For decades, brands like Hot Wheels and Matchbox have allowed car enthusiasts of all ages to own perfect tiny versions of their favorite cars. But what about the broken car you have in your driveway right now, or perhaps your first car? There isn’t a Hot Wheels for your shitbox sitting on blocks in your driveway. Well, not until now. Starting tomorrow, you can buy the Hot Wheels x MSCHF Not Wheels, perhaps the crappiest car to ever be put into a bubble pack. We have to look at the details of this thing because they’re great.
While this car seems to be completely random, it makes much more sense when you realize it’s a part of Mattel Creations. What is Mattel Creations? Well, Mattel calls it an “elevated collector platform” for creators to collaborate with Mattel to craft limited-edition toys for today’s collectors.
In other words, Mattel noticed that a lot of today’s adults love collecting Hot Wheels, Barbie, and other toys, but has also noticed that adults love pop-culture brands like Supreme and Daniel Arsham. Some might see these collabs as shameless cash grabs, and the high prices for these toys (relative to their regular examples, anyway) doesn’t help. At the very least, the toys that come out of the other end look really cool.
The name Mattel Creations is also supposed to be a nod to Mattel’s origins. In 1945, Businessman Harold “Matt” Matson joined forces with Elliot and Ruth Handler to open Mattel Creations out of a garage in Los Angeles. Like so many companies, Mattel is just two names mashed together, in this case Matson and Elliot. The company’s first products were picture frames and dollhouse furniture crafted out of the scraps from those frames. Eventually, the Handlers would gain full control of the company and over time, Mattel would grow into the toy giant that it is today.
The modern incarnation of Mattel Creations has cranked out some really artsy toys from a hot 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 to a customizable Toyota Tacoma. You can even buy a reimagining of the famous Hot Wheels Deora II, so long as you’re willing to spend $70 on a small diecast car, anyway.
This time around, Mattel and Hot Wheels is collaborating with MSCHF, the designers of intentionally absurd shoes, boots, and handbags. MSCHF’s whole thing is to be sort of annoying on purpose, as seen by its products and mission statement that it’s “an art and media company known for creating viral and controversial products that generate media attention and public debate.” MSCHF’s website has that low-fi ’90s Internet vibe that you get from other companies like Pit Viper and it’s almost certainly nostalgia bait for ’90s kids like me. Honestly, I’m a bit stunned that you can really buy double-ended flip-flop-style high heels for $450 from this company. Are people actually doing that?
The Diecast
Well, I guess all of this marketing has worked on me because I adore this little Hot Wheels x MSCHF Not Wheels shitbox.
The description of this one gets right to the point:
In an homage to the beat-up but reliable car that many drivers start off with, we partnered with art and media company MSCHF to create a “Not Wheels” vehicle. Inspired by early 1990s Japanese imports, it has three different wheels (two Real Riders classic tires, one yellow spare tire, and a rusted wheel hub) but tons of personality. Thoroughly dented, rusted, and amateurly repaired, our Not Wheels car proudly shows off both how hard it’s been driven and how much it’s been loved.
Like a car from Grand Theft Auto, it’s supposed to look generically like a ’90s Japanese beater, which makes sense. I’m not sure Honda would license a beater Civic. The front end gives me late ’80s Toyota Camry feels while the rear seems like it’s Lexus-inspired, but I cannot put my finger on exactly which model.
Anyway, the intricate details here are incredible. The car is peppered in rust, mismatched panels, dents, scrapes, stickers, spray foam body repairs, and even zip ties. I love how the windows are cracked and dirty and even some parking tickets are making an appearance. Of course, this is supposed to be a replica of a first car, so the requisite fart-can exhaust and terrible wing are there, too.
Heck, the detail is so fine here that the headlights are yellowed out, a taillight is smashed, the driver mirror is taped on, and one wheel is a donut spare while another is just straight-up missing. Finally, you get the calling card of every worn out car: a seatbelt that no longer retracts, hanging forlornly over the door sill.
Even the packaging is humorous with “Used For 2024” and spins on Mattel’s usual boilerplate. There’s “NO WARRANTY” in place of the usual Limited Lifetime Warranty details, and instead of pointing out the car may not be suitable for some tracks as per Mattel standard, the card explains the shitbox is not suitable for people with country club memberships.
It’s all good fun and MSCHF certainly nailed down the true shitbox feel. Some of you probably know how it feels to blow a tire when your car is already wearing its donut spare on another tire that blew.
Right, so now I have the bad news. This car goes on sale tomorrow at 1 p.m. Central time and only a limited number will be sold. Mattel won’t even say how many will be made and the company wants you to chuck out $30 for this. Just typing that made me feel icky. I can almost guarantee scalpers will be picking these things up and putting them on eBay for five times their cost in no time flat, and now I want to vomit.
So, if you’re willing to spend $30 on a shitbox Hot Wheels car, you better buy as soon as they come out or you might miss the boat. I hate saying that as much as you hate reading it.
Still, I’m thoroughly entertained by this little 1:64 diecast. Finally, Hot Wheels is making a car that looks like every poor enthusiast’s first car or the beater of someone who might participate in the Gambler 500. I’d love to see this happen again, but maybe as a regular series vehicle.
(Update: August 30 – The car sold out in mere minutes. I had a timer set for the drop time and I was just a few minutes late, yet I still couldn’t get one. Either this was super limited production or you’re about to see scalpers with these all over the Internet. To say this is a bummer is an understatement. I’ve reached out to Mattel to see if I can deliver some good news.)
And that’s a wrap! These things sold out in minutes. No word on if there will be a second batch, but if you weren’t there exactly at the drop time today you missed out. Ouch.
Bummer you couldn’t get one. I too had an alarm set and managed to snag one. I added it to cart within 2 seconds of it going on sale and then got put into a queue to check out that took like 4 minutes, I was so paranoid I wasn’t going to get it. I should’ve grabbed the 3 they allowed to share with Autopians but I didn’t think about that until I was in line and I wasn’t about to go risk losing the one by going back.
Awesome to hear a first hand account of at least one not going to ebay scalpers.
Oh wow. $80 for a hot wheels car. That’s crazy!
I’ve been an RLC member for a few years now (not that these are RLC), and have never heard of a second drop. Is that something that happens? It would annihilate the second hand market for the first drop for a while.
I’ve had the MSCHF app on my phone for ages, and as soon as I got the notice, I opened the app. They were already gone. Bummer.
I kind of want one, but thankfully, not badly enough to set an alarm to try to get one when the clock ticks down to zero. My life as it is, is already stressful enough.
Hey…they’re not allowed to use my car without my permission! Mattel…I expect my royalty check in the mail TODAY…
If they don’t respond I would suggest contacting Mr. Chiles.
It worked out well for Kramer.
They should include a fourth wheel and tire please.
An extremely odd design and size.
And it has an oversized wheel hole so it barely stays on the spindle without falling off.
Now I want one just so I can fix it.
If the car fits, you can’t acquit.
If they won’t do a Big Altima Energy edition in the future, maybe they can at least do the Camry dent edition?
The Altima edition will have a temporary donut spare tire on it for sure. Oh, and duct tape holding on what’s left of the bumper facia covers. Take it up a notch, Mattel, and have a bungy cord keeping the trunk lid closed to complete the ambience. Pretty sure the Camry dent edition will painted be a calming shade of beige metallic with bubbles in the back window tint from its defroster grids.
Man, why’d they do that to the Deora II? Don’t disrespect the Deora II.
Also, I can’t believe they added the detail of the shirt sleeve hanging out the side. So many people back in highschool ended up with shredded sleeves because they always sat on their jackets or hoodies and that ended up happening.
Is it a sleeve or a seat belt? It looks like a sleeve from one angle but a seatbelt from another.
The missing door handle care of your buddies after a night out! The long ish blind side dent that happens when you enter your parallel parking slot too early! Perfect!
I love everything about this…
It’s official, I can’t even afford a shitbox!
It’s a shame they just can’t call this “shit box edition.”
For 30 bucks, I expect some salt with this.
My older brother and I weren’t much into collecting. The few Matchbox and Hot Wheels we had were promptly smashed up and torched with a can of Gumout. We would then make up stores about how the accident occurred and the gory details of the casualties. We somehow ended up as functioning adults.
Can you provide a third-party reference to attest to that claim?
Asking for a friend who smashed Hot Wheels with rocks and pretended the cars were caught in a disastrous meteor shower.
Ha ha, you’re supposed to fix them w/ rocks
https://jalopnik.com/i-fixed-my-yugo-with-two-hose-clamps-and-a-rock-1848131984
I would love to add this to my sprawling collection of diecast. $30 seems a little high for the car, but that giggle-worthy, Onion-esque card/bubble-pack it’s on does push it into may-try-to-purchase territory.
We old-time collectors call them blister cards.
Yeah, I assumed I’d hate it, but my cynicism was instantly melted away with the “World Is A Truck” meme.
Maybe stick a new Hot Wheels car in a horse’s butt and achieve same for about 25 bucks less? (Thanks Torch)
What’s the point? Give any kid a new Matchbox or Hot Wheels car and it’ll have squashed axles, a door that won’t close and be missing at least one wheel in a month.
Y’all ever hear about pre-distressed jeans?
Ever heard about? Sure. Ever bought? No. My clothes get distressed the old fashioned way, sometimes to the point I am not allowed to wear them outside.
But if somebody thinks that’s high fashion I’m perfectly willing to sell them my disintegrating, soon to be shop rags for top dollar so they can play Emperor.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Clothes
When I was a kid I would hold model cars over a flame to warp the plastic. It looked like dents so I guess I was a trendsetter. The fumes were awful! But I’m KO now.
I’m pretty sure the full size inspiration for this is parked down the road from me. It’s a Nissan. I can smell the vape from here.
It would be quite funny to cram a teeny tiny subwoofer in this and to use as a shitty bluetooth speaker.
I preferred Matchbox back in the day since many had opening doors and other features. This was the late 60s early 70s so the Hot Wheel Dodge Deora still had little surfboards.
The idea of a beater is fun but not fo r$30. I buy stuff for $1.50 in the supermarket because it’s a car I would own in real life so I have things like Brazilian VWs and an Escort RS. The most I’ve spent was $5 for a Matchbox in a cardboard box for nostalgia.
I too shelled out for one of those MB cars just b/c. It sits on my desk, on the box of course.
Cool, but I remember as a kid making my own crashed cars out of hot wheels. A hammer, paint and some access to rubber cement and matches really does the trick!
That is really kind of awesome and I think I will have to buy one.
Cool concept and I love it, but crack pipe at $30 plus tax and shipping. Mattel has been putting out a lot of Matchbox and Hot Wheels limited production models at similar prices, that are lightly warmed over mainline $1.25 or $6 premium models.
Man Id LOVE one of these to put on my Eurorack case on my Youtube channel.
Wish it wasnt limited edition.
Kitbashing your own wouldn’t be hard tho.
Yeah, gunpla dudes have been doing the same to their toys for decades with paint and some weathering stuff in a jar
Given Hot Wheels; track record of sending RLCs, Creations and Premiums to the $1 mainline, It should make it to the pegs at some point. For example, the Simon & Simon Dodge Power Wagon pickup that first appeared in the 2006 HW Hollywood premium series is scheduled to arrive in the mainline next month.
A pox on “limited edition.”
I am of the age to remember in real time when Hot Wheels came out. A big jump over the Matchbox cars we all played with as kids back then. Good memories. I think the last Hot Wheels I bought from my own allowance money was the Don Prudhomme Plymouth Cuda Hot Wheels funny car. Orange plastic track featuring a loopty loop and gravity……. innocent times that motivated this kid and his friends in our never ending search for fun.
Yeah, I love this latest!!
This is cool and the packaging is great, there are plenty of tutorials on youtube on how to customize your own hot wheels, much cheaper than $30, so there is that option, and then you can try and do one of an actual car you owned.
I actually got a little excited as I’ve been trying to find a regular looking Escort for our collection as my wife had one and that has a really close profile to an 80s/90s Escort, and hers definitely ended up being a bit of a s*tbox, but the front end is wrong.
How does this not resemble a late 80’s Chevy Cavalier?
Hot Wheels are such good memories. I had several stages for my hot wheels as a youngster:
Pristine – My sister better not even look at my new hot wheel carGood condition – played with regularly, used on whatever hot wheel track I setup / improvised that week. I might let my sister play with it.Beat up – At this point, the paint was well worn, and I would take sandpaper and sand it all of so it looked nice and shiny again. I might let my sister play with it.Done – at this point a wheel had fallen off or it was no longer functional. I would shove small fireworks in it and attempt to blow it up. It never worked. I did not tell my sister because I was not supposed to play with fireworks unattended.Buried – I would bury it in the front yard. Normally with some meaningful words. I laugh that someday someone will go over that front yard with a metal detector and wonder why the hell someone buried so many beat up hot wheels.
We did the fire cracker thing too, with same results.
Then we taped bottle rockets to them and shot them off the roof of Mom’s VW Bus.
Very cool results, but Dad was pissed about scorch burn marks in the paint.
I won’t be buying that special edition sadly, though it would be cool. Maybe we will get lucky and next year they release a mainline version of this thing with less detail. I’ve modded a few hot wheels in my day, so I could always do one myself. But its just not quite as great as hot wheels actually doing it themselves.
Oh, they will. Count on it!