The big news of last week in the Red Line Club is that Hot Wheels will be introducing a new Porsche 959 into the ultra-premium lineup, the ’86 Porsche 959. And while this car is still in the development phase, its designer, Brendon Vetuskey, shared with RLC members a myriad of pics on the HWC forums. Below you’ll see one of the images he shared.

This is a 3D print of the new casting, complete with an opening rear hood. You’ll notice that the steering wheel is missing. There will be one in the actual release. 3D prints are utilized by the design team to make modifications to the casting before the tool (die) is made.

What is super cool about this — and probably not easy for Brendon to do — is that the new casting is designed from the ground-up, all while staying true to the proportions of the original Hot Wheels #Porsche 959 casting that Larry Wood designed in the ’80s — back when they would carve prototypes at a larger scale, out of wood! When you check out Brendon’s post (so long as you’re an RLC member), you’ll see the comparison he did with the old casting. By today’s standards, you’ll notice the old casting isn’t as crisp as the mainline cars of today, but man, it’s a fun little one that quite a few of us remember playing with as kids. Albeit, the decos were sometimes a little wild. Thankfully, the new RLC release will be in the hands of graphic designer, Steve Vandervate, so you know it will be a stellar piece whether the 959 is given a clean design or has some sort of vintage racing deco.

That brings me to my favorite releases of the vintage #Porsche 959 casting. Yes, there were a few international releases that featured the #7 deco like these, but those are very pricey to track down so I won’t be showing those today. The 1988 Speed Shift 500 trackset release came in metalflake blue, while the 1990 mainline (collector #80) came in red enamel.

Despite the metalflake blue release being a #Playset Exclusive, it is actually one of the least expensive releases of the #Porsche 959 out there. I scored mine at a Hot Wheels convention a couple years ago for a mere $2. The person I bought it from had a small tub of these in their room, still in their original plastic baggies. I would assume that these were available through some promotion outside of the track set, but I am not aware of what that is. The fact is, the Speed Shift 500 track set release is one of the few ’80s steals out there if you’re looking to get into the more vintage releases from Hot Wheels. Case in point: obligatory eBay link here — grab them while you can!

Of course, buying the metalflake blue release led me to hunt down the red enamel release. I had admired the very simple #7 Porsche deco and knew I wanted the red release to go with the blue. You could go to eBay and have one delivered to your house in a couple days for $20+ dollars, but this is one of those situations where I decided to put on my thrifty hat and hunt down a deal! Eventually, patience paid off and I was able to score one on another sales site for $3. This red #7 #Porsche 959 is by far my favorite release of the casting, and I really hope the RLC ends up producing the new casting with similar graphics (as a nod to this one) at some point.

The RLC releases will ultimately be miles better than this old casting. I am curious to see if some of the newer collectors take another look at the vintage #Porsche 959 releases. I am venturing to guess that some of the old releases will climb in value once the RLC version comes out. Do you agree? What is your favorite Porsche 959 release? Let us know in the comments below!