Hot Wheels' Hot Hues

[Brabham Repco F1]

I was going through some photos and came across these that I took of my old Hot Wheels some years ago. I think the blog is becoming overloaded with black-and-white images since I've started posting the E. L. Moore photos, because the Hot Wheels colours jumped out and shook my eyes around. So, in the spirit of sprucing up the place, strap into these wild rides.....

This Light-My-Firebird was one of my favourites and I’m glad that it’s still in fairly good condition. I think Snake on The Simpsons drives one of these things :-)

Custom T-Bird. This one originally belonged to my sister, but became mine when she got tired of Hot Wheels. It was downhill for the T-bird from then on. Broken off hood. Bent windshield support. Weird silver paint job. Ratty decals. Scrapes and scratches.

Custom T-Bird's Engine. Ok, the black wash doesn't look too bad.

Custom Volkswagen at the beach. Somehow, somewhere this one lost its engine.

Maserati Mistral that's seen better days. This was one of my favourites and it's too bad all that's left is the body and interior. I think the original was green and the blue is a repaint. And it was repainted with a brush!

Ok, this isn't a Hot Wheels vehicle, but a Johnny Lightning Custom '32 Ford. It's missing the windshield, but it's otherwise intact. I recall it was fast. If there was one vehicle that I could enlarge to full-size and drive around in, it would be this one - but after the flower power decals were removed and the windshield was replaced :-)

For some unknown reason I have a bit stuck in my head so that every time I see this car I think 'McLaren' when it's actually a Ford MK IV. I need to figure out why that is. Anyway, this one was green, but I brush painted it a gloppy white.

A Johnny Lightning Sunbeam that isn't that old and I think dates from 1998 or thereabouts. An excellent little toy and a favourite.

Classic '32 Ford Vicky. Another one that was originally my sister's. There are lots of those 'flower power' flower decals that we stuck on for 'customization' purposes. If they were removed, this one would be in fairly good condition - other than the bent axles from lots of racing!

Matchbox Jaguar Mk 10. This Jag is in pretty bad shape. No interior. No glass. No hood. And for some reason I applied the let's-put-this-thing-in-a-vise customization technique - the results speak for themselves. At one time I used this car to make tire tracks in wet plaster as a road building technique on an old model railroad. That's why the tires have white on them. But, I'm glad it's a survivor.

Ah, the Mighty Maverick. This was another of my favourites and luckily it too is intact. That giant rear wing was the highlight for me. Well, just about any car with an airplane sized wing bolted to the trunk caught my attention. The proto-aerodynamicist in me I guess. I considered the Richard Petty SuperBird the ultimate in automotive big-wing technology. I don't know if there was a Hot Wheel of that thing, but I did at one time have a model kit, but, alas, it's lost to time :-(

Well, that's all. I gotta go and get a new windshield.