Those of us who race slot cars are likely fans of die-cast racing as well. It is different, to be sure; without the motor we have to depend on gravity for action, but it can still be a lot of fun. And if you read this blog, even occasionally, chances are you’re the type that had at least one Hot Wheels track when you were a young’un-and probably a lot more than one!
Right from the beginning-knowing they had a winner of a toy on their hands-Mattel had not one but multiple racing sets designed and ready to go into production when Hot Wheels first hit the market in 1968. Sets ranged from the simple “Strip Action Drag Set” to the twisty “Hot Curves” set to the one trick that has defined the brand perhaps more than anything else: the perennially popular “Daredevil Loop,” a feature so iconic that it not only persists to this day, but has even been the subject of a mind-blowing real, life-sized 1:1 build! Amazing!
Almost all of us must surely have memories of our favorites, but which was yours? There are so many different sets-hundreds of designs and variations over the last 57 years-that its hard to even pick one! Checking the Hot Wheels Wiki on Fandom, there are 446 entries for track sets, and is that even all of them??? Ah, the wonders of American capitalism combined with the love of parents for their children: its a combination that has created the happiest memories of our lives, and if you want to relive them, where do you start?
I still remember my first set, which I got at the age of 5; it was the awesome “Thrill Drivers Corkscrew”, a double-loop challenge delivered with a pair of specially marked Chevy Monte Carlo stockers that are highly sought after today (or were they Ford Torinos? You know…I never was sure! :D). What made this set exceptionally cool is that, unlike most sets before it where the track was a solid orange color, the Thrill Drivers track was one of many issued in 1976 with red, white, and blue track in honor of America’s bicentennial year.
I kept that track and reused it for years, but of course, in time, some parts got broken, others got lost, and eventually the plastic grooves underneath the track that slid into the plastic connectors began to split from excessive use. But good gawd, did my mom and dad ever get their money’s worth out of that one! That track kept their little car-crazy savage occupied for hours on end! What an investment!
As cool as it was-and as much as I’d like to have it back-it wasn’t my favorite one; that honor goes to one I had a couple of years later! Although its a tough call with nearly 60 years and 500+ designs to choose from, my pick for the best Hot Wheels track set of all time is…
The THUNDERSHIFT 500!!!
First introduced in 1974, the awesomeness of this thing was just over the top! It required involvement, hand-eye coordination, something akin to actual driving for a kid! This was only one small step down from an electric slot car set, and since it was heavy-duty and well made, as things were back then, it lasted for hours of play!
A second release, recolored and called the Thundershift Roarin’ Raceway, was released in 1978, and what’s curious is that the timing would suggest that this was the set I had, because I got it when we lived in our first house in Temple City so it would have been around 1977-79. And yet, I distinctly remember that my set had a white launcher rather than a blue one; looking at pictures of the original issue from ‘74-’75, I know that this was the one I had! Not sure exactly how that happened, but there’s no mistaking it: and yes, my memory of my childhood is “that good!” I can still hear the cool “chunk-chunk!” sound it made, which you can hear in this great YouTube video of another nostalgic dad who bought a copy of his own childhood toy for his kids:
Racing against a friend (or my dad) on the T-shift 500 took some skill, and the choice of cars was critical; not every car was good on this track-you didn’t want to use one that was too light or too heavy,, but right in the middle-and in some cases the slower cars were actually better, as a good whack with the stick could send a real blazer off at such a speed that it would wipe out even on the banked turn. The force you used to jam down on the lever made a small difference, but the big deal was timing: you had to learn when to “shift,” and the timing required for an optimal lap was different with each car!
The only negative thing about the track sets was that they were not conducive to keeping your cars pristine: all those sets beat the cars up pretty bad, and the Thundershift 500 was exceptionally hard on them by nature, especially if you missed a beat and threw the lever too soon and whacked your car from underneath! This, of course, is one of the reasons why any special cars that were released only with sets are among the most valuable Hot Wheels if you can find them in good condition! If you had a track set today, you probably wouldn’t put your $300+ original Redlines on it! But hey, today’s “mainlines” are still just over a buck, and with today’s wheel and axle designs, they are faster than ever! Sounds like an invitation to mischief if I ever heard one!
This raises the question: what happened to my set? Well, here again, my excellent memory goes dark: like the mystery of the Matchbox Speedtrack, I cannot recall its fate: which tells me that it was garage-saled or round-filed by mom on a school day after years of unuse. ..leaving me now to spend many hundreds to try to get it back. And trust me: I WILL!
You might be amazed to learn that today, your humble blogger has only one HW track, a very small set given to me as a gift by my now former partner for Thanksgiving in 2019: the Crash Course starter set is a small figure 8 with a battery powered motor, but with a jump at the junction and adjustable ramps, it recaptures some of the magic of those sets of old! Its been a while since I’ve used it, but just a few days ago I found it in my dungeon store room (that would be the “The Oddly Angled Room” I revealed here) and I think it may be time to light it up again soon. One can only wonder if this will have the same “electrifying” (hee hee) affect on my life as that cold day in early January 5 years ago when I set up my childhood Tyco racing set for the 1st time in ages and launched a whole new hobby!
Whatever set was your favorite, you might want to hit the sites and go looking for a copy in good shape, either for your own kids or yourself! Sure, it will cost a lot more than it did when it was new, but I bet you it will be worth it!
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