My fun hobby..Old Hot Wheels aka - Redlines

[AMC RULES 37,125]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjmCJVepuM0

Edited February 5, 2014 by AMC RULES

[Redline69 27]

Thanks for the commercials Craig. They bring back some fond memories.

 Just a note about the cars they used in those commercials. They were specially made cars that were chromed,and then painted, giving them a gleaming appearance. Some of these cars are still out there,and demand big $$. One collector found some with the family of the director of the commericals. Others have been found with Mattel employees. Similar cars were given to salesman who went to the department stores, using these little jewels to try and obtain orders for this new and exciting die cast toy line.

 

 A few over chrome salesman sample cars...(not mine..I wish..  )

 

 

 

 

 

 

The story of the spun aluminum cups. Yes! Harry Bently Bradley, the gentleman I refered to earlier,as the 1st HW designer, drove a customized 1964 El Camino, and he added some shortened aluminum cups to the center of the hood, to give it that halibrand injector look.

 

 

 

 His boss, Elliot Handler asked Harry, to design the cars with that kind of a look to them. California Custom style.

 5 spoke mag wheels. Wide oval tires. Bright Candy colors.

 

 

 So his El Camino, then became one of the original 16 cars, the Custom Fleetside.

 

 

 

 

 F.

[Jrblanke 857]

Great thread! You have some GREAT cars! I have slowed down a lot with my redline collecting, mainly because of finding other hobbies/interests. I do still enjoy hot wheels and am still working on finishing my display room.

 

Here are a few of my favorite cars:

 

Sold this past fall

 

 

 

 

Custom Fleetside mentioned earlier

 

 

 

Custom Firebird

 

 

 

My track sets and accessories. 

 

 

 

More of my favorite cars...

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for starting this thread! I enjoyed looking back through my pictures and hearing everyones stories!

[rydogg 186]

I was collecting a lot of die cast in the 90's I didn't get into the old ones but got a lot of new in package ones that I never opened I probably have over 1,000 die cast muscle cars from 1/64 to 1/18.

[Redline69 27]

Hey James.

 I knew you were a member here, so I was glad to see you tag in.

 Your cars look great! Do you still have a good number of reds there?

 

 

 Hey rydogg,

  Plenty of collectors went from the newer stuff over to the redline side.

 

  

   Again, Thanks!

[Jrblanke 857]

Oh yeah, i still have about 100 or so, just not pursuing them like I used to. I put that antifreeze colored camaro up on ebay with a really high starting price with the expectation that nobody would bid, but to my suprised it had 3 bidders and sold for a lot more than I expected.

 

 

 

[Redline69 27]

 Glad to hear you still have some keepers there James.

 Regarding your ebay Camaro, You know what the demand is like for clean Camaros. they tend to get gobbled up..lol.

 

 A few of my recent Custom Camaros.

 You remember Rugbug - Donny? He had this nice red with matching tail, Dark interior, tabber base.

 

 

 

 

 This one glows!

 

 

 

 

 And my new favorite.

 For those of you not familiar. This is a White enamel Custom Camaro. There are about 2 dozen known. The favored explanation is these were test cars for the modifications to the upcoming Heavy Chevy.

 

 They are one of the coolest redlines out there.

 

 

[AMC RULES 37,125]

What modifications were they testing on it?

[Redline69 27]

Exaclty what ..I don't know. We have a Camaro Guru on the redline side, and he knows the answers better than me..lol.

 

Since they were working on transitioning the US Custom Camaro, to the Heavy Chevy. There needed to be a few changes.

 

 I know the Heavy Chevy takes larger wheels, so I assume the wheel openings would have been enlarged.

 

 Fitting in the later run glass and interior could have been another.

 

  The hood is an odd fitting thing, but the Heavy Chevy loses the hood,and gets a blown motor in place. But that could have been done further down the road yet.

   Lots of tiny details went into these things. It takes a lot of research and study to figure out the lineage of these things sometimes.

[Jrblanke 857]

Awesome camaro! My favorite cars, and ones that I will probably go for in the future are the early US cars. I see your new painted tail mustang has the early US chrome wheels. 

 

Here is my early US Custom Mustang. 

 

 

Here are some custom firebirds which was one of my favorite castings.

 

 

Then being a C3 corvette owner, gotta have some stingrays!

 

 

And my one of my favorite castings, the '56 High Tail Hauler.

 

 

Pretty neat poster...

[squonk 41,016]

Love the commercials. How come they never show the car in the jump missing the ramp and crashing or the car flying off the curve and hitting the kid in the eye?     

[squonk 41,016]

This brought back memories. But my cars used to come out of the corner and fly off the track!   

 

[AMC RULES 37,125]

You know...you're right Mike, no matter what you did...

I think some cars just stuck better than others. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoB-b0Hv9vI

Edited February 13, 2014 by AMC RULES

[Jrblanke 857]

This brought back memories. But my cars used to come out of the corner and fly off the track!   

 

 

Great video, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if the music playing was something like, "I can't drive 55", or "Kick Start My Heart", instead of the Macy's shopping type music. haha. 

[Redline69 27]

This is what made the Hot wheels so much fun. The play factor.

 

Gotta love the old pre Superfast Matchbox too. They really helped create a whole toy category. And were generally pretty nice.

 

 Great model choices, spectra flame candy style paint, the redline racing slicks that actually ran on a thin edge to reduce friction and increase speed, And the fine wire suspension that helped keep the cars on the track...all added up to some pretty heavy play value with the Hot wheels.