For many years, Hot Wheels has used these little “series names” that they put their releases in; these are always printed on the blister cards. There have probably been hundreds of these over the years: “Muscle Mania,” “Rod Squad,” “Dream Garage,” “Race Day,” “HW City,” HW Dirt”…they’re almost endless. I don’t know how many collectors out there really pay any attention to these “categories,” but I never have.
Well…except for one…
Sometime around the late twenty-tens, one of these series actually made me pay attention, because the releases in this category had such incredibly awesome paint jobs that they were always worth buying, even if you didn’t love the car the paint was on! That was the “Heat Fleet,” which was later slightly altered in the mid-teens and renamed “HW FLAMES.” These series showcased some of the coolest kustom paint styles ever seen @ 1:64! This series fell by the wayside around 2020, but that doesn’t mean they won’t bring it back someday! However, even if it is a thing of past, those cars from that series are still readily available in the 2nd hand market, and I’m happy to say I’ve obtained quite a few of them!
Shown here are just a few from the upcoming “Opening Orgy” which I’ve been promoting for about a week now, and which will be up coming this weekend, provided that my “HW partner” gets back from his international travels without incident. These are not the only ones I have, but these jewels from the set of roughly 300 cars I’ll be ripping into this weekend show just how cool this series was, and just why Mattel should bring it back!
Of course, there are plenty of these HW Flames cars that aren’t being opened this weekend. Some of them may be up for grabs someday, so keep your eye peeled and let me know if you see something you can’t live without! I’m not “officially” selling anything, but I might strike a deal between friends!
Starting Opening Early with a “Hot Wheels 8”
Sounds like the name of a gang on the FBI’s most wanted list, but these HW “8-Packs” are sold at Wallyworld and some other “Big Box” stores. In the past I didn’t really pay much mind to these, since it always seemed to me like these sets were designed to get rid of the “peg warmer” cars that didn’t sell well. Perhaps that was true in the past, but lately they’ve been packing these with some really cool cars!
Wallyworld sells these 8-packs for $8.88 – Hah! Cute! – and that seems like a pretty good deal at just a hair over a buck per car.Jason picked up a set a while ago that I was thoroughly jealous of and I’ve been looking for one like it since, and just last Saturday I finally found one; not identical to the cool one he scored, but mighty close!
As I was contemplating opening this box on Sunday night, I heard a jingle appear in the back of my head: a door to the distant past opened and I heard something from a radio station I listened to as a young’un, between roughly 1982 and 1985.
If you grew up in the Los Angeles area in the 1970’s – 1990’s, you are probably aware of “KIIS FM,” the call letters of 102.7 on the FM dial. The station has been in existence since the 1960’s, and has always played “Top 40.” That means that by the end of the ‘80s it was completely unlistenable, and frankly I would probably melt if you forced me to listen to it today for even 5 minutes! But remember that back in the early ‘80s, music was so good that even Top 40 contained New Wave classics by bands like The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, Billy Idol, Pet Shop Boys, and of course Duran Duran: in fact, I first got into that British Invasion sound thanks in part to their heavy rotation on this very station! Once a week they did a program called “The Top 8 At 8.” Starting at 8:00, they would play in sequence Billboard 100’s top selling 8 singles that week. #1 was almost always something awful, but occasionally some stuff I really liked managed to crack the top of the charts…at least, in the beginning.
As the ‘80’s wore on and popular music began to go down the toilet, I discovered another famous LA station, 106.7 on the FM dial: that, of course, was KROQ, but I had to listen to that one on my own or with friends, because the music thereon was a little “weird” and “scary” for mom or dad when we were in the car. That wasn’t a problem once I got my own car, but back before I could drive, when my sister-4 years my junior-was just entering that “boppy” stage that most girls start going through around age 11, only “Top 40” was allowed in the car during “family excursions”…that is, when we weren’t forced to listen to elevator music! And so, as a little flashback to those halcyon days, here’s Drag City Raceway’s own “Top 8 @ 8,” made possible by Hot Wheels! A couple of the cars from this set are so cool that they might qualify as “diorama grade,” but even if they don’t make it there, opening a package like this is still a lot of fun!
What I thought was so maddening about those sets that there were usually one car that I really wanted but couldn’t find as a single on the rack! I had the same experience with the music that I liked verses my younger sister though we never listened the radio in the car on family exersions. My folks didn’t like the radio playing, they said it was too distracting and I know they weren’t interested in the music that I liked anyways. The HW Flames are nice. While I’ve never been big on custom paint jobs, I’ve always found flame paint on cars irresistible!