In 2011, Hot Wheels started a line that was heavily licensed. No, it wasn’t the Nostalgic Brands line but rather the “Hot Wheels Characters” line. Its a line composed of licensed characters from several brands such as DC Comics, Sponge Bob & The Muppets. All the vehicles in this line were created with the thought process of, “what if this particular character WAS a Hot Wheels vehicle?” & “what would they look like?”.
The #Hot Wheels Characters line started in late 2011 with the DC Comics characters of Batman, Superman & The Joker. While they were cool cars, they had a $3 price point and that first wave of 3 castings sat for months at retailers. There were few collectors that liked this line that was presumably designed for kids.
Well into 2012, this line picked up and started to blossom. The Spongebob “Spongebob” casting and the Muppets “Animal” casting made collectors take a second look at this line. Now, with the Star Wars Characters having essentially taken over the line, the line is at an all-time high in terms of excitement and popularity. Check the bottom of the article to see all of the different brand character cars to be released so far.
In 2012, there was one, not-so-popular casting that caught my eye. It was the DC Comics “Mr. Freeze” casting shown below. I really liked the detail in this casting. Even though it has a plastic body, the casting has two giant metal turbines on the back of it complete with 3 long hoses going down both sides. It has harpoons on the sides and a bubbled cockpit that you could totally picture Mr. Freeze in. To round it out, the casting itself is fairly heavy and not bad on the downhill track.
While the#Hot Wheels Characters line is somewhat of an enigma in the sense that nobody knows how much longer it’ll last at this point. We have been introduced to quite a few interesting castings that may show up in other lines or even at Comic-Con. This collector hopes we see “Mr. Freeze” again.
RELEASE DETAILS: Transparent Blue Body (plastic). Tinted Windows. Chrome Interior. White Tire, Blue-Chrome 5-Spoke (5SP) Wheels. Unpainted Metal Base. Made in Thailand. Toy# W9219. Released in 2012 as part of the DC Comics Characters line.
Hot Wheels Character Brands:
Categories: Showcase
ORANGE TRACK DIECAST 