PERSEVERING IN NEW ZEALAND

Here are my own photographs of the brand new Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover, from the 2021 range. I have been wanting one of these since I first saw it mentioned. In April 2021 I finally found one in my local Countdown supermarket, and snapped it up.

The model is a straight re-issue of the Mars Rover Curiosity from 2012. All versions are white painted metal, with a revolving camera mast in white plastic, and black plastic suspension arms along the sides.

The base is clear plastic, and there is a small NASA logo at the front. Details are picked out in gold, silver, and black. The only difference between Curiosity and Perseverance seems to be in the wheels. The original version from 2012 had black tyres, with chrome spokes.

This came on a card with a yellow stripe down the right hand side, and the words 2012 New Models. The version from the 2014 HW City line (blue stripe on the side of the card) had streaky brown wheels with chrome spokes. The 2021 Perseverance version has plain brown wheels, with grey spokes.

The card has a dark grey stripe. This is one of five models in the HW Space sub-series, but it is the only factual space vehicle in the set. On the underside of the base are NASA/JPL-Caltech, Made in Malaysia, and copyright 2012 Mattel. The actual vehicle name does not appear.

The Hot Wheels model is a lot more solid than the real thing, but it does have to stand up to be played with in Earth gravity. Still a really nice model, and I am very pleased to add it to my collection.

The Mars scape is actually the moulded JTT lunar/bomb craters sheet that I have mentioned before. I really must get around to painting this.

Paul Adams from New Zealand