Opening Hot Wheels Cars

 Around this part of the world at this time of the year it is really cold outside (about -10 degrees C) and the best thing to do is to stay in the house where its warm and comfy and play with your toys, rearrange your collection, count them, see what your missing and what you need to add more.
I have done exactly the same and i also found some castings that i still had them in their packaging, i found a storing place for them and decided to let them free out of their plastic prison.

 I have my loose cars stored by car model or type so that they can be easier to find when needed. You know how it is when someone asks you about a specific casting or you want to find it fast for some other reason and you forget in what box you put it and you start looking and searching, of course you usually find it in the last place you look for it, so its always good to keep them arranged.

 First i picked the cars i wanted to crack open (term used for the action of opening/breaking the packaging) and then i started bringing them to fresh air and light one by one, having a closer look at the details while out of the packaging. Of course i have my own way of opening them ...



Opening the packaging with a knife

... because i want to keep the card intact, i like to keep the artwork on the card intact so i use a knife and cut the blister just like shown in the picture. If you use the same method please do with care to not cut yourself.

It is a real pleasure setting them loose and feel them, play with them. When you start opening them, you just keep going wanting to open more and more so at some point i noticed the mess i made ...



Pile of empty packaging

... fantasy casting (yes i do like those a lot), a few variations of RocketFire, Paradigm Shift, Nitro Doorslammer and Retro-Active and also a few realistic ones like Lamborghini Aventador and Ferrari 458 Spider. It is always good to enjoy the combination of realistic and fantasy models.

After opening about 12 of them i decided its good to stop for now and save some for a later time, also i had a storing concern, i am close to full on storing space...



Unopened Hot Wheels

... so these casting where saved for another time. That Kitt also wanted to get out, but i passed on it. I have other Bone Shakers already loose, just like Custom Volkswagen Beetle and the Blast Lane motorcycle looks better in the packaging.

 In the end these are some of the castings i cracked open today, they really enjoy the fresh air and me playing with them. I will add them to their new storing place until next time when they're going to be played with again.

Opened Hot Wheels Cars

Hope you also had some good time with your Hot Wheels lately.
***What was the last casting you cracked opened ??***
Leave a comment and share your experience. Have fun!



Regular Cards Differences

 When i started collecting the only think i cared was the casting/model of the car, i wasn't looking at price, date, series, packaging, i was just looking at the car inside, if i liked it i bought it. This wasn't because i didn't care about all those details, it was because i didn't know anything about any of them. I had no idea how many were released or in how many color variations, i didn't know about the value as a casting in the series and most of all i didn't know anything about the packaging of the car.

 Hot Wheels series differ them self besides the price and castings used, by packaging, blisters (the see thru plastic bubble covering the car) and card artwork. As i said in my previous post most of the series released from Hot Wheels, especially the adult collectors series are only released in USA.
The only line that is released all over the world is the regular/mainline release, consisting in approximately 240 + castings per year, split into different series and sub series. Probably to make a difference between the place of making of that specific line, because of laws and politics of a specific country the packaging on these mainlines also differ among them.

   ***US CARDS***

 Home of Hot Wheels, US cardboard and artwork for 2012 has the long size card, with the model graphics big above the blister and with the new "Scan or Text" logo  near the pegs hanger on the front, series and year on the bottom of the card and number and name of the casting on the side of the card.

The back of the card has the casting model again , some information about the specific model , like year of release for the real licensed model, designer and so on, followed by the "Scan or Text" application (this application allows you to add the specific model by typing the code given or scan it to a virtual collection on HotWheels.com, making it easier to track your collection), collector number and lastly licensing, copyrights and warnings only in English.

US Cards & Artwork

  ***INTERNATIONAL CARDS***

 International countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica and many other countries besides European countries get about the same artwork on the front of the card, with the same details for the 2012 year, with the only difference being the missing "Scan or Text" logo near the pegs hanger. That application is only available in US.

The back of the card has the biggest change compared to the US one, where the big spot hold by the "Scan or Text" application is now filled with warnings in different languages, Spanish, French, Portuguese and of course English and with a little text that tells you to "Look for All the 2012 Vehicles!". There is no collector number and the space with the information about the car model is now filled with a text on those four languages that tells you, "with a parent's permission" to check their site, HotWheels.com.

International Cards & Artwork

  *** EUROPEAN CARDS***

 The biggest difference comes on the European card boards and packaging where the biggest  difference is very obvious and its the small size of the card, while the blister stays mostly the same. The artwork on the front of the card for the 2012 year consist besides the model of the car, in an  added graphics with a driver from the "Team Hot Wheels".

The other details are the  same, with the year and series on the bottom of the card and number and name of the casting on the side of the card.

The back also has a big difference compared to the other two, on this one there can only be found warnings, licensing and copyright, but this time in many more languages, English, Russian,  German, Polish, Swedish, Ukrainian and other European languages.  

                                                

European Short Cards & Artwork

 I live in Europe and as much as i would like to also collect different series and different packaging variations it is very hard to do so, because of the fact we only get regular/mainlines on short cards in this part of the world and my collecting is mostly dictated by availability. If i would want to collect US or International cards i would have to search other ways of  getting them, like buying them from e-bay or any other online site that sells them, or by trading them with different international collectors .

 ***In what part of the world you live in and what do you like to collect ?***

Leave a comment and tell your opinion or let us know about the different changes that occur in your part of the world. Cheers and enjoy the hobby.





How to collect debate

Loose & Carded Hot Wheels

  I am collecting Hot Wheels since 2011 and it has been a great journey all the way, from finding castings i never expected i will to loosing myself in the front of the pegs not knowing exactly what to choose, until not finding absolutely anything in any store. I have read many articles and saw many videos on the internet and it looks like there is a real debate on how to collect Hot Wheels. Well for starters, everybody should collect the way he feels good with, the way he likes, the way he believes is the right way.
The biggest debate is between peoples who like to collect these small 1:64 scale cars in the packaging, without getting them out, keeping them intact as they are also called carded collectors and between those who like to brake the packaging and getting the cars out collecting them loose also called loose collectors.


  *The loose collector will open all his cars, break the packaging and throw it away. In this case it doesn't care about the card artwork, the way it stays in the blister or the quality of the card, the only thing that matters is the casting itself. On this side it can arrange a wall display, or any other kind of display with the loose castings and it also take less space for storage. It can also make a few dioramas or play with them on the tracks, with the Hot Wheels tracks and sets.
 It will say that keeping them in the package doesn't actually mean collecting them, that the real reason is reselling them after a period, when the price and the value will actually grow and that it is not actually called collecting. It also say that keeping them in the package you don't actually enjoy them, feel them and play with them and you also cant try to customize and have fun with it.

 *The carded collector will keep all the cars in their original packaging, it never gets them out, it always care about the condition of the blister and card and it also, probably, enjoy the artwork on the card. Collecting them carded and having hard to find castings also require an extra protection, not to scratch them or break them thus getting a protecto pack is essential. It can also make a wall display but it will take a lot more space.
 It will say that getting them out of the package means loosing the value of that specific casting, forgetting the number and series of the car, without extra notes, damaging the casting and adding that this way you don't care to much about the casting itself. It will also say that this way it is easier to fake the casting, repaint it or change its original condition.

Special Series - Nostalgia

 It is a real challenge to try to collect like one of these type of collectors , when you enjoy the hobby different, like myself, where i also like to keep them carded and having some of them loose, because as we are used to, Hot Wheels series vary a lot, from the mainlines series (focused more for kids) to the high quality series like Nostalgia, Garage in the past, or the newer Boulevard (focused for adult collectors) where the card artwork and the quality of the car model makes it very hard to want to get it out of the package on one side, or hard to keep it in the package and not enjoy it better out of it.

Lets not forget that everyone collects in its own way and that's how it suppose to be, but it is a really interesting subject and i would like to know all of your opinions on it, leave a comment and say what do you think about this debate ... ***How do you like to collect ? *** Have fun collecting.

Introduction to Hot Wheels

Hot Wheels is a brand of 1:64 scale die cast toy cars, introduced by American toy maker Mattel in 1968. It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until 1996, when Mattel bought Tyco, the then owner of Matchbox. Many automobile manufacturers have licensed Hot Wheels to make scale models of their cars, allowing the use of original design blueprints. Although originally marketed to children, they have become popular with adult collectors, to whom limited edition models are now made available.

2011 Treasure Hunt

Most believe the collecting craze started with the release of a series called Treasure Hunts (also known in the past by the green stripe on the card) in 1995.  Mattel estimates that the average collector has over 1,550 cars, and children between the ages of 5 and 15 have an average of 41 cars. There were 16 castings released in 1968, with the first one produced being a dark blue Custom Camaro. Between the first releases there were also Twin Mill and a Volkswagen with 2 surf crates (the pink variation it is believed to be one of the most expensive Hot Wheels casting to date). Along side the realistic models there are also produced fantasy models. Now Hot Wheels are split into many series with their own different castings , paint job, card artwork, wheels and of course prices.



Nostalgia series

Up to date there are thousands of collectors world-wide, conventions, events and sites made specifically for the Hot Wheels collectors. The primary market is USA, where they get all the Special Series and all the releases, store exclusives, mail-ins and all the products related, but Hot Wheels are available everywhere in the world, with a few differences and in most countries (especially in Europe) only with the regular releases also known as "mainlines"and mostly only on short cards. Also Hot Wheels has in the line many track sets , where everyone can play on them with most of the castings released. The track sets differ, from simple 5-6 pieces with no battery requirements but with a simple action and a launcher, to battery powered boosters or track sets to mount on the walls. All the track sets are inter connectable, all of them can be mounted together to make a one huge set.

In the present we are many part of this hobby of collecting these tiny toy cars, it makes us happy and it can also bring us together as friends and families. I'm glad to be part of this community and I wish everyone out there will have fun and enjoy the hobby. Happy collecting