Hot Wheels has introduced a brand-new #Mustang casting and this one is unlike the previous 60 released before it. The #’18 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5 — labeled as a ’20 for this release — is the first Hot Wheels Mustang casting to come from #Formula Drift. Collectors are familiar with the “fun-haver” #Vaughn Gittin Jr. as we’ve already seen two cars from his garage in Hot Wheels form: the ’69 Mustang RTR-X and the Ford GT. The third is his RTR pro-car, the Mustang RTR Spec 5.

The neon greenish-yellow #Real Riders 10-Spoke Modern Wheels and replica livery will have collectors drifting this Hot Wheels car across their desktops as this car is simply fun to look at — and will apparently be fun to play with. Its one of 5 vehicles in the just-released, 2021 #Car Culture / Slide Street series, three of which are licensed by the pro-drifting league, #Formula Drift.

QUICK LINK! Find Hot Wheels Car Culture / Slide Street FOR SALE now.

The replica livery on this one is pretty intense as that is the case with the 1:1 you see above. The obvious omission from the Slide Street release is the car’s main sponsor, Monster Energy drink. Since Mattel doesn’t want to brand their vehicles with alcohol, tobacco, and energy drinks, it was one that had to be omitted despite this vehicle catering to the collector market. It still hangs in the toy aisle, right? Instead, we see Vaughn Gittin Jr’s personal “fun-haver” brand take most of those spots.

What is cool — since we’ve seen Hot Wheels move to direct-to-car printing in premium — is the ability to have full-body wraps like this one. The negative? The graphics aren’t as crisp as pad-printed ones (ie. tampos) — which have limitations of their own — but I digress…

At the $5.49 price-point, this is a pretty good representation of #Vaughn Gittin Jr’s #Formula Drift #’18 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5. It is one that you can roll around on your desk without a fear of it breaking, or the graphics rubbing off. The casting itself has a nice stance that sits lower than the typical basic-level casting. It will be interesting to see what the next release of this casting entails as the casting is clearly a competition drift car so a clean version may not be in the cards.

The cool thing about a competition car, is that the deco always changes. That leaves the door open for Hot Wheels to release another replica livery. If Hot Wheels goes the clean route, RTR does offer the Spec 1, Spec 2, and Spec 3 builds for sale to the consumer on their website, and those come in ten different colors with relatively clean designs.

This won’t be the last #RTR Ford that Hot Wheels makes. The one-off Mustang Mach-E 1400 prototype built by Ford Performance and RTR will hit the pegs in 2022.