The Cars the Star

In a vain attempt to prove to Woodsy that I do actually have 20 Redlines, I ventured into the archives to retrieve them. Typically, I couldn.t find the Beatnik Bandit, Beach Bomb or Custom Volkswagen, but I did get the majority of my favourites.

The Jet Threat is one of the best exotics from the redline era, a jet turbine mounted inside a Can-Am body. The first release had an opening centre panel revealing a plastic inner turbo, but as a cost saving measure, Mattel eventually did away with the hatch a cast the engine in one block. This is a re-painted second generation model, which had seen better days, so I straightened the axles, and resprayed the body.  

Rocket Bye Baby is a late release in the redline era and one of the models which were also released as giveaways by Shell Oil in the states, in a simpler form, without the plastic elements. Swingin Wing was offered too, but oddly without a wing!

One of the first departures from traditional automotive design in toys was Splittin Image, ushering in a drastically different style from that seen in Tootsie Toys or Matchbox. Whereas the first Hot Wheels had been mostly american muscle, with a few hot rods, Splittin Image was a radical, futuristic look. 

Whip Creamer solidified my love of the exotic auto when I saw it back in 1973, radical lines, spectacular colour and a neat turbine feature meant it sat neatly in line with my love of the space age.

The slide back canopy reveals the spinning turbine at the rear, which will spin if you blow in the rear vents. In this model, the actual turbine is a replacement part from a Corgi Whizwheels car.

Mod Quad arrived with the Whip Creamer and is another heavyweight racer, four big die cast engines help to hold it securely down on the track.

Taking classic El Camino styling to the limit, the Hauler looks amazing and has one of the best records in speedruns too,

A long, beautiful body capped by a variable position wing, meant the car looked stunning if it wasn't exactly suitable for most trackside accessories. 

Silhouette was probaly my second ever HW car and has borne the years of heavy playwear well.

Deaora, the very first HW car, is long missing the surfboards and was originally dark purple. Its since been repainted endlessly, receiving its most recent coat along with the Jet Threat.

Revvers were a late seventies invention, adding elastic band power to HW cars. The Burning Box was benefitted from a few spray jobs too.

And to the very recent release of Slide Kick, an almost completely plastic model, with slide out seat. 

  Jet Threat III (?) which i'm choosing to call it as theres no designation underneath, is a recent release in a space theme. As much as I like the basic design, toffee coloured wheels are really not for me.

From the same series, the Swamp Buggy is about as far from original Redline styling as its possible to go and looks like it would be more at home in a Spacex re-release!