A few posts back I did a little focus on a HW casting I came across right after X-Mas at a local Walmart that I had never seen before and really liked. The Aston Martin DB4 “High Speed Edition” is the stuff dreams are made of: a car that doesn’t exist, but in theory could, since it’s loosely based on a real car that’s already awesome in its stock form. I liked this one so much I put on my diorama, which is a first!
This got me thinking about Hot Wheels’ long history of Fantasy Cars. If you’re a HW fan or collector, you know these go all the way back almost to the beginning; the “Sweet 16” included models of crazy show cars that actually existed in one-off form like Ed Roth’s Beatnik Bandit and Bill Cushenbery’s Silhouette, and one car that had only been made on paper: the Python. The very next year, however, the HW designers let their imaginations run wild and started making up cars out of whole cloth. That year, as you know, was the debut of what may be the best-loved HW fantasy creation of all time: the Twin Mill, a model so iconic that it’s not only been recast countless times through the decades but has also had several sequels and, in the early 2000’s, someone finally built a real life-size functional (sort-of) version of it: a wild case of a toy becoming a real car rather than the other way around!
Looking at the 1:1 scale Twin Mill can get a car guy daydreaming about a wild and crazy world where all these wild creations were real, driveable cars. As the years went on, though, HW’s crazy creations got more and more…well, weird. There were certainly some cool ones (the “Tri-Baby”, the “Mantis,” “The Hood”) but there were also some bizarre and downright ugly messes in there (“What-4,” “T-4-2,” “Muttmobile”). Sadly-but not surprisingly-these weird creations seemed to get worse as time went on, and the mid ‘70s and ‘80s produced some truly gawd-awful dreck (the “Bubble Gunner”, the “Space Van,” the “Science Friction”). These were the cars that turned your humble blogger into a Matchbox fan, although its worth noting that for a short time in the early ‘70s Matchbox tried their own hand at some of the bizarre creations and their results were arguably even worse (who can forget the “Soopa Coopa” and the gawd-awful “Woosh-N-Push?” I wish I could!)
In spite of all this, I’ve always loved the realism of the model cars that looked real, so even though some of those weird fantasy cars are fun, and I own a few, they’re not my favorites; only the really exceptional ones get elevated to my display cases…and I have to admit, the fine folks @ Mattel have been hitting some home runs lately…
Which brings us to today…
Just the in the last couple of years, HW has put out some really cool cars that aren’t real, but very much look like they could be, and I sure wish they were!
“Glory Chaser”
This is one of my favorites; I absolutely love this car, as it looks like a sports-racer from the late 1950’s. I’ve already acquired several of them, my favorite being the light green and yellow one which is reminiscent of the colors used on the Jaguar-powered Lister racers from 1957-60. One of the recent releases was done in Gulf colors-which I believe makes this the first car so colored that isn’t a real car-and I liked that one so much I placed in the inspection area with the rest of the Gulf team cars as a lark; it didn’t stay there long, but I had to admit it looked good!
“El Segundo Coupe”
Named after the Los Angeles enclave where one of my oldest friends once lived, this looks to my eye like a cross between a Lamborghini Jota up front and a Cobra Daytona coupe out back; what a combination! I got a blue one from my brother as a X-mas stocking stuffer and got the teal one on my own, but I’m hunting for one of the earliest releases done in solid gray with white number circles; that one is so cool that if I can track one down, it just may wind up in the racer’s paddock!
“Dimachinni Veloce”
With its sharp angles and severe lines, this looks like a mid-70’s Italian supercar in every way right down to its cool-sounding name! It looks a little like a Lancia Stratos rally car that got stretched out to Buick proportions. I’ve only acquired one of these which I have yet to unpackage, but the one I have sure looks like its rally ready complete with racing numbers and ads from real companies!
“Custom Otto”
While I’m not floored about the name of this one, I sure like the casting! If a C3 Corvette and a Gen II Dodge Charger had a baby, wouldn’t it look like this?
“Muscle Bound”
Well, the name says it all! Definitely inspired by Maxwell Rockatansky’s “Pursuit Special,” I’d wager, but actually better looking than that real car!
“Muscle Speeder”
A little bit Pontiac, a little bit Buick Riviera, a little bit mid-60’s Ferrari: what’s not to love? If this was real, it would be so cool that Hot Wheels would have to make a model of it! This one has been around about a decade already and already gone through countless variations, so there’s a flavor for everyone!
And that brings me back to the beginning of this post, and that Aston Martin DB4 “High Speed Edition.” In that initial post where I showed this car on the diorama I said that I would, by no means, be paying some crazy price for a “Super Treasure Hunt” release. Well…I lied! I found a bargain on one, as it is an “unspun” test shot, but it has different wheels than were used on the “official” STH release so I think that makes it even cooler! Although its shipping from a faraway land and won’t be here until next month, this one may-I say just may-wind up on the diorama as well!
Well, we’ll see! I don’t want to put “unreal” cars on the layout no matter how cool they are, but these sure are temping! There’s a lot of bad castings and awful models, to be sure, but when they get one right, Hot Wheels are still living up to their name!
Those last couple of cars you profiles are actually really cool and even though they don’t exist, sure look like the could and certainly should! Muscle Bound is just awesome and I love the Spitfire style graphics on it. Some of those early fantasy cards do have a kookie sort of charm and I remember some of them from my own childhood. I agree that later they just got weird and outlandish. These new ones you bought are sure some nice to haves though!