The first Hot Wheel car I laid eyes on was a Silhoutte, which was part of a set that Steve got as a present (birthday?) and that was it...we were hooked!
The cars were heavy and colorful, some had little surfboards (Deora, beach bugs, etc.), and the sets got bigger and bigger. Roger wanted a "Hot Wheels hot curves race action set", and he got it for Xmas. We would go to Rascos, next to MDX at the Quad, and behind the cash register, there was a large display of cars for sale, just $1.00 each, and the man would let you check each one out as impatient customers pushed by to check out...So many choices, all awesome, so hard to decide!!
Seems like every kid on the block had Hot Wheels. The kids down the street had the LeMans Fords and Lolas. The kids up the street had the Vickys and Hot Heaps, with the black roofs. There seemed to be a MILLION different Hot Wheels, and you never found a twin.
We used to put that old orange clamp higher and higher on the stairs to get more speed, which required a longer and longer track to see just where the momentum ran out. I remember that Roger's Police cruiser travelled the farthest, but it suffered an untimely end...
We even had a neighborhood competition,at our house, complete with prize money, and the bad kids from way up the street won...BOO!!
I think that Steve was the first [also] to get a Sizzler, a Mustang Boss 302, and we had a long track (must have cost a fortune!) that travelled completely around the fireplace, and Steve's car was so fast, it flew off at every turn!!
We later got the Sizzlers "California 500" race set, a little Indianapolis 500, complete with little antenna that clipped to the cars to count laps! Great toy!!
I think we got 9 cars on it once, a great race for half a lap until the cars started flying off the track!
Fast forward to the future...We were on the ground floor of the Hot Wheels boom, yet we had no idea that the cars would be worth alot of cash someday...I remember our demolition derbys!!!If we only knew that these cars, and not so much the "Johnny Lightning" cars, which were just wierd, would stand the test of time! The hot cars right now are the "Custom Fleetside", and the "Classic Cord", but a few dealers know about, and have the rare colors, light blue is hot, but surprisingly the Chrome "Boss Hoss" cars that only Hot Wheels club "members" could get, seem to be a dime a dozen...I guess there were alot of members in the Hot Wheels clubs! Some dealers even have the prototypes for sale, which cost more than my Kawasaki 400 triple!
The real experts know all the rare colors, have NIB cars that go for 300-plus dollars, and I know that Roger, predictably, took great care of his Hot Wheels... he was noticably absent at our crash-fests, and he'll probably send both his girls through college when he finally trades in his collection.
As for me, I have a few cars lying around...I have a lime green truck, "Short Order", that was the last Hot Wheel car I bought new from Rascos, I remember hemming and hawing over my decision,in 1971, I think. I also have a red "Custom Dodge Charger", along with an early gold "Custom Mustang", a perfect Vicky in "antifreeze" color, with a black roof, a dark green Lotus turbine (wedgy!), and my best car, a first-year perfect red Mongoose funnycar, with all it's stickers intact! I just bought a Deora (red, no surfboards, to me the classic hot-wheel, complete with skinny front and REAR wheels!), and I'm now looking for a first year yellow snake!
Also, I just found out that I have the entire California 500 Sizzlers set in my garage, complete with 4 cars, which have faded chrome and dead batteries. Surprisingly, the Sizzlers cars and race sets don't fetch such high prices, but there is a few people back east that will restore them for me...
I was thinking about all this, as I scoured Evil-bay for Hot Wheels, and I decided to take a break and take the trash to the curb. I turned the corner and saw our mustang gt, in "antifreeze, and with 5-spoke wheels! I guess I never got over those Hot Wheels, and by judging by the comments from strangers about the mustangs' color, alot of other people never got over them either!
Chris
1 comment:
Good times. I can recall when the HWs were only $.50 per car and the competition was Matchbox. Nice enough cars, but not HW fast... they are BRITISH after all. While I was working toy retail I bought quite a few HWs, MBs and "Pocket Cars"; primarily the more stock looking exotic sports cars. They're in some box somewhere.
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