12 Toys of Christmas: 4 Hot Wheels Hauling
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Literally every day, growing up, I had Hot Wheels vs. Matchbox championships. I would tear out a piece of my sketchpad, draw a bracket, make some fake crowd noise and fire up the little plastic engines. Turns out, in 1996, Mattel acquired the Matchbox brand from Tyco. I always wondered why the Hot Wheels always won; must have been a little foreshadowing. The Hot Wheels logo has always been one of my favorites due to its perfect fit for the target audience. Drawn by California artist Rick Irons, the logo is symbolized through its unique retro-esque typography and a distinguishable outer flame shape. Although established in 1968, the brand Hot Wheels really started to pick up speed in the 70’s, and revolutionized the die-cast toy car market, beginning to leave its competitors in the dust.
My Hot Wheels were strictly racing machines; with that came the constant collision with a rival car or off the side of the mantel (much to my mom’s dismay). Lots of those cars with missing wheels and scratched plastic windows are probably worth some cash now. This site http://www.hotwheelscollectors.com/ shows the passion that this brand carries with it all these years, and a database of most if not all the cars ever produced. In their 40th year they did several events to showcase their brand. The one I found most captivating: Mattel created 1:1 scale actual vehicles from their little die-cast models. Here are a couple links about their party that makes every inner-kid come out.
myride
justacarguy
By: Nick Irwin