Get Hotcars Premium. Start your free trial today
Who would've though a scale model toy car would cost more than an S-Class!
Cars keep getting more and more expensive day by day, don’t they? And buying a car sometimes feels like it’s a desire rather than a necessity. But the cars that tend to be desirable also tend to be heavier on your wallet. But not when it comes to toys, or so one might believe. Enter Hot Wheels, one of the oldest and renowned scale model car toys from the American brand Mattel. Let’s be honest, Hot Wheels doesn’t need any introduction. Hearing that name will, however, require a few minutes of a trip down memory lane when we used to play with them in our imaginary races.
A product for kids’ playtime can be this popular only if it’s affordable, and some Hot Wheels models are indeed really cheap as chips. ‘Some’ is the key word here because there are a few models that are so expensive that you can actually buy a decently powerful or even a luxury car for the price of a 3-inch scale model. But why are some of these models so expensive? The affordable ones are not of poor build quality at all, so the reason lies somewhere else. Let’s take some of the most expensive ones in the world, and see what makes them so expensive.
RELATED: This Unbelievable Hot Wheels Collection Is Worth $1 Million
Coincidentally or not, the first one here is also the first in history. This little Camaro is part of the very first collection of 16 Hot Wheels in its first year. There have been a ton of Camaro models from Hot Wheels over the years, but this is the one that started it all, so it has to have some value for that. The one you see in the photo is a prototype model of the set, so it’s even more ‘original’ or historic. The price of this little toy was around 58 cents when it launched. Today, that price now sits around $100,000.
It may not be the single most expensive, but there is more to it. Its original sales price has multiplied by 170,000 times in just over 5 decades. Whether it’s the highest for a miniature toy car or not is a topic for another time, but it has got to be up there on the top end of the leaderboard. The designers of these models coated the cars with enamel white or black to check if there were any imperfections or not. Out of these, only a few actually made it to retailers across the country. As you know, exclusivity and price tag go hand-in-hand with each other. Moreover, we couldn’t confirm it but it is speculated that this one is the only prototype model that exists, hence the price tag. The price of a used 1968 Camaro (the actual car) in pristine condition is about $44,300 for the base model. Even the SS trim in good condition will cost about $95,600. Now imagine a miniature toy based on this car with a bigger price tag than that. It makes it one heck of a collectible.
RELATED: 22 Hot Wheels And Matchbox Cars From Our Childhood Worth A Fortune Today
Earlier, we commented on the good build quality of Hot Wheels cars. Mattel usually makes them from the die-cast of Zamac and attaches some plastic bits to it. Zamac is an alloy of zinc and aluminum, so the toys are quite tough and can handle rough use (perhaps a make-believe rally stage?) But in 2008, the folks at Mattel outdid themselves. For the New York Toy Fair for the same year, they came up with this flashy little piece of car and made waves in the arena. Instead of the Zamac alloy, this Otto has 18-karat White Gold for a frame. And as if that’s not enough, it’s got 2,700 black, blue, and white diamonds sticking out of that white gold. These diamonds weigh nearly 23 karats overall.
The Hot Wheels Spectraframe Blue paint color is all blue diamonds. The underbelly is black and white diamonds. The car looks out of the world, but not out of proportion or out of the familiarity of Hot Wheels. Oh, and the red tail lights are rubies, in case you were wondering. It is a one-of-a-kind car and commemorates the production of the 4 billionth Hot Wheels vehicle. As a result, it’s pretty dang rare and holds both financial and historic value. The original value is a whopping $140,000! More than a decade later, its value has even gone higher.
RELATED: Why This Pink Hot Wheels Costs More Than A New Porsche Taycan
Kinda like the 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO in most expensive used cars lists, this VW bug makes its way to about every expensive Hot Wheels list out there. In its second year of production, Hot Wheels designers created a California-themed version of the VW. They made 140 prototypes, and out of those, only 50 have been accounted for. The models in public sales were set to have a little plastic surfboard sticking out of the back window to give it a California beach theme. But they had to change it due to balancing issues. But the owner somehow has the prototype with the surfboard in the back.
Speaking of, let’s get to know about the owner of the costliest Hot Wheels model right now. It’s Bruce Pascal, perhaps the biggest Hot Wheels collector in the world. He saw a newspaper article about it selling for $72,000 but the sale didn’t go through. He quickly contacted the people in charge and got it for $50,000. Now it lies in Bruce’s private Hot Wheels museum in Maryland and has a price tag of $150,000! Sometimes, it’s not the car it's based on, or the materials used to make the model, but the history or the contextual value behind these Hot Wheels toys that make them so freaking expensive.
Monish Mandavra grew up surrounded by Indian car culture and likes anything on wheels, but especially loves Japanese cars and classic vehicles. When he is not writing or working, he is either playing video games or headed towards the gym.