The first Hot Wheels cars were introduced by Mattel in 1968. There were just over a dozen different models released that year, and the line was an immediate success. Mattel has released more cars every year since then, and has introduced several different lines of cars and track sets. Currently there are well over 10,000 different models of Hot Wheels toy cars.
Top 10 Hot Wheels Toys of 2010
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Cars
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Color Shifters & Launchers
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Battle Force 5 Bestsellers
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What Are Hot Wheels Known For?
Hot Wheels is best known for the very wide variety of durable, die-cast metal cars they have made. Hot Wheels toys are immensely popular with boys, who often can’t get enough of them and want to keep collecting them. Fortunately, most Hot Wheels cars are quite inexpensive, but despite the price, they are made to withstand rough treatment and repeated crash landings. All Hot Wheels toy cars are tiny scale versions of real vehicle models, and most cars are stamped on the bottom with the year, make, and model of the real cars they are modeled after.
There are many different lines of Hot Wheels toys available today. Mystery Cars are packaged in anonymous fashion so that the buyer has no idea which car they are getting. Each of the cars available in this set are either special or unusual in some way. Treasure Hunt cars are sets of cars released in very limited numbers- one set each year. These sell at retail for the same price as other Hot Wheels cars, but their collector’s value goes up quickly. However, the collector’s value is reduced to nearly nothing if the package is opened and the car is played with.
The Hot Wheels toys that boys are usually interested in are the models that are produced in large numbers and that are widely available, like the Open Stock models. Hot Wheels Track Stars are cars that are specially designed to operate better on Hot Wheels toy race tracks than the other types of Hot Wheels cars. The Teams line of cars are divided into several different types: convertibles, pop-offs (where the outside body pops off the frame), Camaro, Hot Wheels design (original car designs by Hot Wheels), Taxi Rods (hot rods painted like taxis), Gold Rides (cars painted gold), Hummer, Street Beast II (cars designed and named after bugs or man-eating beasts), Arial Attack (a blimp, a helicopter, and two airplanes), X-Raycers (cars with transparent bodies), Engine Revealers (with a working hood to reveal the engine), and Hot Wheels Racing (tricked out race cars with fancy paint jobs). Code cars are like any other Hot Wheels toy car, except that they have a code on them that is good for five online game plays at a special website. After the five plays, a new code must be entered.
There are dozens of Hot Wheels toys and play sets, most designed for use with the Hot Wheels cars. The Turbo Driver Controller is a computer game that hooks up to your PC and has eight different CAR-tridges that can be plugged in for different games online. The Volcano Shootout play set, the Monster Jam Crash and Smash Stadium, the Crashers Crossroad Crash play set, the Spin City play set, the Rumblers Thunder Launcher, the T-Rex Rampage play set, and the Blast and Crash Track Set are just a few of the play sets available for use with Hot Wheels cars.
There are Hot Wheels video games available for many different game systems, and there is even a Hot Wheels Fast Track laptop that has built-in sensors to detect the speed of Hot Wheels cars on the race tracks, and many other Hot Wheels related functions.
Why Do Boys Love Them So Much?
Boys love to play with cars, and Hot Wheels cars are made to take repeated crashing abuse and keep right on rolling. There are so many of them available that a boy could literally get a new car at the store every week and still have more to collect. This is major fun for little boys who love cars.