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An inventor, an automotive designer, and a rocket scientist walk into a barroom . . . wait, that’s not quite right. Let’s try again: In 1966, Elliot Handler, co-founder of Mattel Inc. and noted doll inventor, put together a crew of crack developers that included an automotive decorator and a bona fide rocket scientist. Six billion toy automobiles subsequently, Hot Wheels has played a key role in propelling California-based Mattel to its present status as the world’s second-largest toymaker behind only Lego, hiring virtually 26,000 people and shaping the childhoods of millions more.
Hot Wheels has come a long way in the past 50 times, together with many of those happy those clients who tracing the source of their automotive obsession back to their days of racing the 1:64 -scale die-cast autoes across the playroom storey. And today, despite the rapid onset of societal digitization and a total annual production reaching into the millions, the brand’s mission remains true-blue to its roots.
Before Mattel unveiled the first 16 Hot Wheels simulates at the 1968 New York Toy Fair, die-cast doll automobiles were staid, production-based replication that often plea more to collectors than to budding admirers. Those original Sweet Sixteen, as the company calls them, changed things; each dripped with logo Spectraflame candy/ chrome paint and ride on red-rimmed mag-style wheels known affectionately as Redlines. The new offerings were a disclosure: Instead of focusing on factory-fresh realism, Hot Wheels took inspiration from the era’s hopped-up pony-car cruisers and goofy concept vehicles. Car-crazy kids were hooked.
Orange crush:
Elliot and Ruth Handler play with an early Hot Wheels track setup. The bright orange trails played a large role in the toy’s success.
The next 20 times were just as colorful, even as Spectra-flame disappeared and was replaced by bright graphics and increasingly avant-garde design. These wild imagination modelings, known officially as Hot Wheels Originals, incorporated contemporary graphic intend and cues from pop culture. Defectors from automaker intend departments joined Mattel from day 1, infusing Hot Wheels with both designing credibility and automotive shapes that could never escape car manufacturers’ drafting boards.( Speak more about how Hot Wheels designs its dolls today .)
From the very beginnings, all nationalities were represented in the Hot Wheels lineup, but American muscle dominated. The brand was built on the bedroom floorings of baby boomers and Gen Xers, and examples of Detroit’s finest were perennial best-sellers. It wasn’t until a few years ago that a gradual shift toward a new generation of enthusiast arose, with an unprecedented number of brand-new castings representing religion favorites from Japan enrapturing fresh aficionado. The classics are still here–think ’5 7 Chevy, ’6 7 Firebird–but they joined store pegs now filled with JDM legends and semi-obscure European hotness. If Twin Mill and Custom Camaro were the iconic first-gen Hot Wheels poster children, then castings like the Datsun 510 and Nissan C1 0 Skyline Wagon were catalysts for nascent millennial collectors who appreciate Integras and 240 Zs more than ’Cudas.
The yearly lineup is geekier now too. A Honda City Turbo II shares peg space with an Audi Sport Quattro, both downwind from a Lamborghini Countach Pace Car–an obscure reference to when a Countach served briefly as Formula 1’s safety auto in the 1980 s. Meanwhile, motorsports anoraks fill their tables with pint-sized different versions of the Porsche 934.5, Mazda 787 B, and Cadillac ATS-V R.
The Sweet Sixteen were individually offered in a wide range of colourings, each in Hot Wheels’ mark Spectraflame paint.
It’s a younger brand inside and out, and it proves. Just as the Sweet Sixteen showed the original era’s hot-rod attitude, today’s Hot Wheels crew is immersed in cutting-edge tendencies. The ongoing Car Culture series is one of the brand’s biggest recent success, pulling inspiration from proves, communities, and industry celebrities like Gas Monkey Garage, Magnus Walker, and Rauh-Welt Begriff.
“Hot Wheels was born out of authentic automotive heritage, ” design VP Ted Wu said. “Everything we’ve done has reflected the car culture of the time. I think that, especially recently, we’ve tried to continue on that tradition and try to really look at “whats going on”. Our crew is full of guys that are tapped into what’s going on with auto culture. They’re passionate about vehicles. They’re car fanatics. They know what’s going on with cars, and they want to reflect that in what they’re doing.”
Hot Wheels runs hard to maintain relevance as digital amusement and video games continue to encroach on physical plaything sales. Aside from some early success it had in the gaming space, Hot Wheels enjoyed virtual and physical tie-ins with some of the biggest names in the business, including “Forza, ”“Gran Turismo, ” and “Rocket League.” According to Hot Wheels’ global label general manager and head honcho Chris Down( below right ), Xbox’s best-selling sheaf featured the Xbox One S console, “Forza Horizon 3, ” and a Hot Wheels expansion battalion; marketings outpaced even the “Call of Duty” and “Minecraft” bundles.
“If you’re 4 years old and you’re get your first Hot Wheels automobile , where are you going to go from here? You are at that point simply a player, ” Down explained. “Then you’re 5 years old, you become an accumulator;’ I’m getting all the cherry-red cars.’ Then,’ I’m 8, ’ I might then say,’ I’m done with dolls, so I’m going to video games. I desire Hot Wheels. Hey, I’m going to play “Race Off” on my mobile app. I’m going to play “Forza Horizon” on the Xbox . . . ’ ”
So far, this digital synthesis appears sound, ensuing in a record time of Hot Wheels plaything sales in 2018. “We are a physical doll corporation, ” Down reassured. “Hot Wheels is rooted as a physical toy object that indicates tendency and culture. We’re going to continue to be that as a center doctrine while we’re recognise how kids are behaving today. There will not be a period in the future that I hear where a 1:64 -scale die-cast auto does not exist for Hot Wheels, and lots of them. That’s fundamental.”
The post The Thin Redlines: The Past and Present of Hot Wheels seemed firstly on Automobile Magazine.
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