Hot Wheels, made by Mattel, are still a hot commodity. The playful little toy cars never really went out of style, and in 2019, the company sold nearly a billion dollars worth of the stuff.
But more impressive or bizarre than the staying power of this toy are the collectors, who have amassed massive collections, worth into the millions of dollars.
The Hustle profiles some of these collectors, who track down the oldest, rarest, and most hard-to-find models, many of which can be worth much more than a real, drivable car.
Indeed, the most sought after model is the 1969 Rear-Loading Beach Bomb van, pained bright pink, with a surfboard coming out the back window. If you happen to have one of these little beauties in your junk drawer, you could be holding onto a $150,000 prize.
People like Bruce Pascal have amassed 7,000+ cars, with a collection worth over $1.5 million. He’s even fashioned a large portion of his home for his impressive collection.
While it’s absurd to us to spend your life dedicated to pursuing tiny metal toy cars, we’re fascinated by these collectors, and admire their drive….
Hot Wheels launched in 1968 with sixteen cars, the original Sweet Sixteen, and the low-friction wheels and bright Spectraflame paint made them faster and flashier than anything Matchbox was selling. The Beach Bomb prototype that tops every value list only exists because the design failed. The surfboards loaded through the rear window made the van too narrow and top-heavy to run on the track’s Super-Charger booster, so Mattel redesigned it with side pods and the handful of rear-loaders that survived became the hobby’s holy grail. Collecting small things in large numbers is a recurring theme here. See Luigi Lineri, the man who collected and categorized stones, the bootleg toys that will make you laugh, and for real cars in miniature, cars reimagined as wild animals.
