WEBVTT - SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Hot Wheels Work 0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:06.000 A everybody chuck Here for another one of our Christmas 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:08.960 centric episodes with our twelve Days of Christmas Toys playlist, 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:12.639 and today I'm very pleased to introduce to you an 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:14.840 episode that I liked quite a bit because when I 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:17.279 was a kid, I love me some hot wheels, and 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:20.240 so this is that episode, How Hot Wheels Work. Pretty 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:22.440 interesting story. Hope you guys enjoy it. 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:34.760 Welcome to Stuff you should know from HowStuffWorks dot com. 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:37.760 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:39.760 Charles w Chuck Bryant, and Jerry. 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:42.479 You know that just sounded like, what like, that's what 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:44.680 happens like, You're having a nightmare and you MEI wakes 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:45.600 you up in the middle of the night and he 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.199 just goes, hey, welcome to the podcast, and then she 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:49.560 slaps you across the face. 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:55.360 Repart. That's true. Yeah, that is what that sounded like. 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:56.280 That's what it sounded. 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.920 It's pretty accurate. I don't know what got into me. 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:03.920 You were just supercharged about this topic. 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.520 Oh that's terrible. What supercharged? 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:08.680 I don't get it. 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:10.320 It's like a supercharged engine. 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:12.320 Oh I didn't even think about that. 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:14.039 Oh good, that makes me feel a little better. 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.000 Yeah, you know Jerry by the way before when I 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:19.160 told her what we were doing, so, oh my gosh, 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:20.680 that was my favorite toy when I was a kid. 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:22.520 Nice hot wheels are pretty great. 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:24.840 Yeah, I had quite a collection, and I don't know 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:25.639 where they are today. 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.399 Oh really they're missing? Huh. 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:30.760 Yeah, I don't know if they were thrown out, or 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:35.960 if if my brother has them, or they're my mom's 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:37.800 attic or what. Because I'm kind of curious that I 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:38.480 have any value. 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:41.360 You need to find them. Yeah, they could be apparently, 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:43.840 as far as hot wheels collectors go, it could be 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:47.000 in mint condition all the way down to beat condition. 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:49.640 Oh is that how they rank them? Yeah, mine would 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:51.400 be beaters because I played with them like crazy. 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.040 That's good. I mean, that's what they're for sure, you know. 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:56.920 And there's value for a beater too, like some people 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:01.440 apparently harvest them for parts to rebuild like a you know, 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.720 a new Frankenstein model. 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:06.480 Oh really, Yeah, that's pretty neat. 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.000 There's a lot of stuff you can do with them. 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:09.959 Yeah, and we should thank the fifth grader who wrote 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:10.679 this article too. 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:12.919 Sad face. 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:16.040 I complained about that out loud to Holly. I was like, 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:20.040 this article actually says sad face like as a sentence. 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:25.040 Yeah, I know had issues. I'm glad you said something. 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:29.440 Yeah what if it was a fifth grader? Your feelings 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:29.919 are all hurt. 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:33.360 I think your feelings are hurt either way. Now, sad face. 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.800 So we're talking about hot wheels today. I had a couple. 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.440 My favorite toy was g I Joe, but I appreciated 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:43.919 hot wheels. 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:45.000 Yeah, I had GI Joe too. 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.680 We do Gi Joe episode sometime. I had the older 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.560 ones though you probably had huge ones. Yeah yeah, now 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:51.480 I had the real ones. 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.400 Yeah, oh yeah, I don't that's fighting words. 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.520 Man. The ones that I had were so awesome. They 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.639 were like there was a huge, fast collection of all 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.840 of them. Yeah, there was like cobra. Cobra didn't exist 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:06.320 when you were collecting g I Joe's. 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.360 No, but how could you say, like, oh, that one 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:12.720 that's ten inches tall and has real clothes and fuzzy 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.160 hair and the kung fu grip is inferior to this 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:17.119 little plastic thing. 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:20.840 I think you just said it. All the fuzzy hair 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:25.000 says it right there. I don't really mean that, Chuck. 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.000 I don't have a dog in that fight. Like if 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:30.119 you like the big Gi Joe's. That's cool. I got 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:30.720 some problems. 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.320 Yeah, it's a quick side note. I have to tell 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:35.880 this story, okay, when you know how he used to 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:37.440 do book reports and you would have to have a 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:41.080 visual aid. Yeah. I might have told this before. If 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:42.000 I do, I apologize. 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:43.080 I don't recognize it. 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:47.240 I did a report on Franco Harris when in elementary 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:48.000 school because he. 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:49.040 Was a football player. 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.000 Yeah. I don't know why I did on Franco Harris. Yeah, 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.080 but I got my mom to make me a little 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.920 Pittsburgh Steelers uniform for my Gi joe because he looked 0:03:57.960 --> 0:03:58.800 like Franco Harris. 0:03:59.000 --> 0:03:59.280 Nice. 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:00.520 Yeah, and that was my visual aid. 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:01.240 Do you still have it? 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.280 No, of course not. We have the Gi Joe's, but 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:07.440 I think the Steelers uniform is gone. Bye bye. 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:09.880 That's said. Yeah, you know, I'm sure your mom put 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:14.600 a lot of work into that. Now I feel guilty, So, Chuck, 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.480 I have a question for you. Yes, did you know 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.720 that the number one vehicle manufacturer on the planet is, 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.839 in fact Hot Wheels. I did it. Kind of It's 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.000 astounding until you stop and think about it. Sure, like 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.880 apparently since nineteen sixty eight, when Hot wheels were first introduced. 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.760 More than four billion hot wheels have been produced. That's 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:41.960 more than the big four Detroit automakers combined. You're like wow, 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.880 and then you think, oh, yeah, it costs a minute 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.920 fraction of the costure to build the hot wheels and 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:50.559 it does a normal car. 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:51.760 Yeah. 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.919 Plus, Also, it's not like you're gonna go, I want 0:04:54.920 --> 0:05:02.120 this Buick Cutlass Supreme in every color, right, you know, Well, 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:03.440 the hot wheels you can do that. 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:06.600 Yeah. What's the Lego stat is? They're the biggest manufacturer 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:07.160 of tires? 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:07.560 Yeah? 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:11.160 Yeah, I wonder though, do these not count as tires 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:14.039 because they're plastic they counts wheels? 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:16.360 I don't know, man, because. 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:18.799 Four billion times four that's sixteen billion tires. 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:20.560 That's a really great question. 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.720 I might have to challenge Lego or maybe just look 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:25.160 up how many tires they manufacture. 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:27.960 Old Kirk Christensen is not going to be happy about this. 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:31.839 Who was that the founder of Lego? Oh remember Old? 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:36.279 Oh that's right, I thought you were saying Old no over. 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:37.720 Oh yeah, So. 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:41.000 Let's talk about the history of this stuff. 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:41.800 Huh okay. 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:44.080 So hot wheels, like I said, have been around since 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.799 nineteen sixty eight and Anybody who's heard the Barbie Trademark 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:52.960 podcast will recognize the name Elliott Handler. That's Ruth Handler, 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:58.760 the inventor of Barbie Trademark's husband. Sure, and Elliott apparently 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:05.120 saw a real chance to muscle in on an already 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:09.719 extant market by a company called Tycho that had a 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:13.400 line of miniature metal cars die cast cars is what 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:15.479 they're called, called Matchbox cars. 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:15.960 That's right. 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:18.599 By the time hot wheels came around, match Box was 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:22.440 already there and had established a market, and Mattel said, 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:23.760 let's get in on that. 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.320 Yeah. And the rumor is that he saw his grandchildren 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:31.320 playing with them and said, they kind of stink. I 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:35.000 could make these better, yeah, cooler, And he had a 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:37.360 as the story goes, had a designer, which we'll talk 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.479 about in the second called Harry Bradley Sure, and he 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.479 had a hot rod. And Elliott was in the parking 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:45.160 lot one day and said, man, those are some hot 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:46.640 wheels you got there. 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.560 And apparently if you go look look at the old 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:52.320 original commercials. 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:53.400 For hot wheels, did they say that. 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.039 That's how well, that's how they pronounced it hot wheels. 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:56.920 Oh, instead of hot wheels. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:02.000 Yeah, The emphasis is on the hot awkward. They're like, 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:03.760 race your hot wheels. 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:06.479 You can make some of them, you can race them. 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:09.920 Just go buy some hot wheels. That's what they That's 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:12.480 how they say it, collect all your hot wheels. 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:15.600 Yeah, but that makes more sense in the context of 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:16.080 a sentence. 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.120 It does having been raised right right, you know post 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.000 the in fact hot wheels is wrong. Yeah, hot wheels 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:25.160 because wheels. 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:26.760 Now I'm trying to picture the guy in the parking 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.280 lot saying those are some hot wheels you got on 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:34.320 your there? You'd say hot wheels, you got there? You know, Yeah, 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:38.280 oh boy, we can sure waste some time. 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:38.960 We sure can. 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.360 But the first nineteen sixty eight is, like you said, 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:46.520 when the first line came out of sixteen hot wheels, 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:51.360 they were sold initially for fifty nine cent apiece. 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:55.040 Yeah, And like you said, the guy whose car originally 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:59.440 inspired the name hot Wheels was Harry Bradley, and he 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.200 was the designer of that first sixteen cars. They were 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:08.600 also called California Customs Miniatures. Was that first original sixteen 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:13.480 group of hot Wheels that were released in nineteen sixty eight. So, 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:17.880 and Harry Bradley designed them all, including apparently he got 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.480 his hands on The first one, by the way, that 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:22.800 came out was a Chevy Camaro, of course. The second 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.560 one that came out was the Chevy Corvette, of course, 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:29.840 And apparently the Chevy Corvette came out before the actual 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:30.920 Corvette came out. 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:32.600 Yeah, the sixty nine Corvette. 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:34.880 That is so. Harry Bradley was an old hand in 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.880 not just miniature car design, but car design in general. 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:40.520 He was an old GM designer, and I guess he 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:46.240 had connections still at GM, and probably under the table 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:49.520 in a possibly illegal way, got his hands on the 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.200 blueprints for the Corvette that hadn't been released yet, and 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.600 Hot Wheels beat GM to the punch in releasing the 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:57.760 nineteen sixty eight Corvette. 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.960 Yeah, sixty nine, thank you, that's all right. The Yeah, 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:05.160 as the lore goes, he supposedly knew that the cafeteria 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:08.880 door was unlocked, so he snuck in through the cafeteria door. 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:11.040 But that's called industrial espionage. 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:15.120 Yeah, that sounds like a story like just lore, okay, 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:20.840 but maybe so maybe he committed industrial espian che. Yeah. So, 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.400 like you said, those were the two of the first 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:29.839 sixteen in that original lineup, that original collection, which if 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.959 you have any of those, Yeah, Okay, yeah, you got 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:34.040 some money that you're sitting on. 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.760 Because I mean, like they went all out on those 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:40.320 that original line oh yeah, Like there were bushings to 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:45.480 the suspension. Yeah, and the I mean the chassis it 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:48.640 had suspension like shocks, like you could press them down 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:49.680 and it would bounce back. 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:51.640 I had some of those. I don't think they were 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.120 from sixty eight. But when did they quit making those? 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.800 It set up until seventy seven was when they stopped making. 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:02.600 The seventy is when the suspension got an overhaul. 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:05.839 Okay, so for the first couple of years, like they 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:09.360 were really putting a lot into these things. The tires 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:13.880 were red line racing slicks, yeah, and the things. The 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.439 whole reason they went to so much trouble is because 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:20.480 they really wanted to destroy their competitor, match box. And 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.320 one of the ways they did that was by making 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:27.440 these things far more functional than the match boxes were. 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:32.200 The matchbox cars were, so they really could race. Yeah, 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:34.360 and if you put a matchbox car up against the 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.439 comparable hot wheels, say the same model car, the hot 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.320 Wheels will destroy it every time. And the head to 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:41.920 head race. 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.240 As we saw on the internet, a guy did that. 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.640 Of course, he took two Volkswagens and two OUTI eight's 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:51.600 I think, and one match box and one hot wheel, 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.160 and he said they won by at least a car 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:58.040 length every time he tried. And this was no loop 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.440 de loop bring things, was just the straight race. They 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:05.080 painted them originally in Spectra Flame, which was very shiny 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:08.960 and sparkly and expensive. And I don't think we said 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.680 that all hot wheels are built at one sixty fourth scale. 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:13.640 Yeah, that's a big point. 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.240 But not necessarily all matchbox cars. They kind of vary 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:20.960 here and there, right, But like you said that Spectra 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.920 Flame and the red line tires didn't only last until 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:28.920 seventy seven, and the suspension only lasted untill nineteen seventy 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:31.760 and they sadly a lot of that had to do 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:34.360 with the fact that they moved them from Hawthorne, California 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:39.240 to Hong Kong. Yeah, And like any product, you're like, hey, 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:41.600 you can make it for half as much if you 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.240 make it in China, so let's move. Let's ship the 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:45.600 operations overseas well. 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:49.200 Not only that, it's this Spectra flame pain is pretty expensive. 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:52.079 It's awesome, it looks great, yeah, but it's pretty expensive. 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:57.840 So with any collector's item. As they started to downgrade 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:02.240 the components in the parts and the manufacturing and ultimately 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.280 the final product, all that did was make the original 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:08.320 stuff all the more valuable today, Yeah, because there was 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:10.680 fewer and fewer of those as the years go on, 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:12.079 proportionately speaking. 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:14.760 Yeah, they had actual axles, like you know, it was 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:18.000 like a real They were designed by car designers and 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.880 they were made apparently to reach two hundred scale miles 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:21.280 per hour. 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:22.360 Yeah, that's pretty cool. 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:23.200 That's way cool. 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.520 Yeah. Remember, like in the Cockroach episode, we talked about 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:29.760 how they're the fastest animal on the planet relatively speaking. 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:35.080 Pretty neat stuff. Yeah, so chuck right out of the gate, 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.439 Mattel had a hit on its hands. Oh yes, they 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:42.160 released them in nineteen sixty eight. By nineteen seventy, Hot 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:45.960 Wheels was a Saturday Morning cartoon in the vein of 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.600 like Dune Buggy and Scooby Doo and all those guys. 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:52.800 Hanna barbera dune buggy or speed Buggy, Speed Buggy. Yeah 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:56.640 remember speed Buggy. Yeah, it was like a dune buggy 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:01.520 that could talk, and it was basically wonder bug No, 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.720 it's speed Buggy. Okay, because there was under if you 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.000 took Shaggy and put some like racing goggles on him. Yeah, 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:12.000 and then turned Scooby Doo into a speed a doom Buggy. Yeah, 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:13.120 that's speed Buggy. 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:14.000 Oh was that a cartoon? 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.040 Yeah, okay, went around solving mysteries and stuff like that. 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:19.880 Yeah, wonderbug was I think that was live action? 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:23.160 Oh, this was a cartoon, said Marty Croft. This is 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:26.360 exactly like Scooby Doo by the people who did Scooby Doo, 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:28.800 using the same people who did the voices for Scooby Doo. 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:34.440 It just vaguely changed the characters. Hot Wheels was virtually 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:36.600 the same thing, except it was about racing clubs. There 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:38.760 were the bad guys and good guys and. 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.480 Do you know what this prus? What is the nineteen seventies, 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.240 the doom Buggy was a very popular thing. You remember 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:46.439 seeing those on the road, Like I used to see 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:48.440 them all the time. Not all the time, but in 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:50.920 the seventies it was a common thing. Yeah, you don't 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:55.440 see him anymore, very rarely. Nope, No gremlins, no yukos, no, 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:56.320 no wonder bugs. 0:13:56.679 --> 0:14:01.400 You know I like gremlins. Do you okay for me? Though? 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:07.040 The Kudi gras of car design is the AMC Pacer. Yeah, 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.240 it's like the for Micah Kitchen of cars. Yeah, it's 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:13.800 beautiful in all the weirdest ways. 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:14.440 So much window. 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.280 That would be my sought after hot wheels if I 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:19.640 had a hot wheels that if I just could have 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.600 one hot wheel, Yeah, it would. I don't know if 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:24.840 that would be it. I'd be happy with that one. 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.040 Now do they have that it's a hot wheel? Oh? 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:32.000 Yeah, okay, And if you look up AMC Gremlin hot wheels, yeah, 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.200 they went to town on those. They had some with 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:38.360 like the intakes like sticking out of the hood and yeah, 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:41.880 just all sorts of just awesome different variations like indie 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:43.720 car Gremlins and stuff like that. 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:44.320 Yeah. 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.080 Because and that raises a pretty good point. Hot wheels 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:51.760 has always been about the racing design, Like they've designed 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:55.040 them to look like racing cars, but they've also manufactured 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.000 them to actually be able to win a race, like 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:58.440 we talked about with Matchbox. 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:01.080 Yeah, and one of the differences that is one of 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:03.240 the main differences between the match box and the hot 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:06.760 wheel is they were just much more interested in being sportier, 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.080 like you could get you could get a match box 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:13.320 like a delivery truck, right, you know they had that, 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.120 but the match Boxes looked more real. They all were 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:22.000 about looking realistic and not necessarily performance. And hey, if 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:24.080 you want a bread truck, you can get a bread truck, 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:26.440 right exactly, But you can't get a bread truck hot Wheel. 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.600 You know, we'll talk more about all of this jam 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:31.920 right after this. 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:52.240 You want to go ahead and talk about some of 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:54.680 the other differences between Matchbox and hot Wheel, Yes, sure, 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.120 since we're at it. Match Box or I'm sorry, hot 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.320 Wheel is the one that is more likely to have 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:03.800 branded versions, oh man. 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:04.880 And do they ever like. 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.640 The Ghostbusters ectomobile. 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:11.320 Right or even more than that, Like they have a 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.960 deal with eminem Mars for twenty fifteen, so they have 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.080 like a TwixT trucks and a Skittles van and like 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:22.840 all this stuff. They have licensing with DC and Marvel this. 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:24.600 Year, Fast and the Furious. I know they had a 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:25.240 line yep. 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.520 So they're really big time into branded and a lot 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.280 of times they'll have like a store will just have exclusives, 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:37.520 access to an exclusive line of Skittles cars or something 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.320 like that that you can only get it KB toys. 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:42.520 Yeah, I think they have a NASCAR deal too. If 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.760 I'm not mistaken, I would not be surprised. And the 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:49.480 hot wheels usually have a little bit wider, a longer axle, 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:53.960 and wider wheels because it's just cooler that wheel sticks 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:55.240 out from the body a little bit, you know. 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:57.680 Well, plus also supposedly, and we'll talk about this a 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:00.560 little more, when you shrink a car down to scale, 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:01.680 it looks a little weird. 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:04.440 Yeah, you might as well ahead and bring that up. Okay, 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:06.919 it looks weird. You can't just shrink it and have 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:10.360 it in the same proportion and have it look normal. 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:14.080 Right Like, it'll be as far as like shrinking a 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.800 car down by scale, it will be in the exact 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.280 same proportion. But it's just awful little bit like. So 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:25.159 what they do to make a hot wheels raceable is 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.800 they expand the wheel well a little more. Yeah, they 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:30.840 break it out a little bit. Yeah, which is why 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:33.760 the wheel stick out some on a hot wheels, but 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:36.560 not on a match box. That's right, because match boxes 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:38.960 are all about realism. To heck with how it looks, 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:40.000 as long as it's real. 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:42.920 The one of my favorite ones, and I had one 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.600 of these that they mentioned this article was the red barren. 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:50.040 The person who wrote this said it was an inexplicable 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:54.480 and inexplicably cool helmet over the cockpit. I don't know 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:56.919 about inexplicable. It was just the roof of the car 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:00.160 was a helmet, right. But I looked it up again, Tod, 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:01.720 and I was like, oh, yeah, I had that thing, 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:07.400 but it was It wasn't a Nazi helmet per se, 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:11.520 but it was that shape of the helmet like the 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:13.600 US oldiers had that shape now, you know, where it's 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:17.359 cut lower around the ears instead of just a straight 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:19.800 you know, like the World War two helmet. But the 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:22.520 Nazis used those first, you know, because it's a better 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:26.240 design for war. And it also had a black iron 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:27.440 cross on the side of it. 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:29.200 Well hence the red baron, right. 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.159 Yeah, but it was It's easy now as an adulta 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:34.280 look and say that looks like a little Nazi hot rod. 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:36.639 Yeah, but the red baron was World War One. He 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:38.040 was pre Nazi Germany. 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:40.480 Yeah. And it was also I think at the time 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.720 just like looked like the biker gang would wear like 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:45.119 those helmet with the iron cross. 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:49.320 Yeah, and all of it was Southern California hot rod culture. Yeah, 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:51.680 what gave rise to Hot Wheels, so it makes sense. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.760 Yeah, I don't think there was any like sartitious intent. 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:59.920 Yeah. So, like I said, right out of the gate, 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.400 hot Wheels was a hit. They had a cartoon within 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:06.160 a year or so of the first sixteen being released. Sure, 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.920 the second release they had I think twenty. 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:13.160 Two new cars, yeah, thirty three total. 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:17.480 And then the third year they had another. They released 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:19.320 thirty three after that, right. 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:21.600 Oh no, yeah, I'm sorry, thirty three by nineteen seventy. 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:24.000 So they did sixteen, twenty four and then thirty three 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:26.399 and all of them came in like different colors, right, So, 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:28.719 like I said, if you had one, that didn't mean 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:30.520 you had them all. You wanted to collect them all. 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:30.920 Yeah. 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.680 So kids were going crazy for it. And another way 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:38.560 that Mattel very wisely targeted children was to get in 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:42.640 with fast food. In nineteen seventy, the first Hot Wheels 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.720 came out as a toy at Jack in the Boxes. 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:47.679 Oh really Yeah. 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.560 The big one though, the one that put them over 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:54.560 the top, was in nineteen eighty three when kids who 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:58.680