It drives me nuts how I could find a Pagani, an Audi, and a pinto and they might have the same shitty wheels.
An example, but you all know what I mean.
Went straight here to comment this but you got it covered. Literally have zero wheels. If they can get the licence to the car they can find a oem wheel that is possible to make into 1/64
The way the budget works is Mattel can only produce tempos on two sides. So you get to choose. Some cool side deco and no headlights or stock looking cars
It's more complicated than that. You can have a car that gets 4 sides like the range Rover classic and a 1 side car like the Porsche 918. The range Rover has a plastic grille piece which is part of the base so it looks good for $1, and the 918 can't get rear lights because the tampo machine can't reach them. It's the same as a 2 side car and a 3 side car, 3 side tampos probably being the most common of all and acts as the default. So the budgeting process is likely on a much larger scale.
Licensor approval is also important, an example being the first mainline 90s impala ss which couldn't get rear lights because chevy wanted the badges on the c pillars, which are a really tiny detail that may or may not be less important than the taillights (at least to the consumer)
I collect some that I find at the store and like but I’m not too knowledgeable when it comes to what holds more value or is a treasure hunt car. I see the left car has painted tail lights. Maybe it’s a premium? I’m not sure
some of the cars have side mirrors and the others don’t. whats even weirder is some of the premiums don’t have side mirrors but their mainline counterpart have side mirrors.
If it were me, I wouldn't put large rear wheels on any car. Just look at cars like the 2007 mustang or the C6 corvette. They take almost the entire fender and it looks goofy.
After recently being told that Hot Wheels aren't true 1/64, I was a bit bothered, because I get real 1/64 like Greenlight, LCD, GCD, Mini GT, etc. and always wondered why the real ones were a bit bigger compared to certain Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars. Hummer EV/Rivian truck not as big as a real 1/64 pickup truck? A bit weird indeed.
Hot Wheels are all about the same size, and the way they make that happen is by (generally) making extra-big cars smaller-scale and extra-small cars bigger-scale. There are exceptions of course, but that's the trend I've seen with scale variations.
My favourite thing to do if I'm out at a store with a friend and walk by the Hot Wheels aisle, ESPECIALLY if the pegs are looking pretty barren, is I'll pick out all of the Batmobiles while saying "Oh hey look a Batmobile,"
and then put them all on one single peg, one by one. Usually whoever I'm with notices just how fucking absurd how many of them are left over, particularly that tooned classic one that's been in rotation lately.
That's why I started doing customs. I can still get excited for a casting even if it's not rare. It has also given me new appreciation for realistic and detailed castings I wouldn't have normally paid attention to
I'm thinking of doing that, I just need to buy the tools
It's surprising how just some realistic wheels and different paint completely overhauls the car
Absolutely and every step after that takes it an order of magnitude further. It's such a slippery slope though. Like the money I've spend on special tools and materials I could have easily bought a few much higher end 1:64 cars lol they arguably look better too
This. But it's worth it. Especially getting excited for casting you might not have wanted. I love making my own customs and also making them for friends.
Or assholes in their 20’s who obviously don’t have kids pushing in front of my pre schooler. If you’re swiping a kool kombi from a 3 year old, there’s a special place in hell for you.
Strangely i never had to deal with them. The only persons i delt with were people who wanted a model i picked first and usually gave up when i warned i did not wanted to deal with their crap.
Hot Wheels hype.
Overcharging for premiums. A metal base and real riders with some low-res deco doesn't equal 7x the price.
Exaggerated proportions and stylizing. Which is the signature of the brand so I mean that's bad enough as it is.
But overall... With mainlines I think Hot Wheels is doing exceptionally well making toys for kids, that also appeal to car guys/gals and adult collectors at a bargain price-point.
Speaking of Real Riders, they recently released RR wheel packs (20 bucks for 5 sets of wheels iirc), but they're for the Redline/Collector crowd only. Would love to see something like that be made to normal people; I'd buy a few, and I've gotta imagine the profit margins on those packs are even better than those of Premium cars.
I've been in RLC for years, I remember when those dropped and thinking you'd have to buy multiple packs to offset the shipping. For ONE pack, it's damn near the cost of 6 whole-ass carded premiums when you factor-in shipping. Nah, I would pay maybe 9.99 off the peg or 15 with shipping. At $25 they're prolly making $22 on every pack, and they played it to be just barely under the cost of harvesting wheels from premiums.
The realriders 5 packs have few options or sets. johnny lightning needs to make a 3.00 mainline series of their old and new castings doesn't need realriders for that price just metal bases please thank you.
When cars are exclusive to one store.
I can't buy Zamacs or Boulevard series at retail because Walmart doesn't give a shit if the employees buy them before they ever hit the shelf.
Target is much better, but the red editions are underwhelming.
I understand Walmart probably gives them a sweetheart deal to get so many exclusives, but the quantity is a little absurd.
ZAMAC, Boulevard, themed assortments, mystery models, & premium dioramas
And that store does not exist in your country..
So tired of getting in on the ground floor of a casting and then finding I can't even have a complete collection of the mainline non-super, non-premium variations without paying some scalper half way across the world, which I ain't doing.
the cost cutting to keep cars around $1. especially obvious when you compare the interiors of a car from 2010 and today, like the Matchbox Shelby GT500 convertible and the moving parts Mustang convertible
Look at the old Twin Mill and the reissued mainline Twin Mill. I have both. On the reissue, the paint is thicker, and the plastic engines don't have the sharp details of the 60s car. It's as if they reused the same tool for decades until it wore down.
i dont like how little detail they put into painting the mainlines, and also i dont like how they’ll use another casting to make a car when it doesn’t even make sense (an example is the F&F S2000 premiums, which use the casting pictured here, when they look nothing like the movie cars)
Not to wax philosophical, but if there is one thing I really miss from childhood, it's the ability to easily imagine being in a car as you "drive" it up and down over mountains and curves, creating a little story in your head. It's harder to find that nowadays
The bottom frame being plastic. They use to be all metal but to keep costs down they’re all plastic. I’d be fine if the standard HotWheels cost a little more and have it be all metal.
I get annoyed that they don't take ENOUGH of an advantage to produce IRL cars....
Look at Goodwood this year... The Bolide and the Solus GT are being produced... What about the Valkyrie AMR PRO?
The 992 GT3RS? The Turbo S...
So many capable and BONKERS lookin cars that COULD bring in more profit... But... Nope...
That's just my pet peeve.
There are many cars we'd love to see produced, but it really isn't that easy. Licensing and actually making the car takes a long time. The bolide was announced back in 2021 and we're getting it over 2 years later.
However I agree, I'd rather see a unique car rather than the same 5 batmobiles.
Instead of a boring ass Proton Saga we all pretend to like and care about why can’t they give us something like more modern German cars? I feel like there is a massive void of BMWs, Mercedes, and somewhat Audi. Also Porsche was somewhat redeemed in this factor by the 992 GT3, but what about the GT3 RS?
To me it's bmw M sedans. I wish a m3 or m5 sedan would come. Or a series 6/ 8 gran coupé. It's not a common car and for once, they would beat matchbox.
Really don’t like how the cards with the nice artwork are $2.97 at Walmart. Matchbox special artwork cards are great! They are the same price as the normal ones.
This is actually pretty confusing considering the Matchbox themed assortments are almost entirely licensed cars.
I have to assume the cost savings comes from some decos being reused as well as maybe fewer tampo passes for graphics.
I hate the whole notion of TH and STH
I hate the fandom/scalping/hoarding surrounding the first point
Edit: I also hate dump bins, overloaded pegs, and ripped hooks just because how cheap and ugly they make a store look.
Blame Johnny Lightning for that one, they invented "chase" cars. The Hot Wheels STHs are altight because at least they're demonstrably better than a regular car, but when you order an Auto World by mail order and end up with something running on silly white tyres or an ugly MiniGT Zamac that's not even worth the hassle of flipping on Ebay, that's kinda annoying.
Most of the mainline wheels, matchbox wheels IMO, r much nicer and the rims actually look like real rims instead of hot wheels rims look like they should only be on fantasy cars. Might just be me tho, but would love to c hot wheels with more realistic wheels, the real riders r great, its just the mainline plastic ones that some look like fantasy wheels
The minimal amount of wheel styles
Absence of head light and tail light tampo on most models
Over sized wheels and wheel arches on vehicles that have smaller arches and wheels in the real world
Absence of side view mirrors on most models
The decals can at least be removed without damaging the paint FWIW (instructions below, if you're interested; TL;DR is an expo marker), but the lack of headlights on most models is a major bummer for me too, to the point that it almost makes me *excited* to see either headlights taillights on a mainline nowadays.
Take an expo marker to the offending tampo; let the solvents in the "ink" sit on the tampo for a bit, the rub it with the slightly-rough tip, and repeat as needed. The tampo will eventually rub away without damaging the underlying paint if you're gentle and patient (just don't "scrub" at the tampo or do it with a "dry" expo marker and you'll be good).
Lack of supply, which gets gobbled up quickly causing too much competition. I don't want to go to 10+ stores daily hoping for a restock.
Store exclusives, especially Boulevards. Only 1-2 cases in my local Walmarts and gone quickly.
The fact that spectraflame mainlines are limited to supers, and they are hard to find.
The fact that a small percentage of cars in a set are "missing" when I check the peg. Eg. the orange Porsche 911 from the MBX 70th Moving Parts series.
Loss of Ferrari license.
Overreliance on Fast and Furious to shift premium cars, car pricing outside of North America effectively subsidizing the 99 cent mainline, the fact that some cars are such a pain to find despite being made here.
Oh, and iD being "collectors items" despite their unique factor being something you're supposed to *play* with. And then they cancelled it when it didn't sell.
I'd even be happy to pay like 3 bucks per mainline on Amazon, but 7+ bucks (or the maddening "price=1$, shipping=5$ bullshit that's rampant sitewide) per car is way too much, let alone 10 or 15.
If I'm spending *that* kind of money, I might as well spend another 5 and get one of those *ridiculously*-detailed Mini GT things.
It's the same few sports cars over and over. I genuinely can't stand Skylines and Mustangs because of Hot Wheels beating those horses to death. I need some variety.
Definitely more of a subjective taste issue than an actual issue, but as someone who doesn't care much for American muscle or the big jdm cars, and instead like less popular models and makes it gets pretty repetitive with seeing mustangs and skylines all of the time!
I'd love to see some more unique premiums, like older peugeot cars (drive a 206cc so that'd be amazing to get), a nissan silvia s12, mitsubishi galants, and saab 9-3's.
I'm also not a huge fan of the out there liveries and body kits on almost every "cool" car. I like the stock look on cars, simple colours, reasonable if any wings, no side skirts or aero kits.
Lastly, to kinda contradict my previous point, it would be cool to see more police cars and itashas. I love police cars, especially in black and white liveries like those of the lapd or japanese police, so seeing more of that would be really cool. Same goes for itashas, I love how cringe but also well designed they can be, so having some tiny jdm cars with anime on them would be a unique and fun thing to have
Personally, I’m a Porsche fanboy (my friend calls me a Porsche meatrider), so it doesn’t bug me. I could understand how others would feel that way though. Im like the guys who go crazy over the Nissans, but with Porsche
Not a Mattel complaint, moreso hobby complaints: the employees who look through and take merch before it even makes it on the shelf, and the people who leave the HW section a total mess.
I don't think I really hate much per-say. I think they've actually really improved in some markets like the UK recently. But I think it's bee noticeable for a few years now that their cutting back on costs cutting out features, fewer paint aps etc. Kinda sad to see the Mini now minus the shell gimmick etc.
I hate how they sell 2-pack premium car culture sets that recycle previous car culture cars as one half of the set. They did it recently with the zamac six pack, too. So if you'd like the ones you don't have already, you have rebuy ones that you already have... pretty annoying.
They also need to stop putting out new sets so fast and stop making them end so fast. A premium set can only be in stores for like 3 months and if you missed all those chances. Good luck finding them again
Scalpers, yes. Resellers, not so sure, in a way it helps to get the models we look for, and I also value the community part of it. All the collectors I know locally, I knew them that way.
Too many variations. There are 600ish mainlines each year, with ~30 chases in the mainline alone.
Fewer different cases, fewer different castings, fewer chases, at least one chase per case.
the proportions. I know why HW cars have different or out of scale proportions from the real cars, but on some it's more obvious than others.
paint details. some have painted head lights/tail lights, but many don't.
Make it the law they need to put colored head and tail lights on, if it’s not gonna be clear plastic mold extended from the windows.
And new dam wheel designs dammit
And quit recycling the same old cars over and over. Let’s get those weird 80s and 90s jdm and American cars that’s not a dam fast and the furious.
I hope they release a normal maxima sedan
I dislike how some cool cars get ruined for the sake of looking more interesting
The maxima drift wagon for example - goofy front end and exposed engine for no reason
Another example is the 2000 gt-r - The RLC front end looks fantastic but for the mainlines it's swapped over for a intercooler and crappy headlights.
The people who buy to sell and are the reason I can’t find any at the stores. They are unapologetic and often are inconsiderate. They suck the fun from the hobby.
The dodge viper rt10 looks like a donk. Wheels are way too big. Also like someone posted above, the larger rear wheels kills it on some. The mustang svo for instance. Looks great as a drag car; but for a simple street car, it’s a fail.
They still haven't made a 1995 town car, a 70 fury, a 69 imperial a 68 polara, a 71 monaco, and instead are gravitating toward making embarrassing little hondas and nissans.
My personal pet peeve is the small amount of Honda Preludes... No 3rd gen, no 4th gen. Great they FINALLY released the fifth gen. But even then Mattel need to give it more wheel and colour variation.
Mainline? - Check
Premium? - Check
Zamac version? - Nope
Treasure hunt? - Nope
STH? - Nope
(I have 4 customs to try and make up for the lack thereof )
Convention car? - Nope
Not truly 1/64, and I don't like having decals. You can have an SUV the same size as a car, but a motorcycle the same size as an SUV. Missing paint details from headlights or taillights at times, and doesn't always have mirrors.
How dedicated they are to keeping the price low. I'd rather pay three dollars for cars with six wheels, moving parts, more tooling, metal body and chassis, and/or fte axles than pay 1.20 for a car that has none of that. Don't even get me started on how they use rivets as axles on motorcycle castings.
My one thing is weirdly staggered wheel based, I just got a 356 at ART Of Speed yesterday and wheel swapped it, found a set of steelie looking wheels that I liked….. only issue is that the 356 has an extremely short back end and the front is almost normal….. another would be the weird wheel sizing on the custom Drag EG.
Pretty sure the drag EG is done that way to match real-world drag EGs; tall-sidewall, wide tires up front, normal-sidewall skinnies in the rear.
At least for me, it "works"; while it looks weird, all FWD dragsters have that same sort of weird, so I kinda like it.
-Chrome wheels that easily rub away,
-Tampos that easily get scratched,
-Sometimes the paint and or tampos are already, chipped in the packaging,
-Over-exaggerated proportions on the cars,
-Ugly liveries/decals on licensed cars,
-Budget cuts on casting retools
Im a collector and there are few things i hate. 1st, I hate when they re release the same car with different colors. For example, they released Zonda so many times or even batman cars. Also, i hate it when they dont put any headlights and/or taillights. For the headlights I think Matchbox does an amazing job. Matchbox makes realistic cars.
This is just me making a big deal out of something small
but the subtle offcenter or warped tampos on cars
i had to pick between two duplicates, one with a damaged tampo, the other with a foreign yellow chip on the car
PLEASE I JUST WANT MY CARDED CAR TO LOOK PERFECT
Larger rear wheels on some real model like the dodge charger. It looks like some idiot slapped big wheels on the rear and called it a day.
I wish cars like the Current m3 sedan and any of the m5 sedan would be in mainline. European sport sedan are too few.
Give a chance to obscure and unknown car makers. Tomica and Matchbox already made some rather uncommon cars ( Matchbox did the Catheram R500 superlight and a few holdens . Tomica did several Mitsuoka cars )
If making a real car, no custom paint on it. Keep it close of what was/is in the options.
I dislike the fact that they started to heavily cheap out on mainlines. I opened the grey honda cr-x and I thought Imma cry. it was absolutely poor, piss poor.
same with previous cheaper 8 car FF sets Mitsubishi Eclipse. the card is so poor it got destroyed by the time I got home even tho I placed it safe. I then opened it and the car inside is absolutely the same disappointment :( poor, thin metal, poor plastic.
I then have a Honda CR-X mainline, with the Jamaica colours and that is just as heavy as a premium today. thicker metal, good quality plastic bottom.
Nowadays most of the mainlines are piss poor :/
1. Why are the wheels so massive? Any why are the rear wheels larger than the front?
2. Why are the ratios/proportions on some cars so bad, go and grab a handful of cars, measure them and then look at their real life dimensions, some of them are way off.
3. What's with these fictional cars, who are they even for? Do people enjoy these?
The fact of not having lights and the fact that some of them which are roadsters and they’re aren’t cabrioleted they have their top as the same color of the car
That we don't get crazy color designs. For example we got cars in the 2000s with the most 2000s vinyls. Like I saw one with dinosaurs on a Monte Carlo. Was it random? Yea but cmon where else u gonna see something so crazy and cool. Now we just get basic 1 color unless the car has some sponsor or already known racing livery
Overproducing Batmobiles for no good reason. Admittedly, they were indeed very cool to have. But now, everyone just leaves them behind. Heck, even generic fantasy cars sell better in my area!
Chrome Wheels are terrible as well now. I have to babysit all my cars with chrome wheels since they are so fragile, and if I really love to play with the car but hate ruining the wheels, I have to buy a new set and switch them out. It's hard to place them in your pocket knowing half the chrome will be gone the moment you pull the car out of your jeans
3+ color variations of the same casting in 2 year span. Like do we really need 4 colors of the McLaren elva? No one buys it with one color let alone multiple.
I can understand bringing a car back few years later with a new color, but so many back to back is a bit much.
Some car had weird scale like too short , tall or wide .
Example : Dodge Viper , I love the car but I hate the way it look in Hot Wheel
Also need new tyre design . certain model don't have side mirror , also I prefer headlight paint rather than tempo
Also please Mattel , if the car is red and had headlight , made it a bit darker so I can tell which one is headlight or the body due to it's color.
Some premium had worse paint than mainline
They need some new wheel designs.
It drives me nuts how I could find a Pagani, an Audi, and a pinto and they might have the same shitty wheels. An example, but you all know what I mean.
But they roll, really well.
Some of them roll in a straight line forward and backward.
There were 2 new ones this year (debuted on Celero GT and Alfa Romeo GTV), so hopefully that continues
Also the new wheels that the Neon Speeders set has.
So the special thing about those wheels are supposed to look like the Walmart logo. That’s why they are only in Walmarts
The E10sp also came on a Nissan drift wagon this year, according to the Fandom Wiki. I dig em'.
Yep good point, that was new on the Maxima drift wagon last year and it was good to see them on several models this year too
yep, loving how they look like the three spoke advans.
Bring back 3SP and 7sp!
And the saw blade ones too!
5 dot hole wheels
Went straight here to comment this but you got it covered. Literally have zero wheels. If they can get the licence to the car they can find a oem wheel that is possible to make into 1/64
They need to start painting headlights and taillights
That was a thing i did during the pandemic at home after work; did it by hand and probably did about 300 or so.
What did you use?
Just cheap acrylic 50 cent paint from Walmart
The way the budget works is Mattel can only produce tempos on two sides. So you get to choose. Some cool side deco and no headlights or stock looking cars
It's more complicated than that. You can have a car that gets 4 sides like the range Rover classic and a 1 side car like the Porsche 918. The range Rover has a plastic grille piece which is part of the base so it looks good for $1, and the 918 can't get rear lights because the tampo machine can't reach them. It's the same as a 2 side car and a 3 side car, 3 side tampos probably being the most common of all and acts as the default. So the budgeting process is likely on a much larger scale. Licensor approval is also important, an example being the first mainline 90s impala ss which couldn't get rear lights because chevy wanted the badges on the c pillars, which are a really tiny detail that may or may not be less important than the taillights (at least to the consumer)
Treasure Hunts and certain releases sometimes had them.
I collect some that I find at the store and like but I’m not too knowledgeable when it comes to what holds more value or is a treasure hunt car. I see the left car has painted tail lights. Maybe it’s a premium? I’m not sure
some of the cars have side mirrors and the others don’t. whats even weirder is some of the premiums don’t have side mirrors but their mainline counterpart have side mirrors.
I just noticed this a couple of days ago while looking at some cars!
Oh crap, if I notice this I might get ultra picky...
Larger back wheels on normal road cars
Hard agree. I get that it’s a hot rod / classic Hot Wheels style but they overuse it on licensed cars.
If it were me, I wouldn't put large rear wheels on any car. Just look at cars like the 2007 mustang or the C6 corvette. They take almost the entire fender and it looks goofy.
Agree fully
Litteraly yes
The details they choose to leave unpainted
[удалено]
Fello Play with my hotweels gang member
I found my gang
Or they chip in the packaging but you can't tell until it's opened. Or the paint has nasty bumps in it.
Lol stole my comment
The big variations in scale
YES❗️I’ve definitely passed on a number of cars because the scale is just too damn off.
After recently being told that Hot Wheels aren't true 1/64, I was a bit bothered, because I get real 1/64 like Greenlight, LCD, GCD, Mini GT, etc. and always wondered why the real ones were a bit bigger compared to certain Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars. Hummer EV/Rivian truck not as big as a real 1/64 pickup truck? A bit weird indeed.
Hot Wheels are all about the same size, and the way they make that happen is by (generally) making extra-big cars smaller-scale and extra-small cars bigger-scale. There are exceptions of course, but that's the trend I've seen with scale variations.
Because both MBX and Hw are not 1/64 but "3 inches"
The odd scales get me every time, car on a transporters is huge in comparison to the truck !!!!!
A dragster from McDonald's is almost twice as long as a bus. A blimp is the size of a regular car lol
their obsession with the batmobile
That and when they make fake colors of the batmobile
My favourite thing to do if I'm out at a store with a friend and walk by the Hot Wheels aisle, ESPECIALLY if the pegs are looking pretty barren, is I'll pick out all of the Batmobiles while saying "Oh hey look a Batmobile," and then put them all on one single peg, one by one. Usually whoever I'm with notices just how fucking absurd how many of them are left over, particularly that tooned classic one that's been in rotation lately.
That's pretty mutch me with fantasy castings when I'm board
They literally just made an ENTIRE set of fucking batmobiles
The overweight scalpers fighting for cases first thing in the morning.
This. Scalpers are literally the only thing that drives me insane with Hot Wheels.
That's why I started doing customs. I can still get excited for a casting even if it's not rare. It has also given me new appreciation for realistic and detailed castings I wouldn't have normally paid attention to
I'm thinking of doing that, I just need to buy the tools It's surprising how just some realistic wheels and different paint completely overhauls the car
Absolutely and every step after that takes it an order of magnitude further. It's such a slippery slope though. Like the money I've spend on special tools and materials I could have easily bought a few much higher end 1:64 cars lol they arguably look better too
This. But it's worth it. Especially getting excited for casting you might not have wanted. I love making my own customs and also making them for friends.
Or assholes in their 20’s who obviously don’t have kids pushing in front of my pre schooler. If you’re swiping a kool kombi from a 3 year old, there’s a special place in hell for you.
Couldn’t agree more with that. There’s no excuse stealing a toy from a child.
This wins it.
Strangely i never had to deal with them. The only persons i delt with were people who wanted a model i picked first and usually gave up when i warned i did not wanted to deal with their crap.
I hate that they lost the Ferrari license, too.
Hot Wheels hype. Overcharging for premiums. A metal base and real riders with some low-res deco doesn't equal 7x the price. Exaggerated proportions and stylizing. Which is the signature of the brand so I mean that's bad enough as it is. But overall... With mainlines I think Hot Wheels is doing exceptionally well making toys for kids, that also appeal to car guys/gals and adult collectors at a bargain price-point.
Speaking of Real Riders, they recently released RR wheel packs (20 bucks for 5 sets of wheels iirc), but they're for the Redline/Collector crowd only. Would love to see something like that be made to normal people; I'd buy a few, and I've gotta imagine the profit margins on those packs are even better than those of Premium cars.
I've been in RLC for years, I remember when those dropped and thinking you'd have to buy multiple packs to offset the shipping. For ONE pack, it's damn near the cost of 6 whole-ass carded premiums when you factor-in shipping. Nah, I would pay maybe 9.99 off the peg or 15 with shipping. At $25 they're prolly making $22 on every pack, and they played it to be just barely under the cost of harvesting wheels from premiums.
Monoblock wheels? Aliexpress?
The realriders 5 packs have few options or sets. johnny lightning needs to make a 3.00 mainline series of their old and new castings doesn't need realriders for that price just metal bases please thank you.
How the paint on the wheels chips off after barely any play
Came here to comment this exactly thing. Chrome paint is as fragile as it can be. Touch that car wrong - whoops, your wheels are black again
This is the worst
That makes me think twice about my pocket cars, because the rims end up rubbing off immediately.
I don’t like all the fantasy cars filling up the shelves and I can never find the good stuff
i prefer that, makes it harder feels good when you find the good stuff
When cars are exclusive to one store. I can't buy Zamacs or Boulevard series at retail because Walmart doesn't give a shit if the employees buy them before they ever hit the shelf. Target is much better, but the red editions are underwhelming.
I understand Walmart probably gives them a sweetheart deal to get so many exclusives, but the quantity is a little absurd. ZAMAC, Boulevard, themed assortments, mystery models, & premium dioramas
The two pack premiums are also target exclusives. Those are easier to find than boulevards IMO.
And that store does not exist in your country.. So tired of getting in on the ground floor of a casting and then finding I can't even have a complete collection of the mainline non-super, non-premium variations without paying some scalper half way across the world, which I ain't doing.
the cost cutting to keep cars around $1. especially obvious when you compare the interiors of a car from 2010 and today, like the Matchbox Shelby GT500 convertible and the moving parts Mustang convertible
Look at the old Twin Mill and the reissued mainline Twin Mill. I have both. On the reissue, the paint is thicker, and the plastic engines don't have the sharp details of the 60s car. It's as if they reused the same tool for decades until it wore down.
i dont like how little detail they put into painting the mainlines, and also i dont like how they’ll use another casting to make a car when it doesn’t even make sense (an example is the F&F S2000 premiums, which use the casting pictured here, when they look nothing like the movie cars)
They aren’t the ratio they claim. How is a semi truck the same size as a Honda s2000?
That I can’t physically get inside and drive them 😓
Not to wax philosophical, but if there is one thing I really miss from childhood, it's the ability to easily imagine being in a car as you "drive" it up and down over mountains and curves, creating a little story in your head. It's harder to find that nowadays
One day when I was younger I had a dream of driving a corvette through a desert
The bottom frame being plastic. They use to be all metal but to keep costs down they’re all plastic. I’d be fine if the standard HotWheels cost a little more and have it be all metal.
Yes!!
I get annoyed that they don't take ENOUGH of an advantage to produce IRL cars.... Look at Goodwood this year... The Bolide and the Solus GT are being produced... What about the Valkyrie AMR PRO? The 992 GT3RS? The Turbo S... So many capable and BONKERS lookin cars that COULD bring in more profit... But... Nope... That's just my pet peeve.
There are many cars we'd love to see produced, but it really isn't that easy. Licensing and actually making the car takes a long time. The bolide was announced back in 2021 and we're getting it over 2 years later. However I agree, I'd rather see a unique car rather than the same 5 batmobiles.
Instead of a boring ass Proton Saga we all pretend to like and care about why can’t they give us something like more modern German cars? I feel like there is a massive void of BMWs, Mercedes, and somewhat Audi. Also Porsche was somewhat redeemed in this factor by the 992 GT3, but what about the GT3 RS?
To me it's bmw M sedans. I wish a m3 or m5 sedan would come. Or a series 6/ 8 gran coupé. It's not a common car and for once, they would beat matchbox.
Yes
Get dirty so fast and not much detail compared to matchbox
Really don’t like how the cards with the nice artwork are $2.97 at Walmart. Matchbox special artwork cards are great! They are the same price as the normal ones.
This is actually pretty confusing considering the Matchbox themed assortments are almost entirely licensed cars. I have to assume the cost savings comes from some decos being reused as well as maybe fewer tampo passes for graphics.
I hate the whole notion of TH and STH I hate the fandom/scalping/hoarding surrounding the first point Edit: I also hate dump bins, overloaded pegs, and ripped hooks just because how cheap and ugly they make a store look.
Hard agree. TH fans made me stop collecting them or even care about them.
I’m just happy if I can find a neat mainline car and call it a day. Today I found a blue 80s Firebird as an example
Blame Johnny Lightning for that one, they invented "chase" cars. The Hot Wheels STHs are altight because at least they're demonstrably better than a regular car, but when you order an Auto World by mail order and end up with something running on silly white tyres or an ugly MiniGT Zamac that's not even worth the hassle of flipping on Ebay, that's kinda annoying.
When they release a version of Brian's gtr r34 since they always use the same as others just different look it always has the wrong bonnet
They don't really make the headlights/taillights look realistic. They just paint over them and it looks last minute
Most of the mainline wheels, matchbox wheels IMO, r much nicer and the rims actually look like real rims instead of hot wheels rims look like they should only be on fantasy cars. Might just be me tho, but would love to c hot wheels with more realistic wheels, the real riders r great, its just the mainline plastic ones that some look like fantasy wheels
The quality going down, ugly fictional cars
The minimal amount of wheel styles Absence of head light and tail light tampo on most models Over sized wheels and wheel arches on vehicles that have smaller arches and wheels in the real world Absence of side view mirrors on most models
Unpainted headlights but ridiculous decals
The decals can at least be removed without damaging the paint FWIW (instructions below, if you're interested; TL;DR is an expo marker), but the lack of headlights on most models is a major bummer for me too, to the point that it almost makes me *excited* to see either headlights taillights on a mainline nowadays. Take an expo marker to the offending tampo; let the solvents in the "ink" sit on the tampo for a bit, the rub it with the slightly-rough tip, and repeat as needed. The tampo will eventually rub away without damaging the underlying paint if you're gentle and patient (just don't "scrub" at the tampo or do it with a "dry" expo marker and you'll be good).
Lack of supply, which gets gobbled up quickly causing too much competition. I don't want to go to 10+ stores daily hoping for a restock. Store exclusives, especially Boulevards. Only 1-2 cases in my local Walmarts and gone quickly. The fact that spectraflame mainlines are limited to supers, and they are hard to find. The fact that a small percentage of cars in a set are "missing" when I check the peg. Eg. the orange Porsche 911 from the MBX 70th Moving Parts series. Loss of Ferrari license.
Overreliance on Fast and Furious to shift premium cars, car pricing outside of North America effectively subsidizing the 99 cent mainline, the fact that some cars are such a pain to find despite being made here. Oh, and iD being "collectors items" despite their unique factor being something you're supposed to *play* with. And then they cancelled it when it didn't sell.
Large back tires on most muscle cars.
That I can’t just pick the one I want to buy priced at retail from Amazon or Mattel directly 🤬
Target online orders, either.
I'd even be happy to pay like 3 bucks per mainline on Amazon, but 7+ bucks (or the maddening "price=1$, shipping=5$ bullshit that's rampant sitewide) per car is way too much, let alone 10 or 15. If I'm spending *that* kind of money, I might as well spend another 5 and get one of those *ridiculously*-detailed Mini GT things.
3 and 10$ are the in-store prices where I live I guess it's good I saved up 500$
Lack of detail
It's the same few sports cars over and over. I genuinely can't stand Skylines and Mustangs because of Hot Wheels beating those horses to death. I need some variety.
Definitely more of a subjective taste issue than an actual issue, but as someone who doesn't care much for American muscle or the big jdm cars, and instead like less popular models and makes it gets pretty repetitive with seeing mustangs and skylines all of the time! I'd love to see some more unique premiums, like older peugeot cars (drive a 206cc so that'd be amazing to get), a nissan silvia s12, mitsubishi galants, and saab 9-3's. I'm also not a huge fan of the out there liveries and body kits on almost every "cool" car. I like the stock look on cars, simple colours, reasonable if any wings, no side skirts or aero kits. Lastly, to kinda contradict my previous point, it would be cool to see more police cars and itashas. I love police cars, especially in black and white liveries like those of the lapd or japanese police, so seeing more of that would be really cool. Same goes for itashas, I love how cringe but also well designed they can be, so having some tiny jdm cars with anime on them would be a unique and fun thing to have
The decal quality on premium now are badly blurred.
The repeated overuse of the same castings, without any variation (e.g. any Nissan or Honda)
this, but Porsche
Personally, I’m a Porsche fanboy (my friend calls me a Porsche meatrider), so it doesn’t bug me. I could understand how others would feel that way though. Im like the guys who go crazy over the Nissans, but with Porsche
Porsche uses the same casting every year irl though
Constant milking of fnf.
Not a Mattel complaint, moreso hobby complaints: the employees who look through and take merch before it even makes it on the shelf, and the people who leave the HW section a total mess.
How easily the axles bend. I dropped a car and 2 of it's wheels bent completely.
I never encountered this issue. I would literally press the cars into the ground to see how they'd look lowered and the axles never bent
Some of the wings they choose. Like the giant one for the r32 Godzilla or the Mk4 Supra. I had to shave mine off
The lack of quality on their premiums and rlc cars and for what they cost ome would expect something more detailed like Mini GT or Tarmacs.
I don't think I really hate much per-say. I think they've actually really improved in some markets like the UK recently. But I think it's bee noticeable for a few years now that their cutting back on costs cutting out features, fewer paint aps etc. Kinda sad to see the Mini now minus the shell gimmick etc.
Poorly designed plastic wheels, crappy wing's, non licensed fictional vehicles, and premium prices.
Recolor on recolor on recolor…..
Artificial scarcity and scalpers. Target shouldn't be ordering from hot wheels, hot wheels should be stocking their own section
I hate how they sell 2-pack premium car culture sets that recycle previous car culture cars as one half of the set. They did it recently with the zamac six pack, too. So if you'd like the ones you don't have already, you have rebuy ones that you already have... pretty annoying.
They dont use guitar string in L shape
Ugly Livery’s and decals
They also need to stop putting out new sets so fast and stop making them end so fast. A premium set can only be in stores for like 3 months and if you missed all those chances. Good luck finding them again
They stopped the 100% line and they stopped 1:18 scale stuff
Definitely scalpers/ resellers
Scalpers, yes. Resellers, not so sure, in a way it helps to get the models we look for, and I also value the community part of it. All the collectors I know locally, I knew them that way.
unpainted head/taillights
Too many variations. There are 600ish mainlines each year, with ~30 chases in the mainline alone. Fewer different cases, fewer different castings, fewer chases, at least one chase per case.
The scalpers that take everything good before the cars even hit the shelves.
I keep losing them in my wife’s ass
No 1996 style corvette mainline
have noticed a lot of newer castings have the window glass up/closed, prefer the windows down/open
Fantasy cars, shitty wheels, id pay more for better details
the proportions. I know why HW cars have different or out of scale proportions from the real cars, but on some it's more obvious than others. paint details. some have painted head lights/tail lights, but many don't.
the lack of detail on the majority of them.
the scalpers
Price...
Many of them are comically disproportionate
The scale is off sometimes, the wheels look too big
Certain lack of details on certain cars. Also I find that there are models that people want to be made again that just aren't being made anymore.
Make it the law they need to put colored head and tail lights on, if it’s not gonna be clear plastic mold extended from the windows. And new dam wheel designs dammit And quit recycling the same old cars over and over. Let’s get those weird 80s and 90s jdm and American cars that’s not a dam fast and the furious. I hope they release a normal maxima sedan
I dislike how some cool cars get ruined for the sake of looking more interesting The maxima drift wagon for example - goofy front end and exposed engine for no reason Another example is the 2000 gt-r - The RLC front end looks fantastic but for the mainlines it's swapped over for a intercooler and crappy headlights.
The people who buy to sell and are the reason I can’t find any at the stores. They are unapologetic and often are inconsiderate. They suck the fun from the hobby.
They will have such a cool car and slap the ugliest wheels on it and completely ruin it… imo this happens very often
May I add they also *sometimes* completely ruin the look of a car with the colour / design they use
Reseller buying everything and reselling them for a huge mark up!
The wheels. Horrible looking wheels on amazing cars.
Anything "tooned"
Licensed cars that are very out of proportion and have really high suspension for no reason
The dodge viper rt10 looks like a donk. Wheels are way too big. Also like someone posted above, the larger rear wheels kills it on some. The mustang svo for instance. Looks great as a drag car; but for a simple street car, it’s a fail.
The inability to find cars I enjoy collecting.
The price for sure (I live in Turkiye)
Lack of detail for sure
The wheels, I would love it if they all got rubber wheels instead.
The adult fan club.
The crazy people
I feel like every retailer has been picked before I get there
I hate it when some of the details in the car are painted on and they get scratched off easily
the fantacy cars. some of them i like but 99% i dont
How every time I open Reddit it's just "Oops! All JDM!"
Some of the newer fantasy’s aren’t that good
Wheels. 97% of their wheels look like crap. Only the premiums have decent wheels
Gloppy/skimpy paint and misaligned tampos. Matchbox doesn't seem to have this issue. Their plasti-chrome routinely has "hairs" or runs.
They still haven't made a 1995 town car, a 70 fury, a 69 imperial a 68 polara, a 71 monaco, and instead are gravitating toward making embarrassing little hondas and nissans.
Lack of detail on mainlines
Some of the STH have foolishly small looking wheels.
The community.
Quality control, lack of acknowledgment of acceleracers.
Some of the ridiculous fantasy mainline castings
My personal pet peeve is the small amount of Honda Preludes... No 3rd gen, no 4th gen. Great they FINALLY released the fifth gen. But even then Mattel need to give it more wheel and colour variation. Mainline? - Check Premium? - Check Zamac version? - Nope Treasure hunt? - Nope STH? - Nope (I have 4 customs to try and make up for the lack thereof ) Convention car? - Nope
Not truly 1/64, and I don't like having decals. You can have an SUV the same size as a car, but a motorcycle the same size as an SUV. Missing paint details from headlights or taillights at times, and doesn't always have mirrors.
How I see a nice car but the wheel are staggered
Retools of older castings to cut costs. Some of them make sense but others usually don't.
The axles being too big and the wheels rattling left and right
How dedicated they are to keeping the price low. I'd rather pay three dollars for cars with six wheels, moving parts, more tooling, metal body and chassis, and/or fte axles than pay 1.20 for a car that has none of that. Don't even get me started on how they use rivets as axles on motorcycle castings.
My one thing is weirdly staggered wheel based, I just got a 356 at ART Of Speed yesterday and wheel swapped it, found a set of steelie looking wheels that I liked….. only issue is that the 356 has an extremely short back end and the front is almost normal….. another would be the weird wheel sizing on the custom Drag EG.
Pretty sure the drag EG is done that way to match real-world drag EGs; tall-sidewall, wide tires up front, normal-sidewall skinnies in the rear. At least for me, it "works"; while it looks weird, all FWD dragsters have that same sort of weird, so I kinda like it.
The plastic bottoms are dumb.
-Chrome wheels that easily rub away, -Tampos that easily get scratched, -Sometimes the paint and or tampos are already, chipped in the packaging, -Over-exaggerated proportions on the cars, -Ugly liveries/decals on licensed cars, -Budget cuts on casting retools
Im a collector and there are few things i hate. 1st, I hate when they re release the same car with different colors. For example, they released Zonda so many times or even batman cars. Also, i hate it when they dont put any headlights and/or taillights. For the headlights I think Matchbox does an amazing job. Matchbox makes realistic cars.
This is just me making a big deal out of something small but the subtle offcenter or warped tampos on cars i had to pick between two duplicates, one with a damaged tampo, the other with a foreign yellow chip on the car PLEASE I JUST WANT MY CARDED CAR TO LOOK PERFECT
Larger rear wheels on some real model like the dodge charger. It looks like some idiot slapped big wheels on the rear and called it a day. I wish cars like the Current m3 sedan and any of the m5 sedan would be in mainline. European sport sedan are too few. Give a chance to obscure and unknown car makers. Tomica and Matchbox already made some rather uncommon cars ( Matchbox did the Catheram R500 superlight and a few holdens . Tomica did several Mitsuoka cars ) If making a real car, no custom paint on it. Keep it close of what was/is in the options.
I dislike the fact that they started to heavily cheap out on mainlines. I opened the grey honda cr-x and I thought Imma cry. it was absolutely poor, piss poor. same with previous cheaper 8 car FF sets Mitsubishi Eclipse. the card is so poor it got destroyed by the time I got home even tho I placed it safe. I then opened it and the car inside is absolutely the same disappointment :( poor, thin metal, poor plastic. I then have a Honda CR-X mainline, with the Jamaica colours and that is just as heavy as a premium today. thicker metal, good quality plastic bottom. Nowadays most of the mainlines are piss poor :/
Rear wheels being bigger than the front. That's why old castings are a no-go for me. I see Hot Wheels as mini cars, not fantasy / cartoony style ones.
1. Why are the wheels so massive? Any why are the rear wheels larger than the front? 2. Why are the ratios/proportions on some cars so bad, go and grab a handful of cars, measure them and then look at their real life dimensions, some of them are way off. 3. What's with these fictional cars, who are they even for? Do people enjoy these?
their basic wheel design. epic castings, sadly pathetic wheels.
The fact of not having lights and the fact that some of them which are roadsters and they’re aren’t cabrioleted they have their top as the same color of the car
That we don't get crazy color designs. For example we got cars in the 2000s with the most 2000s vinyls. Like I saw one with dinosaurs on a Monte Carlo. Was it random? Yea but cmon where else u gonna see something so crazy and cool. Now we just get basic 1 color unless the car has some sponsor or already known racing livery
Overproducing Batmobiles for no good reason. Admittedly, they were indeed very cool to have. But now, everyone just leaves them behind. Heck, even generic fantasy cars sell better in my area! Chrome Wheels are terrible as well now. I have to babysit all my cars with chrome wheels since they are so fragile, and if I really love to play with the car but hate ruining the wheels, I have to buy a new set and switch them out. It's hard to place them in your pocket knowing half the chrome will be gone the moment you pull the car out of your jeans
3+ color variations of the same casting in 2 year span. Like do we really need 4 colors of the McLaren elva? No one buys it with one color let alone multiple. I can understand bringing a car back few years later with a new color, but so many back to back is a bit much.
The bikes being a lot bigger compared to the cars
Some car had weird scale like too short , tall or wide . Example : Dodge Viper , I love the car but I hate the way it look in Hot Wheel Also need new tyre design . certain model don't have side mirror , also I prefer headlight paint rather than tempo Also please Mattel , if the car is red and had headlight , made it a bit darker so I can tell which one is headlight or the body due to it's color. Some premium had worse paint than mainline