Too Hot To Handle

While Hot Wheels celebrates its 50th anniversary, Rahul stumbles on an opportunity to live out his childhood fantasy.

- Rahul Kapoor

Back in the day – before the time of smartphones and tablets – when I was still in school, the boy with the coolest toy car was the most popular.

So, when Mattel Toys introduced Hot Wheels in India, it literally transformed my childhood. Suddenly, Hot Wheels became ‘the thing’ to have. I remember owning over a hundred of these models and having proper fist fights with my cousin to settle the most important question – whose is better.

A few years later, they also introduced the tracks with the loop-de-loops and jump ramps, which left me standing in a pool of my own drool with every new version. Each new model of car, track and accessory was better and cooler than the one before it in exactly the way a five-year-old would imagine it to be. I’m quite sure that, as we grow older and our toys get bigger, every car enthusiast can trace their love for automobiles to these 1:64 scale models.

With 6 billion cars produced since 1968, Hot Wheels has inspired generations of children the world over – many of whom have grown up to become car enthusiasts. As 2018 marks their 50th anniversary, Mattel Toys India decided to make two lifesize versions of their most popular 1:68 models to celebrate the occasion and display them at the 2018 Auto Expo.