Mattel HotWheels

I think U've been called out !! Brother I will watch the vid tomorrow

Did a quick count on mine, measly 149.

Rod Serling form the Twilight Zone !!

Marleysky wrote:Well arighty then, you've entered    the Twilight Zone!  

Fess up, How many hot wheel cars do you have? ??

Correct! "Rod Serling".. although I don't have proof. That voice couldn't be anyone else's..

I haven't counted.. but probably not as many as Dave.. I don't have any toys from my childhood.

Three or four years ago, Mattel produced a series of HotWheels that were American Muscle Cars. There were dozens of different ones. That's when I started collecting them. There were AMC, Ford, GM and MOPAR models. All very cool! I'd check the HotWheels "rack" at Walmart every time I shopped. At $0.94/ea. they were an affordable addiction. I bought a few other vehicles outside of the American Muscle series if I thought they were cool. I've also bought a few "Matchbox" (now owned by Mattel..) vehicles. I haven't spent more than $1.00/ea. on any of them. Some of the special-edition/theme vehicles are priced at $3+... but I'm too cheap to pay that.

If I happened to find this original 1967 Custom Camaro in metallic blue paint.. I might pay a premium for it.

Here is a topic i might actually need to BLOCK

since later in life we found out the Hundreds of every comic book we had...then trashed on some move...well you get the idea...we had Number 1 of dang near every Marvel and DC there was from 1957 to 1972

The Post Exchange system actually got Special Military ONLY Mattel Hot Wheels editions...

Pure Cheap fun ---- mom n dad bought us hundreds over the years as Stocking Stuffers

Eventually they all got given away to Good Will of families with young kids through our church

We never did have any of the track sets...just a wide variety of the cars

Pleas o please do not even try to tell me this or that one is so rare it is now worth$35,000... because I know I had one

My favorite episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" is the one with Pee-Wee Herman and his comic book store. Too bad he didn't continue as the brother-in-law.

I don't think I have any Hot Wheels cars. But I do have three unknowns.

Christmas 1979

Thundershift 500! had a crap ton of hotwheels already but this was my first full set. It was a blast!

Hah that made me recall I had the Juice machine and some of the Sizzlers before this vid I only
recall the track, purple tabs to join the tracks the feel of the soft orange track and the smell of
the plastic fresh out of the box on my birthday. I recall the Juice machine took  D batteries.
I only ever had a single track set up with a loop and the curved banks. I remember having a
blue case for my car collection. Back then as a kid all your buds had cars we did trades all the
time. Of course you would find them around the neighborhood in yards, driveways in the street
just sitting there with no one around to claim it so in the pocket it went lol. Of course once I
stepped up to a electric car race track with throttle control having these Hot Wheels was no fun
in comparison. I remember this box too, the white switch to turn on the motor but not any of the cars.

If I happened to find this original 1967 Custom Camaro in metallic blue paint.. I might pay a premium for it.



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I was 10 the summer of '68 and an avid Matchbox collector, I also got my first Hot Wheels car that year a copper '68 Thunderbird. I remember how well it rolled compared to the Matchbox cars and actually built some track out of cardboard, lol, not knowing about (until shortly later) the plastic orange track.
I don't remember trying to collect them, but would seem to get one every now and then. The Matchbox bugs kinda died off as I had gotten a Cox Mini Stunt for my birthday that year (never got it running other couple burps) but the bug bit hard and by '70 its was .049 powered airplanes!
Here's my sole survivor from days gone by:

Check this guy's videos out.

Very very cool. I always enjoy seeing those that take the time to go to such extremes to take a wreck and make it look good. I have a bunch that could use that process. I was wondering if those wheels were available or did he take them from another car. Nonetheless, very informative and cool stuff. When I think back to that era, I played with mine until the wheels fell off. I also recall my collection of Kenner SSP cars .

I never had any "Sizzlers" cars or the "Juice Machine" charger for them, but I did have the "Rod Runner" dual-lane race set.

(all photos from Google images)




and later; the Supercharger Sprint Set (single-level/single-lane)




The Supercharger was a noisy toy.. powered by x2 "D" batteries. An electric motor drove x2 geared-together spools with foam-rings that would grab the car and shoot-it-out the other side! It had a variable speed control-lever.

I love this photo below. The "car" is not period-correct.. but I've always loved Chevrolet Monte Carlo's.. and actually have that model.




Mattel/HotWheels has continued to produce versions of the Supercharger.. but IMO... they're nowhere near as cool as the garage-building vintage version.




and this insane "Criss-Cross-Crash" set version.. (current)







Here's a 1978 "hand-crank" version..

here's a photo i found on the 'net of the one and only sizzler i owned, i do remember how much i loved the color and to this day its still my favorite color.

This afternoon I decided to start cataloging my Hot Wheels/Matchbox miniatures. While in the process.. one of the more dilapidated packages opened.. and the car rolled-out for the first time.. so I thought I'd take a few photos.

It's a Ford "Thunderbolt".







It's one of approx. 75 different Hot Wheels American Muscle-Cars that I've collected over the last few years.

Wow. Some of these cars are very nice. I agree that these could be a new addiction collection. New in the package cars like you have set up on the table roddie would also look nice displayed like that on a wall......

NEW222 wrote:Wow. Some of these cars are very nice. I agree that these could be a new addiction collection. New in the package cars like you have set up on the table roddie would also look nice displayed like that on a wall......

Thanks Chancey, I need to figure out a better way to at least store them.. until I can find a way to display them. There's nearly 100 miniatures. Pegboard/hooks makes the most sense for either.. but I don't have the wall-space. I thought about stringing "tie-wire" across the joist-bays in the ceiling of the new shed.. and hanging the packages up out of the way until I decide on a display. I've been collecting these solely for the enjoyment.. so I could remove them from their packaging if I devise some sort of curio cabinet for them.

I really enjoy photographing them.. but the packaging prevents getting any really good images. As I mentioned; 75% of the miniatures are American Muscle cars of the 50's through the 80's. The other 25% are utility-vehicles, foreign sports-cars and exotics. A few are "Matchbox Series".

some Mopars..




some Fords..




A Lincoln police cruiser..



some Chevys..




some Buicks..




some Pontiacs..




only one Oldsmobile so far..



a Cadillac..



only one AMC so far..



If I photographed 3-views of "all" my miniatures, There would be over 300 images.

Chevys, Fords and Mopars make-up the majority of the American Muscle Cars in my collection because Mattel produced many different models of these. Corvettes, Impala's, Nova's Chevelles, Camaro's, El Camino's, Monte Carlo's, Mustangs, Galaxies, Fairlanes, Torinos, Barracudas, Challengers, Chargers, GTX's, Road Runners, Superbirds.. the list goes on and on.

Thanks for taking some pictures for us to enjoy. Now this is making me want to look and see if I can find any of mine from childhood. I know somewhere I HAD (still may at my parents house) a Hot Wheels carrier in the shape of a wheel in which the cars were organized in a clock like fashion. Now to go hunting this week.

Matchbox all the way for me.  I had a lot of the early scale stuff but got into the more "radical" Superfast models once i got a racing track set.  It was gravity for me- never had a motorized "booster" like the Hotwheels ones shown, but I did have a "Skyjack".  Here's a clip I found of one.  

My favourite model was the Yellow Boss Mustang, #44.  Still have it in original box.  Remember, I'm unable to attach pictures.
Here's one the same on ebay. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MATCHBOX-SUPERFAST-44-BOSS-MUSTANG-VNM-W-ORIGINAL-BOX/302651045195?hash=item467768754b:g:UZ4AAOSw6SVakva7

Roddie,
Very cool die cast of the 1964 Ford Thunderbolt..
Don't know if you were aware of it, but, one of the very first Thunderbolts was raced by Tasca Ford in Providence,RI.
As I recall, the first 11 or 12 off the assembly line of Dearborn Steel Tubing was painted Burgundy which denoted it was for a "factory" racer. The Tasca car was burgundy.
Each "factory" car had gold number decal attached to the outside of the windshield right behind the rear view mirror area.
I can't remember the Tasca car's gold number but I can find it easy enough on my second fav website after CEF, of course, called "George Klass Remembers".
WARNING...If you like old Drag Cars and Hot Rods, DO NOT go this website unless you have several hours to view the many thousands of 1960's cars of all US makes !!!!!
It may ruin the value to dress up the T-Bolt model that you have, but putting it in the Tasca colors would get a lot of attention.....
If you ever saw an original T-bolt running, you'd always remember it...They were quite impressive !!!
FWIW...Steve...

COOL STUFF guys!

Chancey, I hope you find that "mag-wheel" car-carrier suitcase. I remember those!

Rod, I like that "Sky Jack" set!!! I have about a dozen of the original (non-Super Fast) Matchbox miniatures. I remember vividly; playing with them as a very young boy before there was any type of track to run them on.

66 Malibu wrote:Roddie,
Very cool die cast of the 1964 Ford Thunderbolt..
Don't know if you were aware of it, but, one of the very first Thunderbolts was raced by Tasca Ford in Providence,RI.
As I recall, the first 11 or 12 off the assembly line of Dearborn Steel Tubing was painted Burgundy which denoted it was for a "factory" racer. The Tasca car was burgundy.
Each "factory" car had gold number decal attached to the outside of the windshield right behind the rear view mirror area.
I can't remember the Tasca car's gold number but I can find it easy enough on my second fav website after CEF, of course, called "George Klass Remembers".
WARNING...If you like old Drag Cars and Hot Rods, DO NOT go this website unless you have several hours to view the many thousands of 1960's cars of all US makes !!!!!
It may ruin the value to dress up the T-Bolt model that you have, but putting it in the Tasca colors would get a lot of attention.....
If you ever saw an original T-bolt running, you'd always remember it...They were quite impressive !!!
FWIW...Steve...

Hey Steve! Yes!! A buddy of mine has a 1:18 scale die-cast model of the Tasca Thunderbolt. I believe that Tasca had the models custom-made back in the day.

It looks like they might still be available..




I bought an "Ertl" 1:18 scale (non-Tasca) version to give as a "Yankee-Swap" gift at a Christmas party years ago.



Really nice detailing..

WoW !!! Sweet model with incredible detail work !!!! Details down to the original M/T Rader mag wheels.
Had set of those back in the day on my Chevelle but sold them when I moved to Ft.Lauderdale to try to keep the local maggots from stealing the car !!!! They were about $25 each then and now repopped for $300 each...
Always doing stupid stuff is the norm for me...
Love to see those old models...
Steve..............

roddie wrote:COOL STUFF guys!

Chancey, I hope you find that "mag-wheel" car-carrier suitcase. I remember those!

Rod, I like that "Sky Jack" set!!! I have about a dozen of the original (non-Super Fast) Matchbox miniatures. I remember vividly; playing with them as a very young boy before there was any type of track to run them on.

Roddie.
Your picture could have been my own.  I had the Matchbox carry case with four blue plastic racks as shown in your picture, plus I have most of the models shown.  For some reason when I really liked a model I ended up with multiples. I note you also doubled up.
The Skyjack was great. I still have it but it's broken. You could set it going and it would keep running on its own until the battery ran out. The same car would just keep going round and round.