Mattel developed flexible, plastic orange tracks for racing Hot Wheels that included track sections, connectors, loops, curves, and ramps that could be configured in many different ways. Each car was a scale representation of various makes and models of existing car manufacturers or fantasy custom cars popular at the time. The hot rod look was achieved with a lowered front end and a raised rear end. 6 The wheels were fat and slick, and the axles were made of wire as thin as fine piano wire, which enabled the cars to roll fast. The tires were given a red line around them to be similar to the muscle cars of the day. The spectraflame paint used was a lacquer painted over the polished zinc-plated body that gave a brilliant shine. The original Hot Wheels toy cars used bright colors to attract kids. 4 With the huge success of the Hot Wheels brand, eventually Detroit automakers began sharing their top-secret blueprints of upcoming models with Mattel so that the Hot Wheels versions could debut simultaneously with the real cars. Mattel was able to hire many former employees of auto manufacturers to work on their designs through the years. Larry Woods also left the auto industry to design for the Hot Wheels brand in 1969 and became their chief designer for many years. 3 Bradley had brought with him the plans for the 1968 Corvette and introduced the Hot Wheels version of the car before it was available for sale. Their first 16 muscle cars models introduced in 1968 included custom Barracudas, Camaros, Corvettes, Cougars, Firebirds, and others. Handler’s vision for their line of toy cars was to manufacture authentic-looking altered versions similar to what custom-car shops produced. Mattel hired auto designer Harry Bentley Bradley away from Detroit to work on the early models of Hot Wheels. Handler assigned one of his key toy engineers to modify the toy to roll better, and an hour later he was presented with a car that rolled easily with the flick of a finger. Matchbox, an English brand, offered replicas of vehicles such as milk trucks and family station wagons that had a lot of visual detail, but didn’t roll very well. His desire to find an equally successful toy for boys led him to think about the popular diecast toy cars available at the time. His wife Ruth’s concept of the Barbie doll that debuted in 1959 was a huge success. 1Įlliot Handler, a co-founder of Mattel, is credited with the concept for Hot Wheels. The cars were an instant success and new models have been released every year since to the delight of children and collectors alike. Designed as miniature customized muscle cars, Hot Wheels are built for speed with thick, plastic mag wheels and minimal friction axles that feature torsion-bar suspension, which give the cars shock absorbency and wheel bounce. Hot Wheels is a diecast toy car brand manufactured by Mattel since 1968.

Hot wheels toys