Hot Wheels

Pick a car, put it on the orange track and let it fly! Hot Wheels have been racing across floors since 1968.

Little cars, made to go fast. Hot Wheels weren't just miniature cars to push around on the floor. You had to connect the orange plastic track pieces together using those short red tabs (and there never seemed to be enough tabs for all the track you had, and there was always one piece of track that didn't align quite right, so you ended up with a bump). Then raise up one end (a staircase worked well), position the car on the track, let it go, and see how far - and how fast - it could go.

Mattel introduced Hot Wheels in 1968 with 16 different cars. They weren't meant to look like ordinary family cars, either. Hot Wheels took their inspiration from the customized cars, hot rods, and muscle cars you might have seen cruising around California. And Mattel gave them low-friction wheels and axles so they could actually move!

Of course, the cars were only part of it. You needed track - straight pieces, curves, jumps, loops. And of course, the power launchers with the foam rollers that propelled the car around and around. On Christmas morning there was orange Hot Wheels track all over the house, draped over chairs, down the basement stairs, and into the double loop set up at the bottom.

In addition to the fun of playing with the Hot Wheels cars, the cars themselves were also collectible - all the muscle cars of the 1970s (Camaros, Corvettes, Mustangs, etc.), race cars, fantasy cars, and even pickup trucks and firetrucks. I had a small display case on the wall of my room with my favorites - including the 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302!

More than half a century later, you can still buy Hot Wheels cars for a few dollars, or build elaborate tracks. They don't look like the old orange track and red tabs that you remember from years ago, but one thing hasn't changed - there's still always another car to get.