4/11/2024 — Below are the slides from the Mattel Sneak Peeks Presentation from the 24th Hot Wheels Collectors Nationals Finale. This year’s Nationals event happened in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, April 6, 2024. This year’s presentation was narrated by the following members of the Hot Wheels Design Team that attended the event: Brendon Vetuskey (casting design), Dwayne Vance (casting design), Ron Wong (casting design), Charlie Angulo (casting design), Julian Koiles (package design), Tiff Powell (marketing), and Jimmy Liu (director of design/marketing). This article covers the PREMIUM SNEAKS which includes 2024 Hot Wheels Car Culture, Team Transport, Boulevard, 1:43, Elite 64, and the Red Line Club. See the previous article for the: BASICS SNEAKS.

Car Culture / World Tour

World Tour officially kicks off Hot Wheels Car Culture for 2024 — finally! The Volkswagen MK7 returns in blue because — according to Hot Wheels Designer, Ron Wong — a certain design manager wanted it in blue. The white euro stripe is a nice accent on this one, complementing the rims.

The Audi S4 quattro has been released in blue, yellow, so silver needed to be done in the progression of stock colors this car came in. This means that a red one has to be on the horizon.

A new trend (or theme) in the Hot Wheels lineups for 2024 has been to revive older castings. We saw it with a few cars in the basics sneaks, and the Volkswagen Brasilia is the latest beneficiary of this treatment. The casting hasn’t been produced since 2015 and has never seen the premium lineup — until now!

The Hot Wheels ’82 Toyota Supra was revived last year when it received a complete makeover for the 2023 mainline. The common release in red was popular, and the Super Treasure Hunt in spectraflame red caused quite the commotion as initial values were over $100. Those have come down a little bit, but this “spicy” version in white with RS-R deco will also be insane popular.

Hot Wheels collectors that clamored for the Alfa Romeo GTV6 3.0 to go premium last year, have gotten their wish! Many collectors ranked this casting among their favorite new models for last year. It’s not because the Alfa Romeo GTV6 3.0 is an insanely popular vehicle, instead, the execution of last year’s release was just that on-point. This release is the “clean” version of that one which was race-inspired.

Menacing! That’s how I feel about the first chase model for 2024 Car Culture. My jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw this one. This Alfa Romeo GTV6 3.0 is all-black allowing for the Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio logo to stand out along with the front and rear detail.

For World Tour, Hot Wheels Packaging Designer, Julian Koiles, decided to display the country of origin for each of these cars, along with the city of the company’s headquarters. That was fine until Volkswagen let Julian know that the Brasilia was never made or sold in Germany — in was made in Mexico, and sold in Brazil — so he decided on Brazil for the country behind the car. Brazilians will notice that is not their flag. The are licensing restrictions when it comes to the flags of certain countries so Julian was forced to only use the Brazilian colors. Also, the name of the city was also omitted since Volkswagen does not have an HQ there.

Car Culture / Japan Historics 4

The first-ever series in Hot Wheels Car Culture — Japan Historics — returns for it’s 4th rendition. If you’re keeping track at home, there has been a Japan Historics every-even-year (2016, 2018, 2020, and 2024) with the exception of 2022. Not sure what happened there. There are three castings new to the series — two of which are new models — and two returning models in the Mazda RX-3 (JH1) and Nissan Fairlady Z (JH2).

The ’72 Toyota Corolla Levin makes it’s debut in JH4. Decked out in all-orange, this Phil Riehlman designed casting features chrome bumpers, detailed side mirrors, and a nice chin spoiler. Could this be a classic in the years to come?

As I previously stated, the Mazda RX-3 is one of the carryovers from the previous renditions of this series. Since it was done in JH1 in 2016, it did not have full deco because the line wasn’t full premium yet. This release is actually a replica of the 1:1 Liberty Walk Mazda RX-3.

The racing-inspired, Hot Wheels ’73 Honda Civic Custom casting goes from basics to premium with this release. And while all of the basics/mainline releases of it have had racing decos thus far, this one gets the clean treatment.

This color, on this car is pure evil. I don’t believe we’ve seen the physical sample yet, but this shade of dark blue with the black fender flares screams after midnight on the streets of Japan. In contrast, the JH2 Nissan Fairlady Z was a very “friendly” yellow — so much so, that the car was re-released in the Nissan Z Car Culture 2-Pack in 2022. This one plays a fiercer role. Bravo, design team, bravo!

One of the last few designs by Hot Wheels Designer, Mark Jones — before he retired — is the ’64 Prince Skyline GT. Quite the significance with this one! 60 years ago, Prince Motors built the “Skyline GT” to win the Japan Grand Prix GT-II Race on May 3, 1964. Despite not winning, their cars finish 2nd through 6th. The cars impressed and Prince (succeeded by Nissan) rolled out the 2000GT. This deco is a replica of the car that finished 2nd that day: the #39 car driven by Yoshikazu Sunako.

The JH4 chase is the ’64 Prince Skyline GT! For as cool as the 1964 Japan Grand Prix replica deco is on the common variant, I’m venturing collectors will be much more into this all-black release.

Looking back across the four mixes of Japan Historics, the packaging on JH4 is clearly the strongest. Hot Wheels Packaging Designer, Julian Koiles, brought back the feel of the JH1 blister cards and somehow exceeded the original in terms of artwork. There is so much depth to the background here and the cars look outstanding. Perhaps the largest feat here is successfully pushing — and getting approval — for the car’s names to be written in Japanese on the front of the blister card. He says not to worry as “the names will still be in English on the back so you know what the car is”.

Car Culture / Terra Trek

After the finale, the physical sample of the Datsun King Cab Baja Custom was on display along with the all-black chase variant of it. It’s another replica of another real vehicle. This time it’s the Datsun 720 truck that Nissan brought to race in the baja peninsula of Mexico. See, Datsun was rebranded as Nissan in the 1980’s and apparently painting this thing red, white, and blue and having it compete with the American trucks was the best way to capture the hearts of North American truck fans. This was the only vehicle from Car Culture / Terra Trek to be shown at the event.

Car Culture / Race Day

Race Day is another returning series in Hot Wheels Car Culture. Judging by these next two releases, this will be the hottest wave of it yet!

New casting alert! The ’23 Nissan Z GT4 makes its way into Race Day. The one will be white with a NISMO livery — just the way Nissan intended it to be.

You have the know the “Rexy” Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) was coming to Hot Wheels the moment you saw pictures of it in Mattel’s Design Center parking lot. The design is attributed to AO Porsche Racing owner/driver P.J. Hyett’s kids. After it ran for the first time at the 12 Hours of Sebring in May 2023, it instantly became a hit with fans — large and small. By August 2023, an alternate color (pink) was introduced, and “Roxy” was born. Rexy in green will be your common variant in this mix while Roxy in pink will be your chase model. Interestingly enough, this will be the first time a Car Culture chase model has not come in black.

Car Culture / Modern Classics

Modern Classics will return to Hot Wheels Car Culture for a 5th time. There will be at least 3 new castings in this mix.

We start with the Nissan Sileighty. I have to admit that I had never heard of this one. Upon doing a little research, it is a modified version of the Nissan 180SX where the front end is replaced with that of a Nissan Silvia (S13) hence the combo name “SIL-EIGHTY”. It’s designer, Ron Wong, states that it’s a star in Japanese comics.

The (modern) classic 2004 Subaru Forester STi — not 2024 — debuts in Modern Classics V. The 2004-2005 Subaru STi’s have long been my favorite generation of Subaru design. I won’t talk about how I was a handshake away from owning it’s 1:1 Impreza WRX STi counterpart in 2006, but rather how impressive this boxy little beast is in 1:64. From the aesthetically pleasing headlights to the large hood scoop, Subaru STi division carried it’s design right into this wagon. The Hot Wheels team adds what looks to be chrome RR10SPs on this one, and this one is firing on all 4 cylinders of its 2.5L boxer engine. Ron did mention that Rob Matthes is once again designing Hot Wheels as he designed this one!

How many more Skylines can we have? Answer: Not enough. This debut release of the widebody Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32) Pandem is a replica of the Pandem car currently running in Formula Drift Japan.

And, if the white one wasn’t already going to be insanely hard to find… there is also an all-black chase model to be had with the livery ghosted in a dark gray.

Car Culture / Team Transport

Team Transport continues to debut new castings and roll out new haulers — all while exposing Hot Wheels collectors to some pretty sweet liveries.

Hot Wheels collectors continue to be smitten with the Liberty Walk / Hot Wheels relationship. The widebody look certainly translates well to Hot Wheels. We’ve already seen the Hot Wheels Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R LBWK go premium. This release takes the original release — a replica of the 1:1 vehicle — and gives us a premium release of it and a matching Team Transport Fleet Flyer to boot!

VP Racing Fuels is now realized as a Team Transport set with this pair. The ’63 Chevy Nova AWB returns, but it’s the new ’88 Chevrolet Silverado 3500 (paired with the existing trailer) that has collectors talking.

This was bound to happen. The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL paired with the ’55 Mercedes-Benz “Blaues Wunder”. Both are of the same era and both giving you vintage Mercedes racing vibes. Collectors that have been holding off on buying the Jay Leno premium display set just for this hauler are ecstatic.

Another new casting in the ’94 Nissan 300ZX GTS drops in Team Transport. And, it’s another replica of a vintage race car. This car has won at Le Mans, Daytona, and Sebring, and a number of the chassis builds still exist to this day. The Euro Hauler accompanies this one, giving us another billboard featuring another iconic race team deco.

The Toyota Baja Truck (Toyota Off-Road Truck) returns to premium 20 years after it’s last release. Safe to say, a lot has changed in the Hot Wheels premium world since. This one is decked out in a TRD racing scheme that compares to the deco that was featured on this casting back when it was still a several-piece tooling in the #100% Hot Wheels line in 2001. Great to see those TRD stripes trickle down onto the sides of the Fleet Street as well.

Here is a three-piece, Hot Wheels Team Transport set that is all-new! The increasingly popular ’18 Toyota 4Runner gets a retooled base that can now hauler the Open Trailer which has a semi-covered front that has lots of room for future deco. The Hot Wheels ’89 Toyota Supra makes it’s debut here in all-white.

Boulevard

It might be time to get all the Hot Wheels Formula Drift cars together. I’m curious to have many have been released now. This time, we get FD photographer, Larry Chen’s ’21 Toyota GR Supra camera chase vehicle sponsored by Canon of course.

The ’60s Fiat 500 D Modificado brings some vintage Italian flair to the Hot Wheels Boulevard line. Anyone else craving mint gelato now?

The Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 makes it’s Boulevard debut in deep metallic green and bronze RR6SPMO wheels. Nothing flashy, but this is one you could totally see at a car meet or driving down your local strip.

Godzilla on Godzilla! While the basics Godzilla on Godzilla combos have seen the classic Godzilla movie character on the sides, this Nissan Skyline GT-R (BNR32) from 2024 Boulevard features a ghosted cartoon Godzilla with slash marks done in a grunge style behind the front wheels and across the top.

We have reach release #100 in the Hot Wheels Boulevard line. It’s the 5th consecutive year of Boulevard since it was relaunched in 2020, and through the years we have seen some pretty remarkable vehicles. Should I do a top 10 list? Regardless, the Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4 gets the nod here. To celebrate, this one gets the blue color that was first delivered in Japan, and only 112 exist in this color. Julian Koiles added some Easter eggs to the packaging to celebrate release #100 as well. There is a “100” for the street address on the curb and some fireworks in the sky.

Hot Wheels Designer, Brendon Vetuskey jumped over to premium to design the brand-new, ’55 Plymouth Savoy casting based on Motortrend’s Hot Rod Garage show with Alex Taylor and Lucky Costa. The casting has a separate piece for the roll cage, but it was Hot Wheels Graphic Designer, Kristina Albrecht’s work on the deco that has Brendon floored. He said the patina is “unlike any car I’ve seen in our line before” and that she has “upped the game” with this release.

Oooooooh! The Spoon deco is back! This time, it’s the ’24 Honda Civic Type-R which was designed by Ron Wong. Aside from the graphics, the casting actually features a Spoon exhaust — hence the two exhaust pipes coming out the rear — and a Spoon spoiler.

The Hot Wheels ’86 Ford Thunderbird Pro Stock gets Real Riders for the first time despite being a premium casting that has been around since 2012.

Clean! The Porsche 964 returns to Boulevard 3 years later with a clean light blue look and small side Porsche banner in white.

Always popular, the premium ’99 Ford F-150 SVT Lightning hits the Hot Wheels Boulevard for the first time. The dark blue is a nice touch, and is reminiscent of Ford’s branding today versus the early 2000’s.

Car Culture Premium 2-Packs

A new Audi 2-Pack was shown with the Deutschland Design Audi S4 quattro returning as a carry-forward (repeat) and an all-new version of the Audi R8 LMS. it’s interesting to note that the rims on the S4 look chrome in this image and if that holds true, this would vary from the 2021 Deutschland Design release which had gray rims. As far as the Audi R8 LMS, this will be the first time we see it with a clean look. All the other releases of it thus far have had racing liveries.

This Corvette 2-Pack is nice. Like most of these 2-Packs, it does contain a carry-forward. The Custom Corvette Stingray Coupe was in Team Transport (2020), but the ’69 COPO Corvette is an all-new release! Great to see this one in a premium line again. That deco is fleek!

You saw the minimal RS-R design earlier on the ’82 Toyota Supra in Car Culture / World Tour. This Silvia 2-Pack goes all-out with the design on the Nissan 240SX (S14) inspired by the ’90s race car and the Nissan Silvia (S15) gets early 2000s RS-R drift car styling according to Hot Wheels director of design/marketing, Jimmy Liu. Both of these are brand-new, releases.

The trend of two brand-new releases in Car Culture 2-Packs continues with this Nissan 2-Pack. The Nissan R390 GT1 looks to be done in essence of the #23 Nissan R390 GT1 that finished the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans in the 12th place overall (5th in the GT1 class). The car was driven by Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Erik Comas, and Masahiko Kageyama according to Snap Lap. This is the debut of the ’94 Nissan Primera — another casting done by Mark Jones before he retired. A more authentic Calsonic deco would have been nice, but the Hot Wheels / Nissan livery works too. This one is slammed and has a roll cage.

This mini truck Car Culture 2-Pack is vibin’ hard with the vehicles’ very colorful ’90s-themed graphics. The Custom ’93 Nissan Hardbody (D21) is the carry-forward here, however, it looks like the wheels have changed since this colorway appeared in 2019 Car Culture / Cruise Blvd. series. The ’75 Datsun Sunny Truck (B120) gets a “fresh” design here courtesy of Hot Wheels Graphic Designer, Kevin Geraldez — not Kristina as it was mentioned at the Finale. Kristina was kind enough to confirm though that she does obsess over mini trucks from this era. Nice to see the detail in the bed which contains Mark Jones’ art set.

Here is one repeat NO ONE is complaining about! The infamous Porsche 993 GT2 in yellow from the original Hot Wheels Boulevard line in 2013 returns. Good luck getting your hands on a carded release of that for under $200. This one does look to have new wheels as well so it won’t be entirely the same. The value on the 2013 Boulevard one should hold, and newer collectors — and ones that never picked up the Boulevard release — should rejoice now that they can get essentially the same car for a lot less! A new color for the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 is also in this pack. this time in a dark gray with a carbon fiber hood.

1:43

Hot Wheels 1:43 premium line continues. Collectors have been asking for a “softer” price point for this line though no mention of that was made at the finale. No complaints about the cars as the R34 is currently flying off the pegs at $25.

The Porsche 911 GT3-RX will debut in the line in this white & red color scheme. It was Ron’s first 1:43 scale casting. I’ll be interested to see how the detail exceeds that of the 1:43 scale Pull-Back Speeders model which has opening doors and sells for a quarter of the price. Let me know if you’d like to see a comparison article featuring to two here on OTD.

The Elite 64: ’69 Modified Ford Mustang gets a big brother as the Phil Riehlman design scales up from 1:64 to 1:43. This ’69 Modified Ford Mustang will have a higher piece count — meaning more detail — and it will be especially noticeable under the hood according to Ron.

The first recolor in the 1:43 line comes in the form of this ’23 Corvette Z06 in orange. It was the first car in this line to be released so it only makes sense for it to be the first recolor.

Earlier this year, the ’23 Ram 1500 was released in the Hot Wheels mainline as a new model. This 1:43 Ram 4×4 looks to be very similar to that design. Compare this one to the basic model… this will demonstrate the $25 price point if you want to be blown away.

Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo debuts in 1:43 in matte black — Ron’s favorite color apparently.

The other recolor in the 1:43 line is the other car in that first mix, the ’21 Ford Mustang Mach I. This time in blue.

Elite 64

It feels like the Hot Wheels Elite 64 line has slowly been rolling out. Fortunately, the next drop appears to be happening later this month when former Hot Wheels Designer, Dmitriy Shakhmatov’s Porsche 928 Safari finally sees the light of day. This one was previewed in Los Angeles in the fall so it’s exciting that it’s drop is forthcoming.

Even after retirement, former Hot Wheels designer, Mark Jones is still writing and sharing detailed notes about the product he created. He reached out to the graphic designer for this project, Andrés Andrieu, and left him some very specific notes about the paint & graphics for the Bugatti Type 59. Make sure to notice the extra detail that went into this one!

Oddly enough, Brendon worked on the ’90 BMW 318i Touring. Apparently, there was an internal debate as to whether or not this one should have the hood or not. Ultimately, a compromise was reach to include the hood but make it removeable.

So this is insane. You knew the Elite 64 vehicles would be extremely detailed, but an accessory pack?!?!? How cool is that? The ’17 Toyota Tacoma will have a slew of parts to customize this piece without even having to get out your drill. There are simply too many interchangeable parts to call out individually. This is one that I cannot wait to see collectors open and start playing with. The graphics on it are the same as graphic designer, Kevin Geraldez’s actual Tacoma.

Elite 64 Mod Shop

According to Jimmy, Elite 64 Mod Shop will be an extension of Elite 64 that includes overlanding trucks with accessories like this one where you can swap out the pieces and build the truck the way you want it built. Its a great idea which is surely to come with an increase in price.

Red Line Club

You should already have the 2024 RLC Membership Car in-hand. This is the first (and currently only) time the Kawa-Bug-A has been released without the roof rack.

This RLC McLaren F1 in spectraflame dark orange sold out earlier this week. It was surprising to see it last as long as it did as this release has been a few years in the making and collector anticipation had built. The sale price of $35 may had something to do with it, but this is one that I was not passing on.

Another one that is currently en route to collectors is the Mercedes-AMG G 63 4×4². This highly-detailed piece went on sale this week and has already begun shipping.

The ’68 Custom Plymouth Barracuda made a surprising debut at the dinner honoring it’s designer, Phil Riehlman, last fall at the convention in LA. The casting gets a fresh coat of spectraflame paint now as “spectraflame teal” debuts with this release. Phil mentioned at his dinner that this is the way he would have built out his ’68 Barracuda if there were no constraints.

Another one that feels like it’s been a long-time-coming is the RLC Pagani Huayra R. Ron NAILED this design with a wonderful assist by Andrés in graphics. I’m thankful I have RLC Overdrive for pieces like this, and the next one…

The chameleon Nissan Skyline GT-R (BNR34) goes on sale in the next 1 to 2 months. The color is inspired by the 1:1’s factory “midnight purple”. Only 282 V-Spec Midnight Purple II’s were ever produced, making this car a true collector’s item. This one will surely be hot.

We received an updated look at the ’97 Toyota Supra that is coming to RLC. It’s been a highly requested piece, and this casting will feature an opening hood and a removeable diecast targa top! In addition to that, we now know this one will come in spectraflame blue with the rims shown in the image.

The ’93 Mazda RX-7 R1 will debut in the all-new spectraflame bright red. Unfortunately, it looks like they spelt “BRAAAD”” wrong on the license plate. 😉

There were three new castings that collectors had not seen before this finale. The ’22 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Code Red was the first of the three. This crazy custom — and NOT street legal — package for the Mustang will be realized as a Red Line Club release. The casting sculpt looks amazing courtesy of these 3D renderings. A physical 3D print was shown after the event.

The long-requested — and highly-guessed — ’71 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV was unveiled. The double opening feature on this one is going to be epic! New rims were developed for this piece. Its is a higher piece count than normal and comes in a slammed stance that replicates that of the real car with the rear tires tucked beneath the rear fenders. Brendon has never seen another diecast company come this close to replicating the Miura in 1:64 scale.

While two opening hoods is nice, the new ’64 Mercedes-Benz 600 casting will have FOUR opening doors — a feat that is not easy in 1:64 scale design. This VIP car is slammed has some amazing detail on the interior complete with bottle service and plaid seats. Look for it in 2025.

To view the presentation in it’s entirety, check out the live steam video posted to the Diecast Insider YouTube channel:

John from the Lamley Group did a 4-Part premium preview with the Hot Wheels Design Team at Nationals. Those videos are below: