Pinch me. Is there really a #Land Rover in the #2018 Hot Wheels mainline? Just like #Jeep — which also reemerged in the Hot Wheels mainline this year — Land Rover vehicles have typically been reserved for the Matchbox brand over there at Mattel. Well, times, “they are a changin'” as the #’15 Land Rover Defender Double Cab makes its #First Edition debut as a #2018 New Model in the #HW Hot Trucks Series.
Hot Wheels ’15 Land Rover Defender Double Cab (both colorways, side view)
Appearing in both matte khaki and mint green so far, the Hot Wheels #’15 Land Rover Defender Double Cab has already intrigued Hot Wheels collectors. Maybe its because they aren’t used to seeing #Land Rovers in the mainline — I mean, after all, the Hot Wheels Range Rover was the last one and that made its Final Run in 1999.
Is this the start of a new era???
Leave it to the Hot Wheels designers to shift the course of the brand from year to year. Hot Wheels had traditionally been a muscle car heavy brand so the JDM wave certainly caught traditional collectors off guard. Jun Imai had a huge impact on bringing said JDM to the Hot Wheels brand because…. well, it is his passion.
So far in 2018, we have seen two passionate designers bring their favorite auto manufacturers to the Hot Wheels lineup. Phil Riehlman is apparently a #Jeep fanatic, which makes sense as it was his passion project to design the HW Hot Trucks: ’17 Jeep Wrangler into fruition. Dmitriy Shakhmatov on the other hand, stopped by the @orangetrackdiecast Instagram account and proclaimed his passion, stating:
I’m obsessed with Land Rovers, so there is more to come.
So if you were out there thinking this is a one-off appearance of a Hot Wheels #Land Rover, which will probably never be produced again, and go dormant for another decade or two… well, you can shut down that negativity train right away!
Hot Wheels ’15 Land Rover Defender Double Cab (both colorways)
The casting itself has some mad detail which is certainly a testament to Dmitriy’s design skills. On the passenger side, you can see the snorkel creeping up the side of the windshield. In the front, you can see the truck’s headlight, flood lights on the brush guard, and a tow cable coming up from the base. The lines of the body look great in both matte and gloss finishes meaning they are well defined within the tool. My favorite small detail would have to be the gas cap indentation towards the rear on the passenger side. Its a very #Land Rover -esque detail which certainly wasn’t overlooked by this Land Rover obsessed designer.
Two great colors for the Hot Wheels #’15 Land Rover Defender Double Cab right off the bat: Matte Khaki and Mint Green. They are the types of colors you could expect to see on a Land Rover while on an African safari or touring one of our U.S. National Parks. They are very fitting for this #Off-Road Vehicle which also features some graphics on the hood and sides which are meant to resemble various kinds of off-road stickers.
RELEASE DETAILS: Matte Khaki Body (metal). Clear Windows. Black Interior. Gray Bead-Lock Off-Road (BLOR) Wheels. Gray Base (plastic). Made in Malaysia. Toy# FJV45. Released in 2018 as #7 of 10 in the HW Hot Trucks Series (#31/365 in the 2018 mainline).
The #’15 Land Rover Defender Double Cab has been out for a couple months now as the matte khaki colorway first appeared as part of the #2018 Hot Wheels “B” case assortment, whereas the mint green colorway just started showing up a couple weeks ago here in the U.S. as part of the “G” case assortments. With several case code assortments left for the year, it certainly feels like we could see at least one more color of this #2018 New Models truck.
RELEASE DETAILS: Mint Green Body (metal). Clear Windows. Black Interior. Gray Bead-Lock Off-Road (BLOR) Wheels. Gray Base (plastic). Made in Malaysia. Toy# FJY55. Released in 2018 as #7 of 10 in the HW Hot Trucks Series (#158/365 in the 2018 mainline).
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