was a very successful year for Hot Wheels, so Mattel came up with a new advertising slogan for the cars: "Go With the Winner". [12] 43 new cars appeared that year, including the Sizzlers and Heavyweights lines. Howard Rees, who worked with Ira Gilford, was tired of designing cars. He wanted to work on the Major Matt Mason action figure toy line-up. Rees had a good friend by the name of Larry Wood, whom he worked with at Ford designing cars. When Wood found out about Hot Wheels at a party Rees was holding, Rees offered him the job of designing Hot Wheels models. Wood accepted, and, by the end of the week, Wood was working at Mattel, where his first design was the Tri-Baby. Larry Wood retired in 2019 after over 40 years of designing cars. Epyx Presents Hot Wheels for the Commodore 64 - The Retroist". 1 September 2011. Archived from the original on 4 May 2015 . Retrieved 13 August 2012. Hot Wheels designer Ryu Asada died on March 23, 2021, at age 42, after years of suffering from cancer. [22] That same year, Hot Wheels began a partnership with Milestone S.r.l. to release their first game, Hot Wheels Unleashed, in which came out on September 30, 2021. However, 1972 and 1973 were slow years. Only seven new models were made in 1972. Of the 24 models appearing for 1973, only three were new models. Also the cars changed from Mattel's in-house Spectraflame colors to mostly drab, solid enamel colors, which mainstream Hot Wheels cars still use today. Due to low sales, and the fact that the majority of the castings were not re-used in later years, the 1972-3 models are known to be very collectible.

Edward, Kyle (December 9, 2019). "Small Cars, Big Dreams: '57 Nash Metropolitan Wins Hot Wheels Legends Tour to Become Next Die-cast Collectible". Forbes . Retrieved 5 November 2020. lineup was similar to 2015 and 2014 in terms of segments, and the design of the card was overhauled. Some car names were TBD ( To Be Determined) or 2016 (Coming Soon). They're now divided into mini collections with their corresponding segments and their icons printed on the card. Some of them include HW Showroom, BMW (100th anniversary of BMW), HW Screen Time (Cars and characters seen on television, video games, and movies), and HW Snow Stormers. New models include the Cruise Bruiser, Side Ripper, Grass Chomper, and the '16 Acura NSX, while other models first see their release in the mainline series, such as the '52 Hudson Hornet. Beam, Jennifer. "Hot Wheels: Jetz - Review". AllGame. Archived from the original on 2014-11-15 . Retrieved 2016-09-27. Bedigian, Louis (2006-12-18). "Hot Wheels: All Out Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on 2007-12-02. Hot Wheels' Director Search Nearing Finish Line (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. 10 July 2013.

In 2006, a Series 3 line of Classics was introduced, again containing 30 models with multiple colors of each vehicle. Models included the '69 Pontiac Firebird, a Meyers Manx dune buggy, and the Richard Petty '70 Plymouth "Superbird". Burgess, Phil, National Dragster editor. "Diamonds in the rough, gators on wheels, diamonds on cars, and how to move a billion dollars", written 20 February 2008, at NHRA.com (retrieved 16 September 2018) Reed, Philip (May 21, 2013). " "Go with the winner!" in these 1970 Hot Wheels Commercials". BattleGrip.com . Retrieved December 28, 2016. D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 23, 2023). " 'Hot Wheels': Mattel-Warner Bros-Bad Robot Pic Revving Up With Scribes Dalton Leeb & Nicholas Jacobson-Larson". Deadline Hollywood.

Hot Wheels: World Race (2003), released for the Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube, and PlayStation 2.

Hot Wheels Velocity X (2002), released for the Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube, and PlayStation 2. In 2011, Sizzlers have been re-released as Cars 2 characters, and were sold at Target stores. This line was called Charge Ups and released under the Mattel brand name but not as part of the Hot Wheels line. A coin-operated pinball machine based on Hot Wheels cars and the Hot Wheels City YouTube series was released by American Pinball in June 2020.

Mattel's Hot Wheels Racing finalizes licensing agreements with top five Formula One race teams". PR Newswire for Journalists. 1999-10-11 . Retrieved 2006-10-16. a b Schmidt, Gregory (2018-05-20). "Hot Wheels Hits the Road to Reach Its Fans". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-02-04.

Collect, Race, and Play with Hot Wheels Toys

Embark on an exhilarating urban adventure with Hot Wheels City playsets. Build your bustling metropolis, complete with towering skyscrapers, twisting roads, and fire stations with daring loops. It's a world where fantasy meets reality. Epic Colour Shifters for High-Speed Adventures And last but not least, the RLC will offer a version of Ryu’s personal Acura NSX. Ryu customized his car after an obscure Suzuka Circuit pace car. To honor his memory, the Hot Wheels design team pulled out all the stops, giving the NSX working lights. Activated by pushing down on the spoiler, the lights cycle through multiple patterns such as all-on and alternating flashing. Incredibly, the car even has an interior, though a slightly shallower one the standard to accommodate the electronics for the lights. Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver (2013), released for iOS, Nintendo 3DS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and Xbox 360. [74] [75] [76] saw a major change in casting numbering. Since that moment, recolors are named with a different number than the original, thus causing the number limit of cars to expand to 365. The idea of numbering a casting with a number corresponding to their own series was also aborted. There were also some new mainline series introduced, such as Experimotors (cars with moving parts, or a secondary purpose), Holiday Racers (cars that have a holiday based theme), Factory Fresh (a series including newer, sometimes older castings with fabric painting) and Camaro Fifty (a series dedicated to the Chevrolet Camaro, and its 50th anniversary).

In 1999, Hot Wheels partnered with five Formula One teams to manufacture scale model Formula One cars. [54] In 2016, Hot Wheels opened the Race to Win exhibit at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis to promote the 100th Indianapolis 500. [55] Miller, Aaron (January 8, 2016). "16 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT HOT WHEELS". Thrillist Media Group . Retrieved December 12, 2016. Hot Wheels has produced many replica scale models in the industry standard 1/43, 1/24 and 1/18 scales. In 2004, it released a 1/12 scale replica of the C6 Corvette. Hot Wheels Legends Tour - THE FINALE! - Hosted by Jay Leno, Snoop Dogg and more..." YouTube. YouTube . Retrieved 14 November 2020. Since the year 2008, Hot Wheels cars have had a code stamped or printed on the base. This is a "base code". This base code can be used to identify exactly when an individual car was produced in the Hot Wheels factory. The code begins with a letter, followed by a two-digit number. The letter for the year 2018 was "L". The letter is then followed by two numbers, which represent the week of that particular year the car was manufactured. For example, a car with the date stamp of "L42" was produced on the forty-second week of 2018.Hot Wheels is an American brand of scale model cars invented by Elliot Handler and introduced by his company Mattel on May 18, 1968. [2] It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until Mattel bought Matchbox owner Tyco Toys in 1997.