TEXAS TOY MAN

Hot Wheels Rodger Dodger Redline 1974

 

 

 

 

 

The Rodger Dodger Concept Hot Wheel was first produced by Mattel in 1974 and was manufactured in Hong Kong. Due to its racy look, the Rodger Dodger Hot Wheel quickly became a demand car in the collector diecast market, and as such has been in production since 1974 to the present.

The Rodger Dodger came in many different versions, i.e., color of the car, wheel types, tampos – but the one thing that did not change was the large exposed engine which was the trademark of the Rodger Dodger.

The version pictured here is unique because of a mistake made to the colors of the flames. The flames on the right side of the hood are painted grey instead of the original yellow color that were supposed to be in the flames. So you have a car that has one side yellow; the other side is grey.

The Rodger Dodger pictured here has the following features:

Plum in color

Orange and yellow flames on the roof left side; grey flames on the right side

Exposed metal engine

Black plastic interior

Blue tinted windshield

(RSW) Redlines

Hong Kong embossed on the bottom of the chrome metal chassis

 

To me this is one of the best cars that Mattel designed and produced for the collector market. There are so many versions, each being very unique, so that the collector had many opportunities to have and own a cool Hot Wheel.

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.