TEXAS TOY MAN

Hot Wheels: State Police Cruiser, 1976

This Olds 442 Police Cruiser is the Hot Wheel ‘muscle-car’ model that had the hood cast shut and the plastic roof in the color light blue. As an interesting sideline, Mattel also produced some similar castings including the Olds 442 in 1971; Chief’s Special in 1975; Maxi Taxi in 1976, and Army Staff Car in 1976.

The version pictured here also comes with the yellow and black ‘State Police’ tampo on both doors. There were two other variations of the ‘Police Cruiser 6963′ that came with an opening engine cover, stickers on the side with ‘Police’ (instead of State Police), and red plastic light on top.

Note: The ‘State Police’ car models (not pictured) produced in 1973 by Hot Wheel had stickers instead of tampos and was one (1) of only three (3) cars Mattel ever produced with stickers. And if you’re wondering what those other two (2) cars were…. they were the Snake and Mongoose.

This 1976 Hot Wheel State Police Cruiser has the following features:

• RSW-Redline tires
• The number 12 on both front fenders
• ‘State Police Law Enforcement’ tampo on both doors
• White in color
• Blue plastic roof light
• Blue tinted windshield
• Radar printed on both rear fenders
• Two cast roof-top sirens
• Small front redline tires
• Medium rear redline tires
• Made in Hong Kong
• Plastic chrome chassis
• Cast shut hood
• Black plastic interior

As stated, if collecting the Olds 442 style cars, your collection will include not only these three (3) state police cars, but also the others we mentioned above … the Olds 442-BW, Chief’s Special-RSW, Maxi-Taxi-RSW and Army Staff Car-RSW.

Hot Wheels – ‘The Demon’ by Mattel

This Hot Wheel Redline – ‘The Demon’ – was produced by Mattel from 1970-71. It was based on the original show car ‘Lil Coffin’ . The original car was a ’32 Ford Sedan and when finished was painted an ‘Apple Red’. To read more about the original ‘Lil Coffin’ visit this link.

Mattel’s ‘Demon’ came in varying combinations of colors. The car produced during the 1970-71 period came in 10 different metallic colors: Aqua, Blue, Brown, Green, Lt. Green, Olive, Orange, Purple, Red, and Yellow. In addition to the 10 different body colors, the car also was produced with two (2) different interior colors: Black and White. While the black interior is the more common version, if you are lucky enough to have – or find – one with a white interior, you can expect to have the value of the car double.

Our ‘Demon’ feature here has the following features:

• Produced 1970-71
• Metal chassis
• Blue tinted windshield
• Redline tires (RSW)
• Black interior (plastic)
• Made in Hong Kong
• Black roof (painted)
• Exposed engine
• Metallic Aqua color

Mattel has often based their Hot Wheels on ‘real’ cars driven by ‘real’ people. If you would like to see some pictures of the Lil Coffin as it appeared at a car show in 2008, visit this link.

Hot Wheels “Pro Racing” #94 Bill Elliott

Not just for the kids anymore, this First Edition “1998 Collector’s Edition” was designed to appeal to the adult NASCAR enthusiast. And, with attendance records like last Saturday’s race in Kentucky attracting over 107,000 attendees, you can understand why Mattel is seriously eyeing this market.

If an effort to target this market with realistic collectibles, the Hot Wheels Pro Racing diecast scale 1/64 th is being produced by Mattel. Interestingly, Mattel makes an effort to copy as many of the details of each one of the NASCAR race cars as possible. This particular collectible is the McDonand’s sponsored race car driven by Bill Elliott.

Some of the unique features of this Hot Wheel are the following:

• McDonald’s logo on the rear quarter panel
• #94 on both doors and top
• Goodyear Eagle “rubber tires”
• Red in color
• Bill Elliott signature on both sides of the roof
• Ford Taurus emblem on front
• Bill Elliott “Upper Deck” card included in blister pack
• 50th anniversary emblem on blister packaging
• Car comes with red interior with black role bar
• Reeses logo on trunk
• Red medal chassis “diecast”

This is only one of the many ‘collectible’ race cars NASCAR has licensed Mattel to produce and offer on the market. With the ever growing popularity of NASCAR plus the fact that these replicas are very affordable, this is a good hobby for the adult collector – particulary those on a limnited budget.