Some wishes do come true

When I wanted to get creative with my Hot Wheels, my mom gave me some acrylic paints and a brush. Of course, that was enough for me at the time. I gave my firetruck a proper set of lights, I turned my white rocket car into a red rocket car and my NASA motor home turned into another firetruck (I had a thing for firetrucks). There was a time when just about every car got a new paint job. I wasn’t too concerned with performance, I just wanted them to look cool. Now lets scoot ahead a couple decades and I’m still customizing Hot Wheels cars, only this time I have a budget.

One of the best things about growing up is you can finally afford all the things you wanted as a kid but couldn’t have for one reason or another. For me, that included being able to make my own Hot Wheels. Painting cars was fun and all, but what kid didn’t want to design and build his or her own toy car? Now I can do all the things I ever wanted with minimal investment…and so can you! With a few cars, a drill, some paint, a free weekend and a little creativity, you can start making your own Hot Wheels…true one-of-a-kind toys.

You won't find this car in any toy store.

Taking apart your Hot Wheels

The first thing you need are some cars. Thankfully, Hot Wheels are still a dollar and you can find them everywhere. Grab a few cars you think look cool and be prepared to throw one or two away, a lot of this is trial-and-error. Next, grab your drill and your set of drill bits. You’ll need a 1/16 bit and a 3/16 bit. Flip the car over and you’ll find two rivets, one in the front and one in the rear. With your 1/16 bit, drill yourself a guide hole. You don’t have to drill far, maybe a quarter inch. Once you have your guide hole, use the 3/16 bit and drill straight down on the rivet until you grind it down to the plastic. You’re almost done! Now flip the car back over and push down on the windshield.

If you’ve done things right, the car should just pop apart. If it doesn’t feel like it’s doing what you want, drill a little bit more on the rivet. It will take a few times to figure this out. Grinding down rivets might not sound too hard, but if you drill at an angle or don’t get the entire head of the rivet, you’ll just spread it out more, making it even hard to get the car apart. Once you get it, you should have a pile of parts in front of you that look something this.

Is there anything more fun than taking things apart?

Your own private Hot Wheels chop shop

Now that you have your car apart, you can pretty much do anything you want. The less-involved things include swapping out wheels and interiors. You’ll find many Hot Wheels cars share the same size axles and wheels, so if you see a car with cool tires you can take those and put them on another body, not unlike when you swapped out the bodies and legs of your GI Joe figures…or was that just me?

Of course, if you want to get serious, you’ll want to strip the body down to the bare metal and start there. I should disclaim that everything beyond some simple wheel swaps requires some items that aren’t child-safe, so be aware that you’ll need some safety gear and should be very careful when handling power tools and chemicals. Now that the warning is out of the way, we can get down to business.

To get your car into its birthday suit you’ll take one of two routes. The first route requires some sort of grinder or sand paper. I suggest using a Dremel – the hobbyist’s best friend – it just makes things easier. You can sand down the stock paint on your car and go from there, or you can just dunk your car into a can of paint stripper and it’ll do all the work for you. Aircraft remover paint stripper is some serious stuff that you can find at your local auto parts store. It’s used to remove real car paint but it will also remove other things, including plastics and even your skin…better wear some gloves. After 15 minutes in the can of goo, your car will come out naked and ready for paint.

I pity da fool that don't enjoy painting Hot Wheels!

The emperor’s new clothes

You can paint your car with any type of paint. I suggest you spray the metal body with a coat of primer first, it’ll help the paint stick and make the color stand out more. Acrylic paints will work but for the best results you’ll want to use some type of spray paint. If you want to go the cheap route, just get a big can of paint from your home store and give it a spray. There is also a wide range of model spray paints that you can find at the hobby store. They come in every color of the rainbow…some glossy, some matte, some with glitter and sparkles…the choice is yours. Make it as a crazy and cool as you want.

Congratulations, you just gave your car an awesome, custom paint job! Adding other things to your car from here is just icing on the cake. You’ll find water decals look great on the car and are very easy to work with. And don’t forget the fun of taking parts from other cars and adding them to another to create your own creations. With a Dremel in your hand you can do almost anything. Take a motor from a car and put it on the hood of another to create a blown engine. There are thousands of Hot Wheels cars out there so the combinations of awesomeness are endless.

Putting it all back together

But wait, we need to put our car back together! If you want your new one-off car to be sturdy and be handled, you have to glue it back together. Assuming you’re done grinding and painting, just put your car back together and flip it over. The holes you drilled at the start should lineup with the rivets you ground down to nubs. With the car together, just drop some super glue into the holes and wait. Although, if you want to go pro, get some stuff called JB Kwik at the hardware store, it’s liquid metal. Mix up a small batch and put some in your drill holes. After 10 minutes the stuff will harden and your car will be as solid as one that just came off the shelf.

Make all your favorite Hollywood movie cars...like Mad Max!

Cheap fun for your inner child

All of this is just scratching the surface of what you can do when you treat Hot Wheels as little 1:64 scale car models. With a little Googling you’ll find some incredible custom Hot Wheels that it’s hard to believe started as $1 toys from the grocery store. I’ve found customizing Hot Wheels is an acceptable excuse to play with a beloved childhood toy because it requires power tools and man’s God-given talent of taking things apart. It’s a challenge, it’s cheap and it’s something you can show off with a smile…I mean, you just made your own toy! Not bad.

If you need some more inspiration, check out 5 Ways to Enjoy Your Hot Wheels. And when you get serious about Hot Wheels, I’ll meet you over at RedlineDerby.com for some real competition.

The man behind Hot Wheels

The inventor of Hot Wheels recently passed away. His name was Elliot Handler and he was 95 years old, but let’s not discount the fact that the man also co-founded the entire Mattel toy empire, so his impact goes well beyond Hot Wheels. To be honest, I didn’t know his name until one of my friends posted about his death. That might be shameful of me to not know the man’s name but it got me thinking about how much we really take the toys we have for granted. Many toys, like Hot Wheels, have been around for so long that it’s easy to forget that someone actually had to invent them. Diecast cars are so ubiquitous these days that we rarely stop to think about how awesome they really are. Something so simple can be so much fun to play with and enjoy.

Undoubtedly one of the best birthday presents ever.

The passion grows

Staple childhood toys like Hot Wheels were not chosen by us, they were just given to us. I don’t recall the first time I told my mom I wanted Hot Wheels. It was a toy I just received without asking and from there my love of them grew. They were as popular then as they are now and because I’m a boy, friends and family always got them for me as presents. Hot Wheels were (and still are) cheap to buy and always put a smile on my face, so for boys they’re an easy “go to” gift. I don’t even remember how many Hot Wheels cars I had as a kid, hundreds probably passed through my hands…but I always wanted more. You could never have too many Hot Wheels.

When I think about all the toys I grew up with, I’ve learned that there is a common way to tell when a toy meant a lot to a kid…when you received the “rip off” versions of the same toy and got mad about it. It doesn’t matter what popular toy you’re talking about…Hot Wheels, GI Joe, LEGO…you loved them so much that you could spot, and would reject, imitations in a heartbeat. You could smell a fake a mile away, a skill our parents could never quite figure out. There was nothing worse than being excited about a present only to open it up and find some sort of bootleg version, and Hot Wheels was no different. Parents and grandparents would try to pawn off cheap Woolworth’s diecast cars as Hot Wheels but I knew better. The quality, the colors, the style and the fun just wasn’t there. If there’s one thing Hot Wheels is not, it’s being able to be copied.

Imitated but never duplicated.

Toys that are meant to be played with

Many of the Hot Wheels you see on the shelves today are little more than mini versions of real life car models…Corvettes, Porsches, Volkswagens, etc…but the other half of the Hot Wheels catalog were fantastic designs that could speak to every child. The crazy designs created by Hot Wheels looked like they came right out of the pages of my childhood sketch book. I loved Hot Wheels because they weren’t normal, whereas brands like Matchbox cars were all about accuracy. They were the “collector” cars…but really, what kid wants a Mustang when they can have a Sol-Aire CX-4? If you just wanted to put cars on a shelf, you got Matchbox cars. If you wanted cars you could play with, you got Hot Wheels. And don’t forget about all the “gimmick” cars that Hot Wheels released of the years; cars that changed color in water, cars with peepholes and pictures on the inside and cars that came “pre-wrecked” and flipped when they hit the wall. Mattel knew what they were doing and knew what kids wanted…and we wanted to play. Hard.

Why have a Porsche when you can have the Bone Shaker?

Hot Wheels are certainly the toy cars with the best performance when it came to play time. They are made to be played with. Hot Wheels are meant to be scooted across kitchen floors and flung off of ramps made of shoe boxes and magazines. Of course, what every kid really wanted was just miles and miles of the iconic Hot Wheels “orange track” that came with the playsets. I remember taking all of the Hot Wheels track I could find and connecting it all together to make a giant downhill track on the steps in my house. Sure, you’d toss your Matchbox cars and other dime store cars down your track too, but none of them could hold a candle to the real deal of Hot Wheels.

I’ll never forgive myself

However, as I grew up, my Hot Wheels found a fate that many of my toys experienced – total destruction. I’m not sure if every boy goes through a “blow everything up” phase, but I did and nothing was off limits, including my Hot Wheels. Most of my cars along with my GI Joe figures, Transformers, Construx and many other toys suffered a fate of low end fireworks, bonfires, brick smashing, dismantling and even the occasional drowning in my sandbox when it was filled with water. It’s hard for me to think back to that time because I’m not really sure what came over me that made me destroy all my toys. It makes me sad, and not because I’m thinking what all of those toys would be worth today…it makes me sad just because I loved them so much and I still do. Thankfully though, becoming an adult affords us all an opportunity to reclaim a little bit of our childhood, and I did just that when it came to Hot Wheels.

Picking up where childhood left off

As I mentioned before, Hot Wheels are still a very cheap toy to buy – they’re still only a dollar. Find me another toy that hasn’t changed its price in more than 20 years! In a world of $12 action figures and other expensive gadget toys, the simplicity of Hot Wheels combined with the attractive price cannot be beat. About 10 years ago I started collecting Hot Wheels again. I never left Target or Walmart without at least one car in my bag…usually a dozen or more, actually. It’s a great feeling to go on a Hot Wheels shopping spree and know you’ve only spent $20 for 20 cars. At first I was selectively collecting them, only buying the models I wanted and putting them on a display case my grandpa made me when I was a kid. It felt good to reclaim some of my childhood but putting them on a shelf to admire just wasn’t enough. It didn’t feel right, so I went about finding a way to have fun with Hot Wheels as an adult.

My first custom Hot Wheels. Not too bad, I guess.

The solution turned out to be something I and all men are pretty good at – taking things apart. I started exploring the customization of Hot Wheels cars. I’d take them apart, paint them, modify their bodies, swap out tires…just about anything. Although, what kid didn’t paint their Hot Wheels at some point? I would take my mom’s acrylic paints and give my cars quite a covering, but now with better tools at my disposal, I could do the job right, effectively turning my Hot Wheels into very tiny model projects. I even brought a car that survived my childhood back to life. I took these experiences to the web and started blogging about what I was doing and how I was doing it. It was fun and got a few eyeballs but not until I took my Hot Wheels chop shop to the world of racing did things start to get interesting.

No other toy has done more for me

Give me some track and some Hot Wheels and I'm happy.

If you were ever in a club like Boy Scouts that did pinewood derby races, then you know what I’m talking about. Giving Hot Wheels new paint jobs and shiny wheels is one thing, but trying to make them faster in a downhill race is another thing entirely. I continued writing about my Hot Wheels racing and somehow it turned into an entire online game, a fantasy league for Hot Wheels drag races. The blog I started, Redline Derby Racing, was intended to be little more than a way to chronicle my custom work, but now it stands as what I believe is the only online Hot Wheels racing league around, and it’s been a lot of fun to watch it grow. Not only am I playing with my Hot Wheels as a 30-something adult, but it’s serving a purpose by entertaining quite a few people. What started as my return to the world of Hot Wheels has become a full time hobby and I’ve found myself in the middle of a community of people that are looking for the same thing I was…simple, nostalgic fun. I always get funny looks when I tell people I run a web site dedicated to Hot Wheels racing, but I always shrug it off because I know that everyone collects something…and chances are it’s “stupid” too (and probably more expensive). We all geek out about something and I just happen to go nuts for Hot Wheels. It could be worse.

Some people…most people…see Hot Wheels cars as nothing more than a cheap, disposable toy. Something to keep their kid from crying in the store or something to stuff in that Christmas stocking at the last minute. But for kids like me, Hot Wheels made quite an impact and despite a phase where I thought I had outgrown the toy, I returned to the brand with renewed interest (and a wallet full of cash) to finally have the fun I couldn’t have when I was a kid. I’m not sure any other toy has stuck with me as long as Hot Wheels. I can’t think of any other toy that I was able to enjoy so much as a child but then also as an adult. It’s easy to look back and remember how much you loved some toys, but how many of those toys can you still enjoy like that today? Hot Wheels made an impact on me then and continues to do so in a very positive way, and for that, I must thank Elliot Handler and the other people at Mattel that created Hot Wheels and the other toys we all love so much. His name may not be well-known and might be forgotten, but his toys will live on forever and continue to make kids of all ages happy.

Brian is a freelance writer that blogs, tweets and races Hot Wheels weekly while also co-hosting live podcast.

Not your typical convention

This wasn’t my first toy convention. I’ve been to my share of video game conventions and a few model train shows as a kid. I even went to Celebration III in Indianapolis to bear witness to one of the largest gatherings of Star Wars fans ever, but none of those prepared me for the Nashville Collector’s Experience. This wasn’t your normal convention where you walk into a giant hall filled with endless tables of people selling their stuff. Instead, collectors that were staying at the hotel where the convention was held opened their rooms up, allowing anyone to walk in and check out their cars for sale. You had to walk from room to room to see what people had for sale, often creating a somewhat awkward experience…it’s not every day you walk into someone’s hotel room to make a purchase. On top of that, people were scattered around the hotel so you had to jump floors to see everything. If you ask me, this room-to-room format really hurts the experience and in the long run I think it limits how much people can sell. Had everyone been in one spot I probably would have purchased more.

Hot Wheels for sale in every room.

However bizarre this method of buying and selling was, it didn’t impact the quality of toys for sale or the deals to be had. Whether you were looking for ultra-rare diecast cars or just cheap cars to play with (like me), there was something for every type of collector. I saw some cars selling for upwards of $150 that I assume were custom made or possibly one of the original 16 Hot Wheels from the late 1960s. While I do collect Hot Wheels, I’m a not collector that is looking for rare, vintage cars or anything like that. I just wanted cheap cars to play with…and boy did I find them. Even today some 40 years after they hit the market in 1968, Hot Wheels are still incredibly cheap to collect, only a $1 for a new car at Target or Walmart, but that doesn’t beat the 30 cents some people were selling them for at the convention. I walked out of there with nearly 50 new cars and paid less than $25 for all of them. Not a bad haul by any stretch.

Ready, set, race!

Despite this convention being called the “Collector’s Experience”, I was really there for one thing and one thing only – racing. I mentioned starting Redline Derby Racing, which is an online fantasy league game for downhill diecast racing…kind of like the pinewood derby in Boy Scouts only with Hot Wheels instead. Through my Redline Derby web site I made some connections inside the diecast collecting community and found others that love racing as much as I do, and one of them was bringing their massive 50-foot race track to Nashville to be part of the convention. Long story short, I went to Nashville to take my racing on the road and hold a special set of races on this huge track, a slight step up from the 20-foot track I had at home. The racing went great and was made even better by the crowd that was on hand. While it wasn’t anything more than a couple dozen people, seeing everyone from kids to adults get excited about downhill racing was great to behold.

Beats the heck out of the Pinewood Derby.

A little something for everyone

While the racing was a lot of fun, there was more to do at this convention than buying cars and sending them down a hill. Other activities at the convention included a customs contest that asked folks to customize a Hot Wheels and have it be judged. You might think the cars you see on the store shelves are fancy enough but let me tell you, you haven’t seen anything until you see a car that has been blinged out by a pro. The amount of detail these customizers get on a 1:64 scale car is ridiculous, putting any full-sized model to shame. There was also a famed diecast vending machine in the main convention hall. I had heard stories of this vending machine for a while, it seemed legendary, so I was interested to see what all the hubbub was about. Turns out this vending machine was exactly that, a snack vending machine that was altered to drop toy cars when you enter your selection. The fun part is you have no idea what you’re getting, you can’t see the cars inside. You just pick a number at random and whatever falls out is yours, but being a collector’s convention, everything that came out of the machine was of collector quality. With my vending machine pull I scored a re-issue of a vintage car called the Red Baron, which I then had signed by Larry Wood, one of the first Hot Wheels car designers, who was at the convention for autographs and photos. Larry didn’t design the Red Baron but it was still cool to meet the guy that had designed so many Hot Wheels for decades.

One of the cars I got from the vending machine...classy and collectible.

I was only at the convention for one day, so I’d be short-changing it if I didn’t mention a lot of the other stuff going on before I showed up. The in-room buying and selling was happening all the time, there were several special events going on for ticket holders, including bingo, a special version of UNO and even some late-night racing for cash and charity. And just about every activity at the convention resulted in you receiving a special, collectible diecast car. On top of the cars I bought, I walked out of the convention with at least a dozen free cars I got just for being there and having some fun.

Every hobby is better with friends

Most hobbies tend to only require one person, you, the collector. You can collect toys, trains, games, action figures or whatever by yourself. You don’t really need other people and collecting Hot Wheels isn’t any different. I can go to the store, buy cars, and come home and be done, but sharing your hobby and finding others that enjoy it as well is always more fun. Even though I got to race my cars on a big track and found crazy deals on new toys, the one take away from this convention was the comradery and friendships. This was my first diecast car convention so I was new to everything, but most of the people there had forged friendships from these conventions…from collecting toy cars…for years and it was great to see, and it was even better making a few new friend myself. Even though the convention was a little different than I expected, it was a great time and if another convention comes within driving distance I’ll be there with bells on…and with a couple hundred Hot Wheels ready to race.

Brian is a freelance writer that blogs, tweets and collects.

Want more articles on diecast cars? Check these out:

-5 Ways To Enjoy Your Hot Wheels Collection

-Sweet Memories of Childhood Cars: A Matchbox Retrospective

-Still Leading The Way: A Hot Wheels Retrospective

-Talking Cars, Space Ships, and Classic Americana: The Most Popular Die-Cast Cars

Hot Wheels is one of the most affordable toys to collect. Since most cars are only a dollar, it means anyone with a pocket or a purse can cobble together enough spare change to buy a few toy cars. Most people might think Hot Wheels starts with kids scooting them across the kitchen floor and ends with adults putting them on shelves, but there is a lot you can do with Hot Wheels.

1. You can race them. And I mean racing beyond the loop-de-loops and ramps you remember from childhood. I’m talking all-out drag racing. All you need is two lanes of straight track, a hill, and a finish line. It sounds simple, and it is…just grab some friends and you can quickly create your own game. Everyone picks a car at random and you race them tournament-style. The winner gets bragging rights and the losers, well, they’ll just have to pick another car and try again. I made a 20-foot fold-up race track that I can take out at any time, and easily hide whenever my wife wants it hidden. It’s great for parties, kids, and even just a lazy Sunday afternoon.

2. Create your own car. Customizing your very own Hot Wheels may require some effort, but it’s a lot of fun. A well-placed firecracker was the only way to get cars apart when we were little, but now we have tools! Grab your drill and in 10 minutes you can be personalizing your own Hot Wheels car. Paint them, put stickers on them, swap out wheels and parts…whatever you want. And if you’re adventurous, take several Hot Wheels and combine them to create your own Frankenhotwheels. Beware, however, once you go down this road you’ll never look at Hot Wheels on the shelf the same ever again. You’ll start thinking, “I bet the wheels on that truck would look awesome on that Porsche.”

3. Turn them into something useful. Hot Wheels are simple toys…but that doesn’t mean they have to stay that way. You can turn your toy cars into something useful and hip, like a USB thumb drive! I took one of my favorite Hot Wheels cars, a $10 USB drive, and combined them. What I got is a truly unique thumb drive that is fun to play with, fun to look at, and a great conversation piece at the office. Technology is cheap and, better yet, tiny…perfect for toys. What else could you add to a Hot Wheels car? Lights? Motors? Magnets? If you have the time and gumption, there are a whole slew of weekend DIY projects.

4. Educate and experiment. When I started racing Hot Wheels I was just looking for some fun with toys. What I didn’t expect was the game turning into one big science experiment. In the quest to find the fastest Hot Wheels car, I was faced with all sorts of questions. Does car shape matter? Does weight matter? Does WD-40 work on Hot Wheels? I found myself creating a bunch of trial-and-error experiments that were a lot of fun. I even applied a Mythbusters experiment to my Hot Wheels.

5. Start a local club and meet people. Hot Wheels is a universal toy. Everybody knows them and I’m willing to bet just about everyone has one. The Internet makes it east to connect with other Hot Wheels fans on places like Facebook, Twitter, and message boards…but nothing is better than getting a chance to geek out about Hot Wheels in person. All you need is a place to gather (local park, church, library, coffee shop, etc.) and tell everyone to bring their Hot Wheels. You will quickly pass the time chatting, trading, sharing, and racing your favorite toy cars.

 This is only a short list of fun things you can do with Hot Wheels cars, believe me, there are many more. And remember, just because you’re no longer 8-years-old doesn’t mean fun with Hot Wheels has to stop, it just means you have to figure out how to make them fun.

About the Author: Brian Vaughn writes at MorningToast.com about video games, retro toy memories, all around geekery, and, of course, Hot Wheels. He’s also the world record holder for Urban Champion. Follow him on Twitter at @morningtoast

Who would win in a drag race between Matchbox and Hot Wheels?

I wrote an article last week about Hot Wheels cars, but upon posting it something started gnawing at me. While talking about Hot Wheels, I had completely neglected to mention Matchbox, the opposing brand. What makes this worse is that as a kid, I couldn’t distinguish between the two as both brands made little toy cars. They still do of course, so it’s only fair that I give you the other side of the story.

The Other Big Name In Toy Cars

What is the key difference that separates Matchbox cars with Hot Wheels cars? As far as I can tell, one has an imprint on the bottom that says “Matchbox” and one has an imprint that says “Hot Wheels.” This does not by any means imply that I believe one to be a knock-off or inferior or anything. Heck no, both brands are awesome and as a kid I was perfectly happy getting either. I happened to get most of my toy cars as hand-me-downs though, so it didn’t make much of a difference as long as the cars had wheels.

If I had to make a sweeping generalization about the differences, I’d say that Hot Wheels tend to be more fantastic in nature, emphasizing designs that are impossible such as a stegosaurus or a torpedo car, whereas Matchbox was more concerned with real world vehicles like ambulances and police cars. The playsets seemed to reflect this as well since I remember having Hot Wheels tracks meant for jumps but Matchbox sets like a city landscape or a triple-decker parking garage.

Don't ask me why, but I always thought realistic cars were just as cool as dragon cars.

The important thing about all of this is that more brands mean more variety, and I already noted Hot Wheels’ incredible number of different vehicles to choose from. Matchbox may have even more than Hot Wheels if we’re talking variety of collectibles, but either way, it makes it even easier to have a collection entirely original to you and no one else.

One thing that I find really cool about Matchbox is the official website makes reference to the 100 new cars released this past year. Yes, 100 new cars to collect. They even provide a checklist for the hardcore collectors, and with a 20-car pack being priced at $19.99, that sounds like a fair challenge for the year. You’d be so lucky to only spend a C-note on toys each year.

I remember the time my uncle gave me an old tackle box filled with all the Matchbox cars he had as a kid. Some were busted pretty badly, but the majority were in perfect working condition. This equaled an awesome time of taking each car out of the tackle box and checking out what it was. Parents, make sure to pass down your toys as soon as possible to your kids. Few things are more enjoyable for the kid.

There is certainly something to say for simplicity.

Do you have a favorite Matchbox car from your youth? Can you tell the big difference between Matchbox and Hot Wheels from a distance of twenty feet? Do you prefer one or the other? I want to know your thoughts. Leave a comment and I’ll get back to you once I’m done checking out my collectibles.

Simple Fun Without Limits

So what made and still make Hot Wheels so great? Not to sound too crass, but they’re extremely cheap. You can get a pack of 10 for under $15, and a lot of stores will sell them individually for 99 cents. Even better is the sheer amount of models to choose from. You and your friend could each own three-dozen cars and only have two that look identical. This means that every kid has a chance to have a unique set of cars best suited for his or her personality (sure, girls like Hot Wheels, too).

Sweet Glavin! This 10 set has a motorcycle?! I would have killed for a motorcycle Hot Wheels as a kid.

What did I have? I had a few cars that I absolutely loved, but my favorite for some reason was a beat up old Jeep that had a hood that could open. I had entire plotlines that involved this Jeep fighting other cars, just because it was my favorite and clearly the hero among my other cars. It had a posse of several other, “cooler” cars, but nothing could outclass my Jeep, not even the Mach 5 from Speed Racer or a car shaped like a dragon. Nope, the Jeep was my favorite.

Yeah, I'd be happy if I could race cars through a shark all day, too.

They also make great gifts for your dad.

I’m taking another day off video games to go into one of my favorite things from my childhood: Die-cast cars. The term can be applied to a lot of things, such as Hot Wheels and the like, but I actually won’t be bringing Hot Wheels into this since, well, that makes for an article in of itself sometime next week. Okay, not the classic thought of what makes a car a Hot Wheels car at least. I can’t lie, I’m talking about the most popular die-cast cars right now, so Hot Wheels are going to show up in some way or another.

Hot Wheels Showing Their Stuff

How are they showing up? The highest selling die-cast cars at the moment are Hot Wheels toys based off Disney and Pixar’s movie Cars. Y’all might be familiar with that movie, but if you’re not, the whole premise is centered around a car named Lightning McQueen that wants to be the DinoCo official car by winning all sorts of races. So pretty much the whole world is populated by cars. It’s actually a really good movie with Owen Wilson playing Lightning McQueen. The odd thing here is that the most popular die-cast car isn’t Lightning McQueen; it’s Mater, the junky tow truck voiced by Larry the Cable Guy. I…I don’t make these things up. I wouldn’t make that up if I could.

I guess I can't make fun. My favorite die-cast car was a beat up old jeep.

So what else is popular these days? Star Trek. That means the USS Enterprise is getting bought by the galaxyful in the form of a 1:50 scale model on a nifty little display stand. If I had one of those as a kid, I’d have done nothing else but run around my house flying it from the kitchen to the living room and beyond. I was never into Star Trek at any point of my life, but anything that could fly was considered awesome to me. I assume the same still holds true for kids everywhere.

Something a Bit More Classic

Thus far we’ve had die-cast toys based off talking cars and space ships. There’s an actual car in the die-cast model best sellers, right? You’re dang right there is. High up on the list is the Burago-made Lamborghini 1:18 scale model, met closely by the 1957 Chevy Corvette made by Yat Ming. Kids that want these models are just classy folk and know style. If a kid walks up to his grandpa and says he wants a 1957 Chevy Corvette die-cast model for his birthday, I guarantee it’ll make that man weep tears of joy. I know it’d have that effect on my grandpa at least, and he’s awesome.

This is the USS enterprise, not a 1957 Chevy Corvette. If you can't tell the difference, I've severely over-estimated this generation.

All of these cool-sounding die-cast models must cost a fortune, right? Wrong. Everything I’ve mentioned here is priced under $30, with some, like the Mater toys from Mattel, priced under $6. Kids wanting a die-cast model of something are well within modesty when they request such an item, so treat ‘em well. Stay tuned next week for a larger article on Hot Wheels. Better go out and stock up in preparation.

10. Tyco R/C Stunt Psycho Vehicle – Red:

A car possessed by some sort of demon? Apparently so.

To start with we have an RC car from Tyco (“That’s how you spell “R/C!”). Putting the name “Psycho” in the title of your toy is typically a good idea unless it’s a Barbie (though I’d love to see “Psycho Barbie” in the near future). The Stunt Psycho is pretty simple with two wing-like things on the top that allow you to pop the car onto its back tires and ride around, or flip over and drive upside down while bouncing like a low-rider car. Also, the big wheels help the car hop small obstacles without any problem.

9. Hot Wheels RC Ford F-150 Blue:

Because kids love Ford trucks.

Kids like trucks. Ford likes money. So kids and Fords are just a natural fit. The Hot Wheels RC Ford F-150 is a standard RC car that drives around and makes the cool “RC car noise” whenever the wheels spin. You can roll it over most terrains, though it works best on smooth surfaces. No tricks or anything, but it makes for a good remote controlled truck to dink around with.

8. Air Hogs Laser Micro Zero Gravity – Yellow:

Looks confusing now, but just see it when it's climbing walls.

And just like that we’ve hit all three primary colors. The Tyco was red, the Ford F-150 was blue, but now Air Hogs surfaces with a yellow model of their Laser Micro Zero Gravity Car. I don’t know what it is about Air Hogs, but the company doesn’t like to follow the rules nature set up, such as “cars can’t climb walls or follow lasers.” Well the Laser Micro yada yada does both of those things. You place it on a wall and it follows the laser as you shine it around. It’s pretty cool is what it is, and for under $40 for something that defies gravity, how can you say no?

7. Spinmaster Micro RC Terrain Titans Hot Shot Red:

Cool background not included.

So the Spinmaster Micro RC Terrain Titan is small. Very small. We’re talking smaller-than-palm-sized small here. But it’s got an awful lot of zip to it. It also costs a whopping $9.99, so you don’t have to dig too deep to snag one of these for your kids. I watched a review of the Terrain Titan as it ramped over crayons, flying discs, books, and calculators, as well as ride a miniature skateboard. It’s a nice little gift, but be careful when taking it out of the box since it has real suspension that can break pretty easily if you tug too hard.

6. MATCHBOX Rocky the Robot Truck – Deluxe Rocky:

Kind of like i Robot but less about Converse sneakers.

Trucks are cool. Robots are cool. Robot trucks are terrifying, but somehow kind of cool as well. MATCHBOX has a truck named Rocky and this truck can apparently say 80 different phrases and dance. Hold on, I couldn’t have just written that a truck dances. Mm-hm, yes, okay, yeah, the truck dances. It asks your child if it feels like dancing and then groves to its own beat. Rocky isn’t so much remote controlled as he (ooh, that’s weird, let’s call it “it”) is able to respond to various things your child does to it, such as back it up, have it dump blocks, or carry too much weight (it’ll complain when it feels overworked). The commercials show a little boy having a blast until his father joins in dancing with the truck. I assume the commercial cuts out right before Child Services are called in to the scene.

5. Air Hogs Switchblade – Red & Grey 27.195 MHz.:

Only slightly safer than a real switchblade, but definitely more fun.

The cool thing about the AirHog Switchblade models are their ability to hover up into the air from takeoff looking like a UFO and then morph into a flight mode. That’s pretty darn cool, even for toys. A morphing helicopter? I’d like to see more toys that morph with a flick of a button.

4. Air Hogs Switchblade – Black & Yellow 27.045 MHz.:

If only real helicopters were built like this...

Didn’t I just recover the Switchblade? Yeah, they’re popular alright, but the black & yellow color scheme seems to be the more popular of the two. Hey while you’re here, I always thought it was odd for companies not to have at least half a dozen different colors for their products. Do they focus group the item and determine that kids will only like a transforming helicopter thing if it consists of the color combinations of black & yellow or red & grey? Why not blue & white? And if such a color scheme exists, why don’t people like it that much? Just things to think about. Oh, back to more toys.

3. Spinmaster Micro RC Terrain Titans Hornet Black:

Kind of like the red one, but this one's black.

Hey, I already did these too! Somehow black is more popular than red, so here it is, the Spinmaster Micro RC Terrain Titan in HORNET BLACK! So there are six different colors of these Terrain Titans but only four frequencies for them to run off of (A-D). If you buy two, don’t buy two of the same color as they’ll have the same frequency and won’t work in the same area together. Strangely, there are two instances where a frequency overlaps with two different cars, but Spinmaster doesn’t tell you exactly which one overlaps with which. I’d say the safe bet is to purchase only the first four colors as shown on the back of the box as those probably go A through D before overlapping. Of course, that’s just me speculating.

2. Playskool Tonka Bounce Back Racer (Band B) 49 MHz:

I swear I saw these back in the day but they were bigger and called something different. Oh well.

Kids are not the most skilled when it comes to hand-eye coordination right off the bat. They get better over time, but there’s a period of “kinda sucking” when it comes to controlling things with any sort of precision. Playskool saw this fact and made the Tonka Bounce Back Racer, a remote controlled car that has huge tires that bounce off things and allow the car to flip over and continue driving. This means your child won’t have to run over and flip the car back over so that it can be driven again and thus, they learn no cause and effect for poor driving. Wait, was I trying to make a good point here? Oh right, it’s small and bounces around so that it doesn’t damage things. Also, it’s only $39.99 and the two sides mean it has two colors to choose from. That’s two colors for the price of one! What a deal!

1. Air Hogs Havoc Heli:

Oh, so cute you could just put it in your pocket and take it home.

These just sell way too well for their own good. They’re miniature helicopters that fit into the palm of your hand and can be controlled by a child or a mildly hip adult. They’re a simple concept but they work perfectly, and at a price of just over $40 you aren’t losing too much. However, I’d recommend preparing for the inevitable rotor replacements. More on Air Hogs coming soon.

Only two of the twelve nominees will make the final cut, but they will be in good company with the best toys of all time.

This year’s nominees are:

• the baby doll
• Clue®
• the dollhouse
• Flexible Flyer® Sled
• The Game of Life®
• Hot Wheels®
• Magic 8 Ball®
• Rubik’s Cube®
• skateboard
• Thomas the Tank Engine™
• Wiffle Ball® and
• Yahtzee®

Note how several entries are not name-brand toys, but classic toy types.  In my mind, this really reveals the authenticity of this Hall of Fame, and shows how the Strong National Museum of Play has our memories at heart.

I’m voting for the Magic 8 Ball.