FEEL THE HEAT

Now we come to a favourite topic of mine, Hot Wheels cars! The original 1967 catalogue that came with most boxed items, was a tiny, discrete affair, about 3" long and brightly coloured like the packaging. Mattel opted for lovely restrained illustrations of the line, rather than photographs, setting the bar for automotive illustration in toys at one stroke. 

At this point the line is limited to the 'Sweet 16' - a range of established designs and some exotics as designed by the  Mattel maestro and real world car designer, Harry Bentley Bradley. The cover of the catalogue shows a car which would not be part of the line until many decades later, when it was added to the line as the 'Custom Otto', designed by Larry Wood, based on the artwork by Otto Kuhni.

Fast forward to 1969 and we have the Hot Wheels Racing Guide and a big, a4 ducument in full colour, photography heavy. Its at this point, that my love affair with the cars begins, as when I saw the new lineup with names such as 'Noodle Head', 'Splittin Image', 'Swingin' Wing' and others, I was hooked.

This is my benchmark and the point at which my redline collection starts and ends. Thus far I have managed to find 19 of these wonderful models. I have so far avoided collecting the Can-Am and Hot rod style cars and concentrated on the exotics.

Besides the standard redline range and the Sizzler, motorised range, Mattel introduced a line of larger workhorse type vehicles, called 'Heavyweights'. These ranged from small utility vehicles, to lorries and articulated transports.

A difficult line to collect, as the open cabin is very often damaged or scuffed and a lot of the rear bodies are plastic.

On now to another benchmark era - 1971 and Mattel really go to town with the ranges, moving from the road to rail and air!

Once more. Mattel contrived to get its toy hooks firmly embedded in my psyche, as splash pages in a lot of seventies Marvel and DC comics, carried the above advertisement for the elusive Hot Birds line.

Hot Birds were fully diecast airplanes, with moveable undercarriage, aerolons and engine covers. The idea was to place the plane on a special hook, run it on a length of nylon filament and land it on a plastic runaway, much like the Airfix Flight Deck toy.

Six radical swept wing designs were made and various sets with towers and runways. Unfortunately for Mattel, Hot Wings crashed and burned sectacularly as a concept and never made it out of 1971.

Its a shame, as the aircraft are beautiful models and average about 5" long and quite heavy. They were sold carded and in larger sets.

Another innovative idea which did not get far was the 'Hot Line' train set - using a similar engine to the Sizzers cars, super streamlined locomotives blasted around a trackway, powered up from Sizzlers Juice Machines. Once more, the design looked great, but failed to capture the childhood imagination for some reason.

Clearly understanding where their market lay, Mattel continued with the diecast motorbike range of RRumblers, with great looking bikes and choppers, mounted on a special rig with tiny wheels to stabilise the bike on the track.

The Sizzlers line was extended with a few extra models and a great Fat Track, which allowed the motorised cars to jockey for position and overtake on the bends. Several special tack elements were included, such as a high rise spiral track, u-turns, speed brakes and an innovative 'Lap Computer'.

The Heavyweights and the standard lines were naturally included, but the marketing for the standard Hot Wheels cars, seems a little restrained.

More real world designs were included and less emphasis was placed on the more exotic and sensational designs. Raile dragsters and hot rods made more of an appearance too.

Fast forward once more, to another watershed moment in 1973, when the European catalogue appears and looks like it has been put together in a rush. Production values for the advertising are much lower, the paper is flimsy and the catalogue sparse, despite introducing new lines. Many of the earlier ranges, such as Hot Birds, Hot Lines and Sizzers are not present.

Its at this point that some of my favourite ever cars apear, such as the beautiful Whip Creamer with spinning turbine under a glass roof, designed by Paul Tam and Larry Wood.

Another new line was the Fun Buggies (named Zowees in the US) - which were tiny 2" long mini Howt Wheels cars.

The Fun Buggy range was available in a small header carded baggie at the bargain price of just 10p!

In a promotional exercise, when I bought the Whip Creamer, it was also 10p, reduced from the list price of 19p! Eight models were available on release, with the US seeing a second wave of rare designs in another series of 8 further models.

The standard range of cars still have a god showing of exotics, with many new and radical designs, such as Hairy Hauler, Tri-Baby and Mod Quad/ RRumblers are still going strong too.

Its interesting to note the influence of Larry Wood, in the design of cars and bikes, as models such as the Boneshaker egin to appear. There is a major difference in price, too, with the bikes being 20p more than the cars at 39p each. 

Finally, Mattel diversify once again, with another toy line, the Hot Shots. Four plastic pull back motor dragsters. Once more, these were short lived and disappeared from shelves quite quickly.