It’s frustrating sometimes trying to keep the tangled web of Hot Wheels special editions and collector’s series straight. There have been so many of them over the last 25 years that I still find myself discovering new ones that I didn’t even know existed. Here is one such discovery that I am particularly enamored of: the “Neo Classics” line, a series of limited edition releases made between 2003 and 2016. These have since been superseded by the Red Line Club exclusives, but the original concept used here is something that I wish Mattel had done years earlier!
Every diecast collector and toy car fanatic in the world is keenly aware of the desirability of the first five years of Hot Wheels: the cars made between 1968 and 1972 are the hottest things in the diecast collector universe, and they probably always will be. Many times over the years, and in many ways, Mattel tried to recapture that magic to satisfy the growing adult collector market. One of these efforts that I particularly remember was from 1993 when they released the 25th anniversary edition cars. I bought stacks of these at the Toys “R” Us in Ontario California when I was 22 years old (a store that is not only long-defunct but even the building itself is gone!). These are packed away somewhere deep in the catacombs of my basement and haven’t seen the light of day in decades. They were a nice idea, but made with the common blackwall style wheels and axles in use on mainlines of the day and with mere metallic paint that tried-and failed-to emulate the beauty of the Spectraflame style, even at the time I didn’t feel like they were very impressive. It seems that most collectors agree, because they sell today for prices not much higher than when they were new!
They tried again in 1999; that was the year that they released the collectibles usually referred to as the “Black Box cars.” These were almost exact represses of some of the original castings that even had the original style wheels with the wire axles and bearings. Some collectors also refer to these as ”100%’ers,” because of the accuracy of the recreations.
These releases really hit the mark and through the next 5 years, they had it right: after the “Black Box” series, the next big retro collector series was the Neo Classics.
The Neo series can be confusing because it’s a little bit schizophrenic: some Neo Classics are definite represses of some of the original cars from the first five years, but the majority of them are newer castings that were simply redone with the closed end-style wheels and beautiful Spectraflame paint to look like the original cars. While there are some collectors that seem to dislike this idea, I think it’s brilliant, because it seems to me like the goal they were trying to achieve was not merely to reproduce the original cars, but to reproduce the look and the feel of the original cars. That’s an important distinction, and I think they got it right.
It’s important to note that although the wheels on the Neo Classics look like the original closed end bearing-style wheels that were used on the first hot wheels, they are actually a single piece wheel connected to an axle in a way similar to the 1973 and newer style which is still in use today. This is a significant difference between the early black box releases for 1998/99 and the Neos. So they aren’t the same as the originals, but they sure look the part!
The Neos were difficult to obtain by design: they were offered only through the Redline Club or at collector’s conventions, and they were made in limited numbers, although not so limited that they are prohibitively expensive today. Each copy had a holographic sticker on the back of the package showing the production number specific to that car.
Over the last week, I have acquired three of them to see what they were like, and although I’m impressed with what I’m seeing, I am again lamenting the packaging issue, because, with their thick card-stock backing and dual sided windows, the packaging is so nice that I can’t bring myself to open these, and I would love to hold them in my hand and inspect the wheels and axles up close.
Two of my recent purchases are newer castings done in the old school style: a ’68 El Camino and a ’56 Ford panel van. The third one, the most expensive of this trio, is a repress of the original 1968 Mustang fastback, done in a beautiful Spectraflame gold with a matte black roof and “Spoliers”-style stripes and numbering. It is a beautiful piece that stirs my soul; looking at it, even in the package, it’s a little easier to understand way some crazy collectors will pay thousands of dollars for mint copies of the original cars! I am not that crazy; I’ve admitted that there are 2 or 3 rare toy cars in the world that I might pay a 4-figure price for if given a chance, but they are Matchboxes (sorry HW fans!) Yet, even so, I get it!
The Neo Classics are long out of production but there are still plenty of them out there to collect; they’re not cheap, but they won’t break the bank like the originals, offering you a chance to recapture some of that early Redline magic while staying on this side of the sanity line!
You are right about all the different special editions. You have showcased so many on your blog and it’s been great to see and learn about them! Thanks for putting all this effort into it!
Yep, its pretty crazy! I had to do online research to figure out the span of years these “Neo Classics” were made; I was only peripherally aware of them until recently, and I didn’t know how long they were in production or the extent of models that were produced like this. There are quite a few of them and they are beautiful! HW has yet another new series out now, called the “Silver Series” for vintage Mustangs. These are not quite premium (still have plastic bases) but come with a new wheel design that’s pretty cool and really nice packaging. And they’re still doing the “Final Run” releases that are supposed to be the last issues of older castings that are about to be retired. And that’s in addition to the RLCs and the Car Culture line and the various iterations of the Real Riders and the cool “Flying Customs” retros and all the movie and TV-themed releases and…and… Who can keep up???