Pocket rockets: What makes Hot Wheels so collectible?

What’s that: adults buy Hot Wheels? What for: to push them around the carpet? There’s only one way to find out. Chris Pollitt is an adult who has more than 2500 Hot Wheels cars and counting. He must have a lot of carpet, I think, but when he opens the wardrobe he stashes them in, I realise they’re all still in their blister packs. “To take them out would only bring me a tiny moment of joy, so I don’t,” he says. “In any case, I’m 38, so too old to push them around the carpet.” Why, then, does he buy them? In fact, Pollitt’s reasons are rooted in a difficult period in his childhood when the family lostmost of their possessions. Collecting Hot Wheels in later life began as a way of regaining lost treasures, but now he just likes collecting them.

“I try not to buy any when I go to the supermarket, but then I see a new line and can’t help myself,” says Pollitt. 

There are three price points in the Hot Wheels range: £1.85 (entry level), £3.25 (mid-price) and £6.99 (Premium). The level of detail and finish increases with each until at Premium level the cars feature things like rubber tyres, more metal and doors and bonnets that open. Naturally, interest in the Premium range is growing fast among adult collectors, but not for Pollitt. Instead, he shops at the £1.85 level. Now I really am confused. He buys the cheapest cars only to leave them in their blister packs – why?

“Because even though they’re the cheapest, they’re still very collectable,” he says before introducing me to the devilish ways Mattel makes them so. “Treasure Hunt cars are very rare, entry-level models with one or two Premium- range features. For example, I have a regular GT40 with plastic wheels that’s worth pennies and an otherwise identical T-Hunt version with rubber tyres that’s worth around £100. The fun is in chancing across a T-Hunt car on the display rack since they’re not advertised or packaged differently.” In addition to the T-Hunt cars are Super Treasure Hunt cars with even more features from the Premium range.

And then there are the Error cars. These are rare cars that, either by accident or design, have manufacturing defects such as mismatched wheels and incorrect or badly applied transfers. In some instances, the car may be fine but the packaging is wrong. Other features that can boost a car’s valueto collectors are metal rather than plastic chassis and the size of the blister card, with long cards being harder to find in mint condition so more valuable. Most valuable of all are early cars from the 1960s and ’70s. Keen collectors have a well-thumbed copy of Warman’s Hot Wheels Field Guide by Michael Zarnock (priced £45), to help steer them through this confusing world.

Pollitt has his own copy but stops short of describing himself as a collector. With 2500 Hot Wheels in his wardrobe – the number swelled by him having multiple examples of the same cars but in different colours – I beg to disagree, but instead invite him to peruse my sons’ Hot Wheels collections. Will he find a T-Hunt? “This Stars and Stripes car with its opening bonnet and metal chassis could be one, while the 1963 Thunderbird with metal chassis is definitely collectable,” says Pollitt.

If his wardrobe was burning down, which of his 2500 Hot Wheels would he save, I ask. “The Mk2 Ford Focus RS. It cost me 99p from Halfords,” replies Pollitt. “It’s not a T-Hunt car but, being in very rare green, it’s worth around £100. To me, though, it’s priceless.”

Toy cars from £1.85 to over £100k

Hot Wheels says it is motivated by the ‘challenger’ spirit that its founder, Elliot Handler, embodied when he created Hot Wheels. The original design team included a car designer and a rocket scientist. They had a brief to create a toy car that was cooler and performed better than the competition. Hot Wheels die-cast cars are the best-selling toy in the world, with 16.5 of them sold every second. To date, more than seven billion Hot Wheels have been sold.