was introduced, which featured real rubber tires.[13] 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 (original blister packs were red and
yellow).

A Blackwalls-era Hot Wheels Peugeot 505

Two other innovations were introduced briefly in Hot Wheels cars in the 1980s – Thermal Color
Change paint, and rotating 'crash panel' vehicles ("Crack-Ups"). The former was able to change
color on exposure to hot or cold water, and there was 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 that 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 enthusiasts 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.[14]

1989–1994: The collector number era[edit]

In 1989, Mattel released collector numbers. Each car had its own number.[15] 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.[attribution needed]

1995–1999: The Treasure Hunt era[edit]

The year 1995 brought a major change to the Hot Wheels line, where the cars were split u