The Beach Bomb is a VW microbus with a pair of surfboards poking out the rear window. This design failed preliminary testing, proving to be top-heavy and never functional with the Power Booster track accessory. A widened model with the surfboards mounted in side hot wheels slots was designed and released for the 1969 mannequin year, making the “rear loader” version a rarity and really sought-after piece. As of 2018, there are about 50 “rear loaders” identified to exist.
For instance, the Pearl Driver cars all had pearlescent paint. Sales for the series fashions soared with one other program additionally launched that yr referred to as the Bonus Car program, inflicting shops throughout the nation to have shortages. Purchasing the 4 car units and sending in the packaging backs plus a dealing with charge gave you the opportunity to gather the bonus automobiles, 1 every launched for each quarter of the 12 months beginning in 1996 by way of no less than 2000. Several new wheel designs were additionally launched in the 1990s.
They don’t necessarily mirror the model launch 12 months of a particular automotive. Mainline production modifications to the following model year proper across the middle of the calendar year on the end of June/beginning of July. Premiums and other special sequence lines typically run later in the calendar year before altering production to the next yr.
Hot Wheels’ major competitor for years was Matchbox until Mattel purchased Tyco in 1996. During the fledgling Hot Wheels period, Mattel needed to be certain that every of the vehicles could be used with any of the playsets and stunt observe sets. Tooned (vehicles based on the bigger Hot Tunerz line of Hot Wheels created by Eric Tscherne), Blings , Hardnoze , Crooze , and Fatbax (super-wide rear wheels and quick bodies). Fatbax fashions included vehicles such as the Toyota Supra and Corvette C6. These automobiles did not sell as properly as Mattel expected, and heaps of could still be present in shops all through 2005.
Also, a continuation of the movie Highway 35 referred to as Hot Wheels AcceleRacers was created, going down two years after the occasions of Highway 35. It is featured in four movies and plenty of short segments the place the drivers . All of the shorts and previews of the movies were positioned on a brief website that was deleted shortly after the final movie. The remainder of the line included the usual 12 Treasure Hunts, 10 Track Aces, 50 Segment Series Cars, and 50 Open Stock Models. Four Volkswagen “Mystery Cars” have been supplied as a special mail-in promo.