The Mattel version of the Classic 57 T-Bird was released in 1969-1971, and was truly racing inspired with the aero cowl behind the drivers seat and drag pipes poking from behind the front wheel openings. Without a doubt, Mattel’s T-Bird was ready to race the orange track drag strip from the get-go.

The T-Bird was only released as a USA casting and featured a metal base, a lift up hood which reveals a metal engine, a plastic interior (in assorted colors), clear glass and redline tires. The finish was available in 18 spectraflame colors. Metallic Pink has traditionally been the most desirable color. This casting is very hard to find in a C7 or better condition and can be very pricey.

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Credits: Images from the RK Stickel’s collection, Blister T-Bird, and T-Bird with red headlights from the Scott Jones collection. Tomarts guide #6, and Spectraflame – The Essential Guide.

Don Tognotti was one of the most successful Custom car show promoters of his time, but before that he built show cars. The Hot Heap was based on his 1964 modified Model T Roadster show car called “King T”, also known as “Tognotti’s T.” The King T won the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster award at the Grand National Roadster Show in 1964.

By winning this award the King T was launched into stardom. Shortly after, MPC built a 3-in-1 model kit, and in 1968 Mattel released it as one of the original 16 Hot Wheels castings. A popular Hot Wheels model among many collectors, the Hot Heap is one casting that most collectors hope will be reissued in the near future.

The Hot Heap was originally issued in both a US and Hong Kong casting. The US version featured a metal engine and a color-matched, molded interior and steering wheel. The base was fairly plain with no details other than the exhaust pipes and logos (Hot Wheels, US patents pending, etc.) It also had a shorter trunk, and the leaf springs on the back were shorter and less detailed. US  castings also came clear windshields and the wheels carried a dull silver finish.

The Hong Kong casting came with a plastic chrome engine. The base was more detailed with the entire drive train molded into the base, and featured open slots to view the axles. It was also issued with chrome wheels. The trunk was also longer, and the leaf springs on the back were longer and more detailed. They also came with blue-tinted windshields, and the interior were molded in various colors with a black steering wheels.

Credits: Images from the RK Stickel’s collection, Tomarts guide #6, and Spectraflame – The Essential Guide.

This USA-only casting was available in 17 spectraflame colors. It featured an all metal chassis and body, as well as an opening rumble seat and a dark color plastic interior. Early run examples have been found with three to nine buttons on the inside of the rumble seat.

Some castings have been located with chrome rear wheels indicating a late run as all USA castings featured silver painted wheels. The ‘36 Ford casting is very collectable, and a fair market price to pay for a good casting is $25-$50. All models featured below cost less then $30.

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Credits: Images from the RK Stickels collection, Note: Pink is a restoration. Tomarts guide #6, and Spectraflame – The Essential Guide.

Its just an off the wall concept, that some say is a cross between a Peepin’ Bomb & Bug Eye. It has a long, flat dual cowl nose and “arrow pod” side panels with six vents to cool the rear mounted turbine engine. It’s high-side profile gives it great suspension travel for racing. A sliding clear canopy top reveals the cockpit and serves as a cover for the orange turbine that spins in the wind.

The Whip Creamer features a metal base and came with either a clear plastic (USA) or blue (HK) canopy. Most interiors can be found in black, but tan and brown were also made and are very hard to find. Finishes were available in eleven spectraflame colors. The hard of those to fin is generally metallic blue with a tan interior and a USA base. Overall, this casting is a very affordable among collectors with C8 examples selling in the range of $20-$50.

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Credits: Big thanks to my left coast buddy Scott Jones and his endless help with rare pieces and added insight. Scotts collection includes the following: 1. packaged Yellow with rare brown interior, 2. Rainbow selection, 3. Dark blue with tan interior, 4. Purple, 5. Aqua. Balance of images from the RK Stickels collection, note: Bright Green is a restoration. Tomarts guide #6, and Spectraflame-the essential guide.

Obviously, Jesse James was not the designer of the Hairy Hauler. In fact, he was probably playing with one back then just like the rest of us Redline Collectors! In reality, the man responsible for the Hairy Hauler was Hot Wheels Designer Paul Tam. Paul designed some unique cars while at Mattel, but this one takes the cake.

This USA only casting was available in 12 spectra-flame colors and featured an all-metal chassis and body. The hinged nose canopy opened to reveal a white plastic interior. What I like the best about the Hairy Hauler is that its heavy, fast, and sleek which makes it great for orange track racing!

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The features that stand out are its pointed nose and a high side profile which gives it great suspension travel for racing. The next unique characteristics that stand out are it’s open cockpit, the large, exposed quad piped V-8 engine and that snubbed-off rear profile with high humped quarter panels. It also has a lever in the dashboard that raises and lowers the headlight covers. The metal base and exposed metal engine finish off the things that truly make it stand out.

The Peeping Bomb can be found in a variety of variations. Its plastic windshield can be found in clear or blue. Plastic interiors are most frequently found in black. White interiors are rare and very hard to find. The casting was issued in both the US and Hong Kong. Finishes were available in eleven spectraflame colors. The metallic purple with a HK issued base is generally considered the hardest to find. The Peeping Bomb is a very affordable among collectors with C8 examples selling in the range of $20-$50.

Credits: Big thanks to my left coast buddy Scott Jones and his endless help with rare pieces. Scotts collection includes the following: 1. Aqua factory prototype, 2. packaged Aqua with white interior HK casting, 3. the early run orange & purple spectraflame with orange headlights, 4. yellow "reason speculative casting" and added insight. Publications: Tomarts guide #6, and Spectraflame-the essential guide.

By far, this casting has to be one of the top five most recognized from the Redline era. The Turbofire was a USA-only casting and was available in 18 spectraflame colors. Its plastic interior came in assorted colors and featured a lift up rear hood that revealed its metal engine. The Turbofire is one of my favorites as a collector as they are available in good supply and at affordable prices.

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The Hot Wheels Demon started life as the “Little Coffin,” a famous 1960’s show rod built by Dave Stuckey of Wichita, Kansas. Dave worked at the famous custom shop Star Kustoms, owned by Darryl Starbird. The Little Coffin went through a few transformations, and in 1962 the Monogram Model Company purchased the car for use as a promotional vehicle where it was scaled for the popular plastic model craze that was sweeping the states.

Mattel later acquired the Monogram scaling prints in 1969 and crafted the Demon. It was finally released in 1970 and came in 12 spectra-flame colors. It also included a black roof, blue tinted front glass, a black interior and a chrome engine with dual carbs sitting atop a supercharger.

This casting was only produced in Hong Kong. There is a single variation of the Demon with a white interior that is very rare. Collectors will find the Demon tough to find in C6 or better condition, making a good set of rainbow Demons a difficult task to accomplish.

Hot Wheels Designer, Ira Gilford took the Dodge concept car and brought it to life as the 1/64th Torero. This casting was only issued in a USA version. It features a hinged front opening hood that reveals a detailed Hemi engine, a clear wrap-around windshield, a plastic interior in assorted colors, (with brown being hard to find), and redline tires. Finish was available in 19 spectraflame colors, with the most desirable being metallic yellow. Torero’s with chrome like wheels are believed to be from late run castings.

This casting is very easy to find and makes a great choice for entry level collectors. Good C-6 examples can be had for around $20.

Now lets talk about the little Maverick that could. The Mattel version, released in 1970 as the Mighty Maverick was based on a re-proportioned concept of the Ford Maverick by Howard Rees. It had a metal base and lift up hood that revealed a metal engine with 8 carbs. It was available as a Hong Kong or USA casting with a plastic interior with blue or clear glass. One of the coolest features was the black plastic spoiler on the rear deck and the white racing stripe on the roof. Its flawless finish was available in 15 spectraflame colors. This casting is very hard to find in a C7 or better condition, and as you might imagine, are very pricey.

Here’s a quick casting comparison:

USA casting:
Clear windows, opening hood, wide stripe on roof, interior in black with molded dash, steering wheel and rear wing.

Hong Kong casting:
Blue windows, opening hood, thin stripe on roof, interior in black with molded dash, steering wheel and rear wing.
Optional Brown interior and wing, only found in copper and orange spectraflame. Also, some HK’s have been found with satin black roofs.

I would like to thank Jim Lombari and Dan Spauding from the Rhode Island Hot Wheels Club, and Scott Jones (via the web) from California for their contributions this months post.

Note: Frantic Ford drag car-Dan Spaulding. Aqua, Apple Green, Pink-from: Jim Lombari collection. Packaged Olive & Blue, Red, and 75 reissue with tampo-from: Scott Jones collection. Balance: RK Stickels collection

The Silhouette premiered in January 1963 at the San Mateo Autorama, and by 1969 it became a Hot Wheels casting. It was probably the most remembered car of this era, especially in a metallic red that matched the original candy color – minus the dark faded highlights (see pictures below). Minor modifications were made to Cushenbery’s original design by the Hot Wheels staff when designing the die-cast version. Those changes included a taller blown motor with dual carbs, med wheels in back with smalls up front and removal of the side pipes.

This casting was available in 16 spectraflame colors and featured a matching color base. The Silhouette, like the Python, is one of my favorites as a collector as they are available in good supply as well as being an affordable casting to collect.

Note: all resto’s carry repro wheel from the redlineshop.com.

The Python was available in two manufacturing variations – a USA and Hong Kong casting. There were slight modifications to each origin of production, see below for comparison. On the USA version, the body hangs halfway over base in front, but has no overhang in back. In addition, the engine sports twin carbs. On the Hong Kong version, body hangs over the base in front and back with a supercharged engine sitting on the base.

The Python is one of my favorite Redline castings as they are available in good supply and are affordable to collect. The Purple Python in my collection is original, but was acquired with a missing the painted roof and without wheels. For now it wears a set of “repro-sneakers” until I can get a good set of originals to add. The pink with black roof is also part of my collection, but I commissioned James Sweetring (aka “Rooster”) out of his Utah custom shop for this restoration.

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Note: all resto’s carry repro wheel from the redlineshop.com.

My favorite has to be the Scooper bodied Heavyweight. As a child I would pick up small rock, dirt or anything I could find that would fit in the bed. Probably the hardest one for me to find for my collection was the Racer Rig and Snorkel. The Racer Rig is near mint, and I love loading a variety of race cars on the trailer. The Snorkel shows some early sign of being a crumbler, so I’ll have to watch that closely.

Heavyweights Part 2 will feature all my new finds that weren’t available in my collection at the time of this post.>

Note: all resto’s carry repro wheel from the redlineshop.com.

This US-only casting has a metal chassis and a plastic interior that came in assorted colors. It was also designed without hood sides, so the killer motor really stands out. The Vicky also featured a smooth black painted roof insert, open front suspension (very rare), redline wheels and an exterior finish that was available in 15 spectra-flame colors!

As with previous articles, I’ve added a photo of a 1:1 scale “Vicky” as reference.

Note: all resto’s carry repro wheel from the redlineshop.com.

Here’s a cool fact about this car. It first appeared as a concept show car for General Motors Motorama traveling caravan of car shows. The concept was GM’s first station wagon bodied dream car. It was originally built on a stretched 1953 Corvette chassis and appeared as a 1954 show car called the Chevrolet Nomad. It had a 54 corvette body with the trademark Nomad ribbed roof, full quarter panel side glass and rear hatch. Thank god the design gurus at GM thought better and left the Corvette as a 2 door sports car and shifted the Nomad design to the all new 1955 Bel Air chassis!

Hot Wheels designers kept most of the Nomad styling intact rounding out the wheel opening to give the car a lower stance for orange track racing. Other features were an opening hood, metal chassis, an interior in white only and an exterior available in 12 spectra flame colors.

About the “roofless” Nomad shown: Well, my brother took a hammer to that one in 1971, so I cut off the back and made the “El Nomadino!”
Restored in purple spectra.

Note: all resto’s carry repro wheel from the redlineshop.com.

Well, I would say that might point to the full-size bubble tops that came out of Daryl Starbird’s “King of the Bubble Tops” stables. Daryl’s “Pedicta” show car was just one of many customs he built on Ford, Chevy and Cadillac chassis that Mattel took notice of when designing the Sugar Caddy. Mattel already had an Eldorado casting, so why not modify it.

This casting was available in 12 spectra-flame colors and had a plastic interior that came in assorted colors. The Sugar Caddy is one of my favorites, designed by Ira Gilford, it sports an exposed engine, glass roof and spoiler door decals.

Note: The Orange Sugar Caddy with black roof and racing stripes is part of my collection, but I commissioned James Sweetring “AKA, Rooster” out of his Utah custom shop for this restoration. I’ve also included a shot of the original “Pedicta” as reference.

Note: all resto’s carry repro wheel from the redlineshop.com

I had collected spare fillers over the years that needed restorations, so then next step was a trip to the paint booth. The rose pink carries a set of repro decals and the dark blue was done to resemble the missing Hot Wheels race team series casting that never was. The remaining bodies buffed out like chrome so they were shot with antifreeze and ice blue. One ponders why Mattel never offered this casting in the optional color palette most redlines enjoyed. They really missed the boat.

Note: all resto’s carry repro wheel from the redlineshop.com.