Hot Wheels
Like many kids growing up when I did, in the 90s and early 2000s, I played with Hot Wheels, but not with moderate regularity. Being a girl, cars have always been sort of cool (especially vintage vehicles) but overall not something I was especially interested in me. I know plenty of girls who are completely interested in cars, but it's just not for me. When I was a little girl, my father - who I only saw a handful of times over the years, and generally on the weekends where he would get piss drunk and then fall asleep, thus leaving me to my own devices - once gave me a collection of Matchbox cars in their own carrying case. Matchbox was the primary sole competitor to Hot Wheels up until 1997, when Mattel, makes of Hot Wheels, flat out bought Tyco Toys, who made Matchbox. Hot Wheels I only ever had a handful of, and sometimes played with them with my stepbrother, but just because they aren't something I remember super fondly or haven't had much interaction with in general doesn't mean I can't appreciate the artistry that goes into them.
I'm nothing if not a sucker for miniatures. I absolutely love dollhouses, for example, and model airplanes, so it only makes sense that Hot Wheels would grab my attention even if only on a base level. The designs on Hot Wheels are cool enough already, but one of the neatest things about them was their ability to be attached to anything remotely pop culture related. Case in point, they released Hot Wheels versions of fictional cars or vehicles, like the Delorean from Back To The Future, the Beatles Yellow Submarine or something else of fame. It was almost the perfect toy integration if you were a boy who liked cars, toys and movies.
Ironically enough, Matchbox were the original toyline and Hot Wheels were invented to compete against them. Hot Wheels were created by Elliot Handler, husband of Ruth Handler, the inventor of the Barbie doll. The whole idea was to create a toy that was the opposite of Matchbox's rather generalized miniatures of classic and modern cars, and instead go for a hot rod or race car aesthetic with outlandish proportions, flame paint jobs and all sorts of wacky visuals.
The major thing I remember about Hot Wheels, however, is definitely not so much the cars but the tracks they were promoted to be used in conjuncture with. If you're the right age, I guarantee you too remember the tracks.
The tracks, often made with orange and blue plastic, were meant to be snapped together to form a whole set the cars could be raced on. They came with sharp turns, loops and severe inclined drops so you could set them up from the top of a bookcase in your living room, have them speed down into a sharp turn and finish in a loop-de-loop. Really, this was the set piece for Hot Wheels and, in my opinion, the biggest asset to the toy in general. It's also worth noting that Hot Wheels have actually been sponsors of real life race cars, with their logo showing up on actual Nascar racers vehicles, which just brings the whole thing full circle, and I love that it has this real world counterpart. Hot Wheels - and model cars in general - are an interesting toy because they aren't the kind of toy one really needs to use imagination for, seeing as it's already established what a car is and does, and also falls in line more often than not as a collectible than an actual toy that's played with. Not that that's anything new, obviously, as many toys have since become collectible, but I feel like Hot Wheels - and toys like it - are exceptionally suited for collecting than others.
Hot Wheels are neat.
They aren't by any means a personal favorite, but I can certainly appreciate the artistry that goes into the modeling, the painting, the overall design work. I think they're neat and, as far as collectibles go, one of the easier to handle considering they're so very small. That's the nice thing about miniatures, even when you have a lot of them, they still don't take up too much room.
Plus, they're much more affordable than a real car, and I can say that as someone who doesn't drive.
Comments
Post a Comment