Still Leading the Way: A Hot Wheels Retrospective

Little known fact about me: I grew up as a little boy when I was a lot younger. What this generally meant is that Barbies weren’t typically in my play-cycle and Hot Wheels dominated most of my free time in between Ninja Turtles. I’m happy to say that even though I’ve taken a long hiatus from the small die-cast cars of my youth, they’ve been waiting around should I ever choose to get back into the habit. It’s always great to know that my kids will someday have the chance to play with my favorite toys. Read more

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

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. Read more

MGA Refutes Settlement with Mattel over Bratz

In an interesting turn of events, Isaac Larian, the CEO of MGA, denies that they will be sharing revenue with Mattel to end the infringement case over the popular Bratz dolls.  We reported two weeks ago that the Bratz dolls were subject to heavy pay-outs, but according to Reuters, the matter is still to be decided. Read more

Bratz versus Barbie

We’re on a roll for reporting Mattel’s various lawsuits.  The toy giant was awarded $100 million in its Bratz ownership suit against MGA Entertainment.  The hip fashion dolls were designed by Carter Bryant while he was under contract with Mattel.

Read more

“The Dark Knight” Toys

With the recent release of Batman: The Dark Knight breaking the record for opening weekend box office sales, it’s no surprise that the movie’s toys and collectibles are flying off of shelves across the country. The official toys are coming from Mattel, who has released a line of action figures, role-playing toys, vehicles, and playsets.

Some of the most popular toys are the Wayne Tech Mega Cape Accessory, a cape with a five foot wingspan that retracts into a back harness. The Shift Attack Sports Coupe comes with both Batman and Bruce Wayne figures, and the coupe turns into a missile-firing attack vehicle. And the Rapid Fire Utility Belt has a motorized blaster of foam missiles and also comes with a cape.

Read more