10/30/2018 — Hot Wheels summer car show tour, known more appropriately as the “Hot Wheels Legends” tour, has officially ended. The winner of the 15 finalists was selected at the SEMA Show earlier today in Las Vegas. Luis Rodriguez and his car “2 Jetz” (from the Newark, NJ stop) was crowned as the champion, and as the grand prize, his car will be made into an actual Hot Wheels car. Luis’ original, hand-crafted idea captivated judges in Newark (NJ) AND in Las Vegas. There is no doubt how cool the 1:1 car is, so the true challenge will be for the Hot Wheels Designer who is tasked with bringing this thing down to 1:64.
After reading though the comments on social media, it seems many collectors are unhappy with this choice as many would have preferred a licensed vehicle, with some even calling out Hot Wheels for not choosing one in an attempt to avoid licensing — which couldn’t have been any further from the truth. Rather, its the originality of this design that had truly embodied everything the event stood for: built, not bought … hand-crafted … and has a cool story. So while some say, “pegwarmer”, I say, “make it a super treasure hunt” and see how many of those same collectors pass it up…
I, for one, would like to congratulate Luis on his win… and really all the finalists for having spectacular rides. I will definitely be grabbing the “2 Jetz” when it hits the pegs (2020? 2021?). As someone who attended the Hot Wheels Legends Event in Phoenix, this tour was a huge success! The are so many cars worthy of being made into Hot Wheels cars out there and I am excited to see that this event will be back in 2019.
Categories: News
ORANGE TRACK DIECAST 
I’m guessing 2020 or early 2021
Well congratulations to Luis first of all. All the events brought out a lot of cool machines and that of course includes the ‘winner’. Having said that and no disrespect to Luis, this ‘winner’ is really just more of the same tired animated type designs that Hot Wheels has been doing for a vvveeerrryyy long time. If this is to be a mainline car then it’ll eventually be a ‘peg warmer’. This choice kind of represents the whole ‘50th’ year, not as exciting as it should have been.
Again, congratulations to Luis and a real cool personal achievement.
I think its ridiculous to only pick one. All 15 should get the 1:64 treatment. I agree that this will eventually just become a peg warmer with Star Wars or Spiderman slapped on the side of it.
All 15 agreed. But I was really hoping the car picked from Dawsonville GA would have won.