Hot Wheels

In 1968, Co-founders of Mattel, Elliot and Ruth Handler, got the idea of diecast toy cars by watching their grandchildren play with toy cars. They hired on a team of designers that included Harry Bradley, from General Motors, to help with the design process of Hot Wheels. When Elliot Handler first saw Bradley's classic Southern California hot rod in the parking lot he said, "Man, those are some hot wheels". That is how the Hot Wheels brand name was born, combining the hot-rod theme with the car's new suspension and wheel design.

Hot Wheel cars were designed to run on an orange plastic track that could be looped and connected together. The cars were immediately popular in both the United States and the United Kingdom and Hot Wheels were voted the UK Toy of the Year in 1969. According to Mattel, some 15 million people are collecting the cars in the 21st century, with the average collector owning more than 41 Hot Wheels cars. Somewhere in the world two Hot Wheels cars are sold every second.

As with other collectible toys, Hot Wheels are popular with adults as well as children. Mattel has responded to this in recent years by reproducing the early cars that people remember from their childhood. Equally popular both with kids and adults, some fans boast over 10,000 items in their Hot Wheels collection! With a wide variety of vintage Hot Wheels, modern Hot Wheels, and contemporary Hot Wheels to choose from, Hot Wheels Cars is the best place on the internet to start or build your Hot Wheels collection.