Article by Rathgar Jones

If you’re like me, you’ve spent countless hours researching late into the night, absorbing every last Hot Wheels fun fact available. But what if you aren’t a crazy person? What if you want a concise history of the brand that only contains the information useful to helping you buy, sell, and trade these beloved toys? Then I’ve written this article just for you, apparently. Here I’ve taken the entire history of Hot Wheels from the beginning to today and whittled it down to just the bits that will actually improve your ability to collect the cars worth the most money. I’ve taken special note of major changes that affect the value of the toys and left out anything that won’t help you make money or spend yours wisely. So let’s get right to it.

In the Beginning

Photo by Mattel

In 1968 toy mogul Elliot Handler had a problem. While his Barbie doll toys were selling like crazy, he lacked a viable alternative for boys. Enlisting the help of an engineer named Harry Bradley, he set out to create a line of diecast cars to compete with the popular Matchbox cars currently on the market. His idea was to make cooler and wilder cars than the realistic Matchbox ones and asked Bradley to create some designs using his own heavily customized Camaro as a guide. Bradley designed 11 of the first 16 cars, called the Original Sweet Sixteen, and with the help of fellow toy-industry rockstar Jack Ryan, they birthed what would become a national obsession. By the end of that first year Hot Wheels were not only becoming the hottest toy on the market, but they had already spawned race sets specifically designed to work with their cars, including the Popup Speedway Race Action Set. Since no other company was making racetracks for their own cars, these sets are the first of their kind ever created and are therefore highly valuable to toy collectors, even if they don’t usually care about Hot Wheels.

Early Hot Wheels can be distinguished from later models and from other brands by several different innovations. The most immediately evident difference is the Spectraflame paint job. This new way of painting the cars left them shiny by polishing the metal beneath and adding semi-translucent paint on top. These early models can also be identified by the red stripe running along the inside of the wheels (see the first image above the title). These so-called redline cars are now some of the most collectable.

The following year saw Hot Wheels continue to shake up the industry. Most importantly, as far as collectors are concerned, was the creation of the Rear-Loading Beach Bomb or RLBB. This is the holy grail for many hobbyists. Numerous test models were cast but all Hot Wheels cars were required to work on every Hot Wheels track and the RLBB just didn’t. It’s unknown exactly how many Rear-Loading Beach Bombs were made before the car was redesigned into the Side-Loading Beach Bomb, but we do know that they were all given away to employees and never made available for sale. The rarest appears to be the pink colour variant, of which only two were made. This is no surprise as pink is the rarest colour in almost every model and casting, often selling for much more than other colours of the same type and year. The RLBB can sell for $500 but by comparison, the pink variant once sold for $70,000.

Harry Bradley left the company that year, recruiting Ira Gilford to replace him. Many of Gilford’s designs are well loved by Hot Wheels collectors, especially those made immediately after joining the company. In 1970 Mattel also hired Larry Wood, possibly the most prolific designer of any car, real or toy.

That year also saw the company branch out into promotions. Their first was a partnership with Jack-in-the-Box, though it would be far from their last. The first club kit also released in 1970, containing various small trinkets. The most important item featured in the kit was an exclusive chrome version of three models of car. These chrome cars can go for $50 to $100 today, occasionally more.

Things Change

1972 and 1973 are great years for collectors. These years saw horribly low sales and most of the castings created in that time were never used again. Good news for collectors, bad news for Hot Wheels. It had seemed like Hot Wheels would ride the high of their new line forever, but sales were dwindling. Although they eventually recovered, these five years or so are very important for the discerning Hot Wheels addict to understand, because it is the period where the company made numerous major changes in an attempt to save their brand.

The first change of note is the sad loss of the Spectraflame process.

Spectraflame on left, enamel on right. Photo by Orange Track Diecast.

Some debate the real reason for the loss of Spectraflame paint, but it seems likely it was done to save the company money. Hot Wheels preferred to cut costs rather than raise prices. In 1973 they replaced the Spectraflame paintjobs with matte enamel ones, which is the style still used today. The next year they further improved their bottom line by introducing printed decals and tampos.

In 1977 the redline era came to an end. The red stripes on the wheels, considered by many to be Hot Wheels’ defining feature, disappeared. Although they were removed to further cut costs, it’s also worth noting that the change reflected the fact that redline tires were no longer popular in real cars. You can use this change to help determine the age of any cars you find – at least whether they’re from 1977 or prior – with reasonable accuracy.

The last major change occurred in 1982 when Hot Wheels production moved to Malaysia. While this may not have impacted things for the average consumer, it’s of particular note to those interested in buying and selling the cars today, because you can check the bottom of the vehicle for the word “Malaysia.” There are exceptions, but this change combined with the loss of redlines and Spectraflame can help you date your cars. If your car has redline tires but not Spectraflame, it was made between 1973 and 1977. If your car says “Malaysia” on the bottom, you know that it was made after 1982 even if it has Spectraflame and redlines. Try to memorize these three dates, 1973, 1977, and 1982. Narrowing down the age in this manner is extremely helpful since many models of Hot Wheels remain exactly the same for many years save for very minor differences that you likely won’t notice at first glance.

Note the words “made in MALAYSIA” at the very bottom.

Promotions Take Off

The first McDonald’s promotion occurred in 1983. For the next 7 years McDonald’s sometimes included standard “mainline” Hot Wheels cars in their Happy Meal boxes, complete with original packaging. Starting in 1991 they began distributing the cars in plastic baggies instead of blister-packs. These cars were replicas of the mainlines being sold at the time, but they were made of cheaper material, namely plastic. McDonald’s would not begin producing their own models until the early 2000’s.

The next year, 1984, saw the very first Hot Wheels video game. Simply titled “Hot Wheels,” Epyx published the game to the Commodore 64 to average reviews. Although relatively popular at the time, the game is now somewhat difficult to find. Don’t be fooled though, the majority of collectors only care about the cars themselves.

In 1985 Hot Wheels ran yet another promotional partnership, this time with Kellogg’s. This promotion included both exclusive cars and vehicles that could only be acquired by mail-in order.

But promotions weren’t the only important feature of this era. 1989 saw the production of “experimental cards.” These cards replaced the traditional blisterpacks with various new designs as the company tried to find one that suited them. These experimental cards were only produced for a very short period that year before Mattel settled on the version that would eventually become what we know today. The most important difference in the standard blister-packs here is that from this point on all packaging was reprinted annually. While it isn’t always reliable to date a car by the packaging before 1989, any car afterwards will show the correct year on the card.

A blisterpack from 1989

The Introduction of Series

For collectors of modern Hot Wheels, 1995 is the year it all began. Hot Wheels introduced the concept of “series,” sets of cars with a specific theme like “Rescue Team,” “Father’s Day,” and “James Bond.”

A car from the James Bond series

But there’s only one series you need to know about in order to buy and sell the most valuable Hot Wheels. The Treasure Hunt series. If you intend to collect or flip modern models of Hot Wheels, this is the set you need to know about.

The first Treasure Hunt series was released in 1995 along with the other series. These Treasure Hunt cars were much, much rarer than their counterparts, with only 10,000 being produced in the first year. The 1995 Treasure Hunts appear to be the rarest, although it’s impossible to know for sure. The following year saw a production of 25,000, but after that Mattel no longer released the numbers. In 2007 it appears that they became somewhat more common to make way for the new “Super Treasure Hunts” line, which are much rarer and much more valuable. These Treasure Hunt and Super Treasure Hunt cars are special variations of the mainline series; the basic cars with no particular theme. These variants had numerous changes depending on the model, but most notable was the return of Spectraflame paint, specific to these rare variants. Finding these cars is exactly what it sounds like: hunting for treasure. They are hidden among the other models and series, difficult to discern for those not familiar the differences.

After 1995 most of the noteworthy changes within the company revolved around the Treasure Hunts. It’s a subject that deserves an article of its own, one I might write someday, and is much too complicated to get into here. And so, as far as this article is concerned, that’s everything you need to know. I sincerely hope this knowledge improves your collection and that you found it more useful than the dozens of articles I read for research which all seemed to contain the exact same information, often with suspiciously similar wording. I’ve taken great care to include facts which are largely absent from those pages and to omit details that aren’t relevant to our purposes here. If you enjoyed this article or at least appreciate the concept, please consider visiting my Etsy shop. I never ask for donations or even for you to purchase anything from me, only that you share anything interesting you find on this site or in my shop. Sharing links helps me build revenue, which in turn helps me dedicate more time to writing articles like this one. Thank you so much for sticking through to the end and happy hunting!