The evolution of Hot Wheels: 50 years of automotive design on the smallest scale!

Posted on 01/08/2018 by Sarang Sheth

It’s easy to plot the growth we’ve experienced in automotive design over the past 50 years. From the hippie era to the hipster era, we’ve seen quite a lot of change in cars… but for one second, take a look at automotive evolution from a completely different perspective.

50 years ago, Hot Wheels made its first set of miniature automobile toys, using a die-cast outer body. Starting with outlandish designs and making it their signature (before building a few existing car designs too), Hot Wheels have come a long way, enchanting children for half a century, myself included. When you chart the evolution of Hot Wheels cars, you don’t notice the same trends as those of automobiles. You notice qualities that are much more aspirational to a different user base, so Hot Wheels’ trend chart’s always been to do incredibly cool things that entice children as well as the inner child in adults.

Hot Wheels have done a lot of things in the past 50 years. They’ve made modded cars, pandered to movie franchises and pop cultures, made some incredible adrenaline-filled race-tracks and theme sets, made Hot Wheels DIY kits, outlandish cars inspired by outlandish creatures, cars with bottle-openers integrated into the spoiler, cars that change color based on temperature, and even a Hot Wheels GoPro mount… and when you see how far they’ve come in the past 50 years, it’s truly worth admiring.

Watch the video above by the guys at Donut Media pay homage to 50 years of phenomenal toys that inspired children to be passionate car enthusiasts, drivers, collectors, and the occasional transportation designer! Here’s to 50 more glorious years of miniature automotive domination!

Designer: Hot Wheels (Mattel)

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Video Credits: Donut Media

Hot Wheels now makes a zooming mount for your GoPro!

Posted on 12/06/2018 by Sarang Sheth

You may be familiar with this video from a year ago when a die-hard fan took his trusty-old GoPro and mounted it on a Hot Wheels car, filming an absolutely epic POV experience of a track that covered everything from asphalt to greens, to even a brief driveby through a gutter.

Mattel took a serious look at that combination and turned it into an official collab, resulting in the most fun mount for the GoPro… and also probably the cheapest.

With a meager $1 price tag, the Zoom In GoPro car is basically a skateboard for your GoPro Hero 5 Session, allowing you to conveniently nest your action camera into the car, securing it with a bar at the back. The weight of the camera lets the car hug the plastic track, stopping it from flying off the rails too easily, plus gives it an extra bit of a push thanks to the momentum.

Easily the cheapest accessory for the GoPro, the Hot Wheels Zoom In GoPro car/mount is also the most exhilirating. Imagine all the high-speed footage you can capture! Besides, isn’t it every little child’s dream come true?? To ride in their miniature car down the track that they built with their own hands??

Designer: Hot Wheels (Mattel)

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Hot Wheels Zoom In Car Carries a GoPro Camera Down the Track

Posted on 06/06/2018 by Shane McGlaun

I’d wager just about everyone has played with a Hot Wheels car at some point in their life. I know I played with lots of them as a kid, and my son loved them when he was small. We built more tracks than I can count, and I always wondered what going through the tracks in a car would be like. Hot Wheels has a new car called Zoom In that will let you enjoy your tracks from a whole new perspective.

The Zoom In is a rolling mount for your GoPro Session camera. Simply clip your camera into the cradle, and then you can flick it down the track. The first thing that came to mind was whether the top-heavy GoPro would make it hard to get the car to make it through the track, but Hot Wheels says that the camera car will go through the loops, curves, and jumps just fine thanks to a flip-up mounting bracket that maintains a low center of gravity when locked in place.

You can check out some sample footage of the Hot Wheels Zoom In mount in the video below. It looks pretty awesome:

Best of all, the Zoom In will retail for just $1.09 – the same price as other basic Hot Wheels cars. Of course, the Go Pro Session is not included, which will set you back $120 or more, depending on the version you go for.

[via Autoblog]

This Crazy Rube Goldberg Machine Is a Tape Dispenser

Posted on 30/04/2018 by Conner Flynn

What if I told you that it takes a full five minutes to get a single piece of tape out of this insane Rube Goldberg machine? Hey, it’s about the journey, not the tape. At least that’s what I would keep telling myself if I had to wait on this machine to get said tape.

This overly complicated machine was built by Youtuber DaksDominos. It took him two months to put it together, and he had to get through 187 failed attempts before finally getting this video of a success. The amount of stuff happening on this machine is crazy. Remember, he had to set everything up again each time. That’s crazy. Isn’t this the definition of insanity? How does anyone have that much patience? Or maybe he just really needed a piece of tape that badly.

Anyway, you can watch the whole process right here without having to invest two months and 187 failed attempts. That’s the benefit of letting someone else do all of the work for you. It just goes to show you that with enough SOLO cups, ping pong balls, Hot Wheels tracks, and tape, you can do almost anything, as long as you don’t mind that it takes forever to do.

[via The Awesomer via Sploid]

Hot Wheels Rocket League RC Cars Bring the Video Game to the Real World

Posted on 15/02/2018 by Conner Flynn

Rocket League is a super hot game right now. The game recently even debuted on the Nintendo Switch. Well, now gamemaker Psyonix and toymaker Mattel have teamed up to bring the game into the real world. The Hot Wheels Rocket League RC Rivals set is a pair of tiny RC cars you use to knock a giant ball into your opponent’s net. So now when you aren’t in front of a screen playing the game, you can play the game in the real world. Is that too much Rocket League? Maybe.

The RC Rivals set uses a free accompanying app to control each vehicle which are modeled after the Octane and Dominus cars featured in the video game. Apparently, scoring is automatic, since the ball uses an infrared signal to talk to an included LCD scoreboard. All you have to do is focus on the driving.

The set won’t be available until later this year, but it should cost around $180(USD). Yeah, that’s pretty expensive for what amounts to a toy race set. Maybe I’ll just fire up the console and save my money for more video games. Still, super fans of the game probably won’t mind paying that price for this cool off-console version of the game.

[via Gizmodo]

This Hot Wheels Track Is a Kid’s Dream Come True

Posted on 28/12/2017 by Conner Flynn

Kids can build some pretty decent Hot Wheels tracks in their homes. I remember building some that were pretty tall, but this track has those beat by a mile (or at least a few hundred feet). YouTube channel 5MadMovieMakers know how to make amazing Hot Wheels tracks, and their latest is gigantic, and puts the rest of our tracks to shame. It starts out from a second-story window to get things going, and just gets better from there.

All I can say is that they must have spent a fortune on all of those track pieces. Imagine how many pieces it must have taken to make all of those zig-zags back and forth through the backyard and garden. The entire track is pretty flawless too. When you watch the cars go down the whole course, it is a smooth ride all the way – much better than the ones I made as a kid.

The coolest part of the video is when they send a camera-equipped Hot Wheels car down the track for a first person perspective. I can’t wait until we get some of that “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” technology, because I wait to go for a ride on a Hot Wheels track like this. Hopefully Hot Wheels will have a theme park that uses this technology. Hurry up Hot Wheels!

[via Sploid]

Wonder Woman’s Invisible Jet Coming to Walmart

Posted on 06/06/2017 by Shane McGlaun

I watched quite a few reruns of Wonder Woman with Linda Carter growing up. I also watched more than my share of Justice League cartoons on Saturday mornings. The thing I remember most about the Wonder Woman TV series was her invisible jet. I thought that was way cooler than her lasso of truth. I did often wonder how she found her jet after she landed it though. If you want your own invisible jet, Hot Wheels is showing off a cool toy for your collection.

You can’t just walk into any store and buy it though. You have to spend $20 on select Hot Wheels cars at Walmart stores between 5/28 to 7/8/17, and then send in the proof of purchase. You also have to mail the original receipt or online receipts and blister cards along with a completed order form and $3.50 to get the invisible jet. The request has to be postmarked by July 15 and received by no later than August 4. You can read the full redemption rules here.

I’m pretty sure this is just an empty package, but it’s still cool.

[via Hot Wheels Collector]

Transportation design: Kiddie edition!

Posted on 18/05/2017 by Sarang Sheth

Toys are designed to do three things. Engage, educate, inspire. They don’t necessarily have to fulfill all three conditions. In fact most toys can get past the first, or the second. The Hot Wheels cars aren’t most toys. They are engaging through good design, they teach children principles pf physics and design through their tracks, and they’ve been known to inspire kids into joining the automotive industry later in their lives.

The Hot Wheels Car Maker is just one of those jaw-dropping products for car enthusiasts both young and old. Using basic principles of injection molding, you get the opportunity to create your own die-cast hot-wheels cars and then decorate them with vinyls before racing against your friends.

The Maker comes with a completely child safe design that prevents children from touching hot components or materials. The design features a manual hand-cranked system that allows melted wax sticks to be injected into a plastic mold. The maker even comes with tools that let you pry the car’s exterior off and remove all wax-flares before mounting it onto the pre-made chassis. Cars can be molded in different colors using the wax sticks, and by the looks of it, the finish quality on each automobile is just stunning.

Designer: Hot Wheels (Mattel)

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Images courtesy Hot Wheels and EvanTube HD

Transportation design: Kiddie edition!

Posted on 18/05/2017 by Sarang Sheth

Designer: Hot Wheels (Mattel)

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Images courtesy Hot Wheels and EvanTube HD

This Hot Wheels Nightmare Is a Fever Dream

Posted on 14/02/2017 by Conner Flynn

The group at 5 Mad Movie Makers have created something truly stunning here. They captured POV footage of a Hot Wheels car racing through a magical world of colorful lights, glow sticks, and deadly fire. It is appropriately titled Hot Wheels Nightmare.

It is visually stunning to watch this car on its sometimes psychedelic journey through rings of light and fire. It is very reminiscent of moments from 2001: A Space Odyssey, only with Hot Wheels. Check it out:

There’s no telling where the track will go next. Filmed with a Sony VG30H and a GoPro Hero Session 4 mounted on a Bull Whip car. Built with Hot Wheels track, unit blocks, Tinkertoys, lighter fluid, kerosene, lamp wicks, wire, rain gutters, plastic garden edging, LED lights, and lasers.

[via Laughing Squid]

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Tag Archives: hot wheels

The evolution of Hot Wheels: 50 years of automotive design on the smallest scale!

Hot Wheels now makes a zooming mount for your GoPro!

Hot Wheels Zoom In Car Carries a GoPro Camera Down the Track

This Crazy Rube Goldberg Machine Is a Tape Dispenser

Hot Wheels Rocket League RC Cars Bring the Video Game to the Real World

This Hot Wheels Track Is a Kid’s Dream Come True

Wonder Woman’s Invisible Jet Coming to Walmart

Transportation design: Kiddie edition!

Transportation design: Kiddie edition!

This Hot Wheels Nightmare Is a Fever Dream

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