Hot Wheels

If The Special doesn’t have enough ‘real’ motors it also has a MASSIVE collection of Hot Wheels cars going back to when the range was first launched.

We’re delighted to grab an insight into the design to shop shelves process: Enjoy!

Creating a Legend, no not the Honda

With more than eight billion vehicles sold, over 16 every second, there can be few toy brands that have reached as many kids and adults as Hot Wheels has in the past 55 years. With a brief from Mattel’s founders to create a toy car that was cooler and performed better than the competition, Hot Wheels has grown to be a major player in the wider car industry and arguably in the wider automotive culture scene. There are now over 25,000 different designs, which have captured the imagination of car lovers of all ages, (it’s OK for adults to collect them!). So, what is it that makes them seemingly powerless to resist? Who hasn’t dropped a couple (or more) in the shopping trolley for a child, friend or, who are we kidding, ourselves, at least once?

It starts with a sketch

Despite their diminutive size, 1:64 scale approximately, the process of creating one isn’t that different to creating its real-life counterpart. The project starts with the design team in El Segundo, California, creating sketches and sourcing images of the car. These are used to help capture as much detail as possible at Hot Wheels’ preferred scale, to guide the sculptor to create the form. This was done in wood in years gone by, but now it’s done digitally with a virtual ball of ‘clay’, like many real cars of today. A stylus tool uses motors at each hinge point to offer feedback when virtually “touching” the model. Such resistance recreates traditional clay development.

Once digitally sculpted, the designer decides how the individual parts will be separated (body, chassis, interior, windows), a process known as ‘parting out’. “There are usually four parts on a mainline car,” says Manson Cheung, the sculptor of all the Hot Wheels Legends cars, as well as the DeLorean (he has one himself – full size). “Sculpting can take up to 80 hours and is where get to come up with ideas for the design and manufacture. For example can we use the interior part to also be the grille and exposed engine, just like we did on Ain’t No Saint Volvo Gasser?” It’s then off to the 3D printers to create the first prototypes. These 3D-printed prototypes are used for visual verification. The design team at Hot Wheels push hard to capture the essence of the car in its 1/64 diecast models whilst also ensuring it looks ‘right’. “We are trying to inject as much detail and realism as we can into a toy,” adds Cheung. That could mean changing some proportions or details, especially as Hot Wheels only has a certain number of wheel sizes. Creativity plays a key role!

Testing, testing

With sign-off complete, more prototypes, usually in the representative materials come next. These often have a tough life, undergoing safety and durability checks before the more fun side of testing on track can take place. Just like the full-scale ones, Hot Wheels cars have to pile on the miles! The designers work to strict dimensions to ensure that new vehicles will work on iconic orange track sets. Tweaks might be needed to the front spoiler or even the ride height to ensure that the cars can do loop the loops, navigate tunnels and get propelled by the Hot Wheels boosters. “It’s work really!” says Cheung.

If it’s a licenced car, so a model of a real car, Hot Wheels will work to get its sign-off. “We are really fortunate to have great relationships with the coolest and most prestigious car brands,” says Cheung.  It’s important to note that we don’t just scale down a full-size model. There is usually some back and forth, but it’s a good process and as we are designers, and they are usually designers, we both understand what each other wants to achieve.

Down the line

If the team is satisfied, then the final production versions can start rolling down the production line before being packed to be sold around the world. It might just take a few hundred words to describe but the process can take up to a year in real time.

If you’ve always wanted your own car created as a Hot Wheels car then every year Hot Wheels runs a competition to find a real car to recreate in 1/64 scale. The winner of the UK final, Michael Wallhead, romped to reach the global semi-finals with his Jaguar engined 1979 MG “B-EAST”. Wallhead’s car fought off stiff competition from a record 274 entrants, with his modified MGB GT, a car that uses reused and recycled elements in a sustainable take on Hot Wheels’ desired ‘garage spirit’, ‘built not bought’ ethos. We’ll find out how he does in the semi-finals on 2 November. If successful, he will head to the Global Finale on 11 November at Jay Leno’s garage in California to be in with a shot at the overall prize. Up for grabs, immortalisation as a Hot Wheels toy that can be purchased across the globe, and induction to the hallowed Hot Wheels Garage of Legends, a collection of life-sized iterations of the most famous models.

Introduced in 1968, and originally intended simply as a line of children’s toys, Hot Wheels has captured the imaginations of people of all ages across the world thanks to their variety, detail and collectability. The brand continues to branch out, and now has a successful video games series, Hot Wheels Unleashed, and an upcoming feature film, alongside its constantly expanding range of fantasy and real-world diecast models.