Angelo Vanbogart - Hot Wheels Forty Years

40 YEARS

Angelo Van Bogart

2007 Krause Publications

Published by

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All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a critical article or review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper, or electronically transmitted on radio, television, or the Internet.

BARBIE, HOT WHEELS, MATCHBOX and associated trademarks and trade dress are owned by, and used under license from Mattel, Inc. 2007 Mattel, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mattel makes no representation as to the authenticity of the materials contained herein. All opinions are those of the authors and not of Mattel.

All Hot Wheels images and art are owned by Mattel, Inc. 2007 Mattel, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007922996

ISBN-13: 978-0-89689-568-3
ISBN-10: 0-89689-568-8

Designed by Elizabeth Krogwold
Edited by Joe Kertzman

Printed in China

Dedication: To my brother Nathan , who not
only collects Hot Wheels cars, but also loves playing with them.

Acknowledgments:

Hot Wheels cars are fun, and working with Hot Wheels cars should be just as fun. Thanks to the great people who helped assemble this book, writing it was as enjoyable as sending a freshly opened First Edition down a stretch of orange track.

If it werent for collector Bob Whaley, the dazzling Spectraflame colors of Hot Wheels cars wouldnt be illustrated in this book. Whaley opened his collection to Doug Mitchels camera lens and my own curiosity. For Whaleys time and gift of sharing his collection, I am deeply indebted to him. To complement Whaleys collection and my own in this book, my fellow F&W Publications coworker Tom Michael generously allowed his childhood redline collection to be photographed, and even dragged them out of his home in sub-zero temperatures for our photo shoot.

Several Mattel staffers also took time out of their busy schedules, and continue to do so through my Hot Wheels column in Toy Cars & Models magazine, to share the constantly changing history of the Hot Wheels brand. For their patience and valuable efforts to share Hot Wheels information, I offer a since Thank you. Those Mattel employees include, but are not limited to, Mark Jones, Ray Adler, John Ludwig and Phil Riehlman.

Toy Cars & Models Editor Merry Dudley and Toy Shop Editor Tom Bartsch have also come to my aid by editing my Hot Wheels column and encouraging my fascination with toys, as well as my professionalism in the publishing field. On this project, book editor Joe Kertzman showed a level of patience that is unheard of in a deadline-riddled publishing schedule, and his efforts to pour over this story are deeply appreciated.

Finally, this book would not contain the beautiful photographs it does if it werent for the efforts of Doug Mitchel, Kris Kandler and Bob Best. Thanks to their skills, the pages between the covers show the excitement that Hot Wheels cars created for generations of children across the planet.

Contents

Chapter 1:
Building Better Wheels

Chapter 2:
Preparing for the Pegs

Chapter 3:
Wheeling Through the 70s, and Beyond

Chapter 4:
Looking Back to Move Ahead

Chapter 5:
Spicing Up Store Shelves

Chapter 6:
Driving the Dreams of Designers

Chapter 7:
Top 40 Castings for the Hot Wheels 40th Anniversary

Introduction

40 years of hot designs and cool collectibles

In 1968, when Hot Wheels cars hit the market, toy manufacturers didnt expect new toys to catch the fancy of children for more than a year. If a toys popularity went to two years, it was considered to have a long life. But for 40 years, children have sought out Hot Wheels cars, cracked them open from their packages, and rolled them around linoleum kitchen floors and living room carpets. For just as long, collectors have raided store shelves for the die-cast toy cars and displayed them like valuable vases and other works of art, and rightly so.

This book explains the magic of Hot Wheels cars through the eyes of someone who, like many collectors, begged his parents for Hot Wheels cars as a kid and grew into an adult collector. The creators of Hot Wheels cars, the marketing agents behind the brand and the designers are all part of the magic, and many of them explain the cars and the processes that make that magic.

Of course, Hot Wheels magic manifests itself in the form of the $1 cars that are the mainstay of the line. The cars come in many styles, including redlines, Treasure Hunts, variations and other desirable Hot Wheels series. In each series are cars that children have enjoyed playing with and collectors have coveted since 1968.

Elliot and Ruth Handler probably never realized the longevity of the toy they had created to compete with Matchbox cars, nor could they have predicted how much their toys would dominate the die-cast toy car market. And 40 years later, children and collectors would be hard-pressed to imagine a world without them.

Chapter One

BUILDING BETTER WHEELS

This red Custom Firebird helped set Hot Wheels sales on fire at the debut of the scale cars.

T ens of millions of children came close to missing the chance to play with Hot Wheels cars. And many adults almost lost the opportunity to build a hobby around toy cars. But thanks to the instincts of Mattel cofounder Elliot Handler, generations of young boys and girls filled their short summers racing die-cast cars down stretches of sidewalk and sections of orange racetrack.

In 1966 Handler, despite coming relatively late into the game, realized that there was room in the market for another pocket-sized, die-cast toy car. His marketing department, as well as his wife, Ruth, disagreed with his analysis. They argued that the die-cast toy car market was saturated, mainly by highly successful toy cars from the British Matchbox brand. Not to be stopped, Elliot trusted his instincts and set the stage for what would become Hot Wheels cars.