Yesterday we brought you the #First Edition #Mini Cooper and talked all about what has made the casting into a Hot Wheels collector cult favorite. The good news is that 16 years later the Mini Cooper is still being released — albeit under the Morris Mini moniker. For the most part, this casting still looks the same as the proportions have not changed.

The bad news? Well, for starters, gone is the #Pop-Off Body. It seems as though premium releases with the metal base may still have that feature, but since the mainline Mini Cooper went to a plastic base in 2014, the body never stayed on and fit quite right … causing the base to be modified to a fixed-base mid-2015.

So thats where we are at today. No more pop-off body, a rivet post going through the middle of the back seat, and a flat-grill-turned-air-intake that has a little issue with being flush with the body (see picture below).

Hot Wheels Morris Mini Cooper from the 2016 HW Art Cars Series

Still, as easy as it is to long for the glory days of this casting, one has to be cautious with being overly-skeptical as its still a great casting. While there have been many great releases of this casting, this one ranks near the bottom in terms of personal favorites. But that doesn’t make this release any less special.

The HW Art Cars Series for 2016 may look like a bunch of cars from an art magazine rather than ones found in automobile enthusiast magazines, but you have to give the graphic designers credit for thinking a little outside-the-box on these. First, its cool that the art in this series encompasses a couple styles such as graffiti, hippie, and grunge — its also apparent that the castings chosen are tied to their various art-style in some way, shape or form. Secondly, you may notice the big “H” on the top of this release whereas the other cars in the series feature other letters on their roofs. Well, enough vehicles in this series have been released to determine that when the series is complete, the tops of each car (when lined up next to each other) will spell out “HW ART CARS 16″…9 letters and the “16” coming on the roof of the last one. Lastly, this Mini has very similar graphics to the ’67 Austin Mini Van released in the 2015 HW Art Cars Series — grunge-style, sans the British flag.

There looks to be at least one more release of the Mini Cooper this year. Look for it in the upcoming 6-car set: The Beatles Yellow Submarine. Also, watch out for the 2nd colorway of this HW Art Cars release. It will be a #Walmart Exclusive #ZAMAC appearing in the “J” assortment of Hot Wheels (coming soon now below).

RELEASE DETAILS: Red Body (metal). Tinted Windows. Blue Interior. Rainbow-Chrome 5-Spoke (5SP) Wheels. Black Base (plastic). Made in Malaysia. Toy# DHR86. Released in 2016 as #3 of 10 in the HW Art Cars Series.

UPDATE 05/25/2016: ZAMAC version added

RELEASE DETAILS: Unpainted ZAMAC Body (metal). Clear Windows. Black Interior. Orange-Chrome 5-Spoke (5SP) Wheels. Black Base (plastic). Made in Malaysia. Toy# DHX87. Released in 2016 as #3 of 10 in the HW Art Cars Series (ZAMAC was a Walmart Exclusive).

UPDATE 04/06/2017: Off-White version added (finally!)

RELEASE DETAILS: Off-White Body (metal). Clear Windows. Black Interior. Black 5-Spoke (5SP) Wheels. Black Base (plastic). Made in Malaysia. Toy# DHX66. Released in 2016 as #3 of 10 in the HW Art Cars Series.