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Hot Wheels introduces its first line of Character Cars with the launch of Toy Story Character Cars that year. Since the launch, Hot Wheels has created tons iconic entertainment characters. What happened in the 1980s for Hot Wheels sent them in the path of what they are today. In 1981, Hot Ones wheels were introduced, which had gold-painted hubs and thinner axles for speed. In 1983 McDonald's first released Hot Wheels in their Happy Meals and the same year the Hot Wheels production plant was moved to Malaysia. In 1983, A new style of wheel called Real Riders were introduced, which had real rubber tires. Despite the fact that they were very popular, the Real Riders line was short-lived, because of high production costs. Mexico and France begin production of Hot Wheels. Ultra Hots wheels, which looked like the wheels found on a Renault Fuego or a Mazda 626, were introduced in 1984 and had other speed improvements. Hot Wheels started offering models based off of 80's economy cars, like the Pontiac Fiero or Dodge Omni 024. In 1985, Hot Wheels first appeared in Kellogg's cereal boxes. In the late 80s, the Blue Card was introduced, which would become the basis of Hot Wheels cars still used today. Also, the first Hot wheels collector's convention was held in Toledo, Ohio. Mattel also released 2004 First Editions cars with unpainted Zamac bodies. These "chase" pieces were sold exclusively through Toys 'R' Us and were made in limited numbers. Another designer, Paul Tam, joined Larry and Ira. Paul's first design for Hot Wheels was the Whip Creamer. Tam continued to work for Mattel until 1973. Among the many futuristic designs Tam thought up for Hot Wheels, some of the collector's favorites include Evil Weevil (a Volkswagen with two engines), Open Fire (an AMC Gremlin with six wheels), Six Shooter (another six wheeled car), and the rare Double Header (co-designed with Larry Wood). The casting has undergone a number of changes and retools over its lifespan. When the casting initially came out, it featured folding blades similar to Propper Chopper. It lost this feature in 2007 when it returned to the mainline, being replaced with a larger one-piece unit; the casting also gained some amount of metal on the base. When the casting returned to the mainline again in 2016, the casting was renamed Skyfire (likely to make it sound "tamer") and gained even more metal on the base, with the landing gear and the engines now being made part of the base as opposed to being separate pieces.
was Hot Wheels 40th anniversary and to celebrate a number of promotions and products came to be. To start it off, SEMA 2007 (Nov.) Design Director, Alec Tam debuted the Designers Challenge vehicles featuring designs from real automotive studios like Mitsubishi, Ford, Chevrolet, Lotus and Honda. 3 current or former HW designers had models represented. Steve Gilmore (Ford) and Gary Ragle (Mitsubishi) had formerly interned with the Hot Wheels Design Team and their submissions made the cut. Jun Imai's HW40 was kept under warps until the show. In 1996 Hot Wheels released one of the hottest surprise castings to ever come out of Mattel's factory. The Volkswagen Drag Bus designed by Phil Riehlman. if you look on the bottom, at the rear differential, you'll see see his initials P R. This casting is the heaviest casting made to date. The Splittin' Image, Torero, Turbofire, and Twin Mill were part of the "Show & Go" series and are the very first original in-house designs by Hot Wheels. Altogether, 24 new vehicles were released. It was the combination of all of these ingredients — speed via the low-friction wheel/axle assembly and racing tires, looks due to Spectraflame paint and mag wheels, plus the inclusion of very American themes such as hot-rod designs based on true American prototypes not seen in great numbers in the competition's product lines — that laid the groundwork for the incredible success story Hot Wheels were to become. New Models were announced and it is expected that 12 Treasure Hunts will again be slated for launch. A number of mainline repaints and Team Cars will join them.Some limited editions produced in 2006 include a Honda Civic Si sporting a Dropstars logo that was only available at the 2005 SEMA convention and the CUL8R with Faster Than Ever (FTE) wheels which was only available by mail. 2006 is also the year that Sizzlers were re-released as Target Exclusives.
As part of the Hot Wheels Fearless at the 500 event, Rallycross driver Tanner Foust (shown right) successfully lands a ramp-to-ramp distance jump of 332 feet. Foust smashes the previous world record by an impressive 31 feet at the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500. Specialty: On the cutting-edge of technology, the Sky Fi™ zooms over the modern metropolis: propelled by its futuristic side jets and silent rear tail rotor. No one ever hears it coming, but the impact this copter makes will leave everyone waiting for a sequel! The Island Hopper is a generic helicopter used as the basis for the helicopter used in Magnum P.I.. Elliot Handler, co-founder of Mattel, decided to produce a line of die-cast toy cars for boys. His idea was to capture a portion of the huge market for small car models dominated at that time by the British company Lesney Products with their Matchbox cars. Although his executives thought it was a bad idea, the cars were a big success. There were sixteen castings released in 1968, eleven of them designed by Harry Bentley Bradley, with the first one produced being a dark blue Custom Camaro. Although Bradley was from the car industry, he had not designed the full-functioning versions of the real cars, except the Dodge Deora concept car, which had been built by Mike and Larry Alexander. Another of his notable designs was the Custom Fleetside, which was based on his own heavily-customized '64 El Camino. On both sides stamps "68", sides "HWTF ( Hot Wheels Test Facility) and logo of HWTF. On the tail icons of the 4 skulls of Team Hot WheelsAlso in 2008, Hot Wheels featured a cross country tour with Larry Wood as the prime face of the event. Other HW pesonalities joined Larry at stops in Bonneville, Watkins Glen, Detroit, Indianapolis and Speed, Kansas. The success of the 1968 line was solidified and consolidated with the 1969 releases, with which Hot Wheels effectively established itself as the most important brand of small toy car models in the USA.
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