Cargo Carriers: Nissan Skyline Wagon

The Nissan Skyline Wagon, in my opinion, is the tour de force of this set. It is a new casting based on the C10 Skyline. So it is no GT-R. It isn’t even a GT-X. It is a plain jane Skyline in wagon body.

Skylines in wagon guise wasn’t really new. The C10 is already the third generation Skyline and the previous generation also had a wagon body. While limited to Japan and some very rare exports, the wagon body is actually quite normal. Even the R34 came out with a wagon body. There was no performance version of the C10 wagon, so it most likely came out with either the 1.5L or 1.8L inline four engine bestowed upon the regular cars. As such, there isn’t really much to the original car as far as motorsports is involved. It looked the part of the Skylines of 68 but with a longer wagon body.

The Hot Wheels casting follows the same train of thought. The body line is clean and devoid of any aero kit. The only thing adorning the car are fender mounted side view mirrors and chrome bumpers. Simple as it is, the lines of the Skyline wagon look good. It has small details for the taillights and headlights, and that’s because the actual size of the taillights are small. There are small markings on the sides of the front fender that represents the Skyline logo. Small C4SPRR Real Rider wheels complete the package here. The small size of the wheels actually add to the image of the car being from 1968.

This has been a very nice debut car. It is simplistic but it gets the point across. It’s nice to see Hot Wheels that are not too over the top or extravagant or whose proportions are exaggerated. JDM lovers would instantly fall in love with this car. Some may still prefer the Datsun 510 wagon over the Skyline wagon, but that is personal preference already. As for me, I like the proportions of the Skyline wagon more that the 510 wagon. And while they are both winners, I unfortunately only have the Skyline on hand to keep.

Hot Wheels Car Culture: Circuit Legends

Hot Wheels Car Culture released the Circuit Legends set in 2018. The set is comprised of the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, the ’69 COPO Corvette, the Porsche 962, the ’16 Ford GT Race and the Mazda 787B.

The Circuit Legends pays homage to legendary race cars as the series name suggests. How legendary?

The Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe took home several GT class wins from 1964 to 1965 in several races ranging from the 24 hours of Le Mans, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 12 Hours of Reims among others. The Central Office Production Order Corvette is the Holy Grail of COPOs in that there was only one example of the ’69 COPO Corvette to ever leave the factory. The L88 was also known for its performance in Sebring and Le Mans. The Porsche 962 was built as a replacement for the 956 and has garnered wins in the IMSA GT Championship, the Interserie Championship, the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship and the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship. The Ford GT Race is relatively new and was created as part of the Ford Race program. The car debuted at the 2016 24 Hour of Dayton finishing 7th. In the same year, it finished first in the 24 Hour of Le Mans in the LMGTE Pro class marking 50 years after the original Ford GT40’s spectacular win in the same race. The Mazda 787B is another 24 of Le Mans champion but it is wearing a different belt as it has the distinction of being the only Japanese manufacturer and only Rotary engine car to ever win the legendary endurance race.

These cars are very nice. To be honest, I am not really a big fan of GT cars. I still like watching GT races but not as much as I watch World Rally Championships and F1 races. Let’s just leave it at that. Getting back to the cars, they are very nicely detailed. Even for a GT race car, the decals and livery are spot on. It would be nice to have these on a diorama race track just to imaging them tearing up the asphalt.

 

Aston Martin One-77

Between 2009 to 2012, Aston Martin produced seventy-seven beautiful rolling sculptures. And they called it the Aston Martin One-77.

It is an Aston Martin from the moment you see it. The long, smooth bonnet. The low, muscular stance. The sophisticated gentleman suit. All it needed was a bow-tie. And guns. And probably an ejector seat. It never did become a Bond car though, that distinction came in the form of the Vanquish instead.

I feel like Hot Wheels has always done a good job with the modern Aston Martins. This One-77 is no exception. While the Metal-flake Gray paint job on the 2012 All-Stars don’t do it justice, the White version more than makes up for it with its blue pearl-ish hue. And then there came this Metal-flake Champagne from the 5-pack. This could have been an official Aston Martin palette. When you look at it, it just feels like an Aston Martin. Again, the casting details are pretty good at this scale. The flush door handles and wings are outlined nicely, the air ducts that connect to the headlights and the side vents are sculpted with convincing detail. The best wheel option is the one on the Champagne colored car, your standard 10SP. It just looks right. The interior isn’t really much to look at, and with those small windows, you can hardly see anything anyway. Although to be honest, a maroon or red interior would have been a nice contrast to any of these colors.

Beautiful as it is though, this One-77 didn’t seem to have the same appeal as the other Aston Martin cars in the Hot Wheels stable. For me, its because it looked small. It felt a bit short. If you put it beside the DBS for example, you can see that it looks like the little brother that needs to be looked after. Not that it does, but it just feels like it when viewed as it is.

Max Steel

The original Max Steel animated TV series came out in 2000 when CG animation in television was fairly young. So while the animation was not revolutionary, the fact that it was CG meant that the show did get some airtime. The show was rebooted by Disney in 2013 and it is this series that gave birth to the Max Steel Motorcycle and Turbo Racer by Hot Wheels.

These are obviously aimed at kids who watched the show and are fantasy cars at best. And since there is no real vehicle to base them on, Hot Wheels basically had free reign over the design of the vehicles. And they aren’t bad.

Max Steel Motorcycle

The Max Steel Motorcycle is made up mostly of metal which was a surprise. The top half and bottom half appear to be attached to each other rather than it being one whole slab of metal. This gives the motorcycle a fair amount of detail. The lower compartment where a normal motorcycle engine resides looks good and is actually believable. This being a fantasy car, that is saying a lot. I have four variants of the motorcycle decidedly differing in the paint. The first version stays true to the TV series with a white over black motif. But it is the black-over-blue version that looks way cooler. Although the decals on the white over blue would not look out of place on any of them.

Max Steel Turbo Racer

The same can be said for the Turbo Racer. It is also made up of two pieces of die-cast metal joined together to make up a top and bottom half. The bottom half emulates the suspension for the rear wheels, although they don’t work. The top half represents the cockpit and the engine at the back. It even has the twin blasters on the roof of the car. I only have two variants of this car. The TV series version with the white over black color scheme and the matte blue over chrome version. While the matte blue looks nice, the original TV version is the better-looking car here. I didn’t manage to get the black over chrome variant which looks good as well though.

The TV series didn’t really pick up well with the older generation but it did manage to rake up two seasons on Disney XD. While I am not really a fan of it as well, it did have its moments. Let’s just not talk about the live-action movie.

Overall though, Hot Wheels made good cars based on the 2013 TV Show. It may not have been as successful as they would have wanted, but they are pretty good-looking toy vehicles.