Do you remember your first car? Odds are it was fast, shiny, among the most treasured of your possessions – and small enough to fit in your front pocket.
Hot Wheels turns 50 this year, marking a half-century of introducing budding young gearheads to a love of all things wheeled. Over the years, the company has pumped out an estimated six billion cars, nearly one for every person on Earth. We've launched them down the stairs, bounced them off the side board, raced them on intricate orange racetracks and tucked the special ones away in our school backpacks.
This year, the Canadian International Auto Show pays tribute to Hot Wheels with a featured display showing off everything from collectible rarities to the latest model line. There will be an enormous supertrack and a play zone where young fans can build their own race course. You'll be able to scoop up a free model by tagging your social-media pictures with #HotWheels50, or have a go at designing your own Hot Wheels to win a prize-pack and have your sketch built for real. Further, six life-size Hot Wheels creations will be front and centre, including a fully driveable Darth Vader character car built out of a fifth-generation Corvette.
Six life-size Hot Wheels creations will be front and centre at the show.
But if you want to jump in a time machine, leave Lord Vader alone, and check out the 1967 Chevrolet Camaro that Hot Wheels is bringing to the show. This is the genesis of the brand, and part of the reason that Hot Wheels has been so successful for so long.
In the late 1960s, with the United States gripped by hot-rod fever, the only game in town for toy cars was Matchbox. A titan of British industry, Matchbox had started with scaled-down wheeled toys like steamrollers, and had its breakout moment when it produced miniature versions of the royal carriage used in the coronation of Elizabeth II.
The issue? Matchbox cars might have been realistic, but they had the performance of a Ford Anglia with a misfire. Noticing his grandchildren playing with these stodgy machines, Mattel founder Elliot Handler was at first irritated by the competition, then spotted its weakness.
Handler's stroke of genius was hiring not a toy expert, but a performance-obsessed automotive designer. Harry Bentley Bradley was working for GM on the El Camino and Toronado, but he was often found wrenching on his own car to make it faster, as well as submitting designs under a pseudonym to Hot Rod and Custom magazines.
Bradley came up with the first Hot Wheels produced: a blue 1967 Camaro with redline wheels and a custom look. It joined the first set of 16 cars, each of which bottled a little of that essence of Southern Californian car culture. There was a Beetle set up as a dragster, a faithful replica of the Dodge Deora concept, Mustangs and Thunderbirds and even a third-generation Corvette before it was officially launched.
Today, Hot Wheels stays in touch with modern car culture by employing a diverse team of designers.
Thanks to working suspensions and axles made with a slick plastic called Delrin, the new Hot Wheels blew Matchbox into the weeds. The iconic orange tracks came later, along with sets that replicated real-life rivalries, such as the Snake vs. Mongoose dragster battles of Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen.
Today, Hot Wheels stays in touch with modern car culture by employing a team of designers who run the gamut from old-fashioned hot-rodders to those who collect classic Japanese machines. They build life-sized orange ramps for improbable stunts, build SEMA-show specials that ooze speed and make sure there's a mix of realism and fantasy hanging on the peg.
And, even after 50 years, a Hot Wheels will still only set you back a dollar or so, the same as when they first launched. That's a small price to pay for some youngster's first wheels, or being able to park your own dream car right on your desk.
Shopping for a new car? Check out the new Globe Drive Build and Price Tool to see the latest discounts, rebates and rates on new cars, trucks and SUVs. Click here to get your price.