I’ve been to a lot of car shows, but I’ve seen nothing that’s attracted more over the top hotrods than Hot Wheels Legends 50th Anniversary Tour. Karen and I arrived at the Walmart parking lot in Huntersville, NC Saturday morning (7-28-18) to find thousands of car fanatics had filled the giant lot to overflowing and curb-hopping spaces in the grass were mostly taken.
One finalist from the 15 cities the tour stops in will get a trip to Vegas and a shot at having their car immortalized as a die-cast Hot Wheels collectable. Car-crazy builders brought their creations from a dozen states for a shot at Hot Wheels glory.
Life-size Hot Wheels Cars were on display with hundreds of local beauties. “Never Enough” was the theme for most of these cars.
From rust buckets to metallic brilliance, piling multiple blowers and carburetors on you motor was popular.
Hot Wheels introduced the “Sweet 16” mini cars in 1968 and the influence on custom cars and Pop Culture was instantly indelible.
Little kids to Baby Boomers lined up to point out cars they owned in the Historical Die-Cast Display.
Hot Wheels reach nearly 300 scaled miles per hour thanks to a former Raytheon engineer named Jack Ryan who designed the car’s bearings. Hot Wheels makes more than 6,000 miles of orange track each year.
Life-sized Hot Wheels cars are cartoonish but still oh-so cool. Every second 16.5 Hot Wheels cars are produced. That’s more than six billion cars and over 20,000 designs since inception.
Advertising has been a part of Hot Wheels since the beginning. “The Vending Machine” also comes in a 1/24 scale model. Designers from GM, Ford, and Chrysler joined Hot Wheels’ team to be able to design an entire car with the mandate that they, “Not only have to look exciting, they have to be exciting.”
The Hot Wheels garage houses a collection of 20 real-life cars inspired by the most memorable Hot Wheels toys.
Every toy, like the 50th Anniversary Car, begins with a sketch, then a 3D-print design that must fly down the track. After adjustments, wallah, a 1/64 scale, die-cast car. The 50th Anniversary car also was made life-size, has 1,000 hp and runs scary fast. Building a life-size, Hot Wheels car is extremely challenging.
After all the excitement in the parking lot we rushed into Walmart to purchase our 50th edition car for less than 5 bucks. Most Hot Wheels cars still sell for around a dollar, but we were ready to shell out the big dough for the blue beauty. Alas, the racks were bare. Those Hot Wheels really do, “Go Fast!”
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