Jun Imai studied at Art Center College of Design before joining Hot Wheels in 2004. From 2004, until he left Mattel in 2018, he has designed hundreds of cars for the diecast lines.
In 2012, he left diecast to lead HW Innovation and RC Design, and returned in summer 2014 as Manager of HW Diecast Design.
A few of his favorite designs include: Mad Manga, Nissan Skyline GT-X “Hakosuka”, Nissan Skyline 2000GTR “Kenmeri”, Datsun 510, ’71 Datsun Bluebird Wagon, Mazda RX-7, Toyota 2000GT, Datsun 620, BMW 2002, ’66 Dodge A100, ’69 Mustang Boss 302, ’77 Pontiac Firebird T/A, ’83 Chevy Silverado, Porsche 935/78, Porsche 911 (993) GT2, Driftsta, Datsun Fairlady 2000, Custom Datsun 240Z “Fugu Z”.
Aside from HW’s, he enjoys spending time with his family, running 5K’s, skateboarding, and tearing up L.A. streets with his modified Datsun 510 Wagon, 260ZG, and Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2.
As a kid who spent many years yearning for #Hot Wheels and #Star Wars to come together, I am definitely not taking for granted the treasure trove of Star Wars Hot Wheels released across so many different lines over the last several years. While I’ll admit, I don’t […]
If you’re a #Variation hunter in the Hot Wheels world, chances are “subtleties” are the name of your game. Variations exist in Hot Wheels collecting on all levels, from your basic planned colorway to wheel changes to even different thicknesses of the same color paint. Talk to any one […]
Sometimes, all it takes is some #Spectraflame Paint and some #Real Riders to really make an #Unlicensed Hot Wheels car stand out. Such was the case this year with the Driftsta released in the #Night Burnerz Series. The Hot Wheels #Driftsta casting quietly snuck onto the scene last […]
The Hot Wheels Car Culture line has been a huge hit with collectors thus far. Each wave has given us a new story as these 5-car series — Japan Historics, Euro Style, Trucks & Track Day — are very diverse bringing in all walks of collectors and have […]
It pains me to say, but sometimes it takes a super #Treasure Hunt release of an #Unlicensed Hot Wheels casting for collectors to take notice of it. It pains me even more to say that I dismissed the Hot Wheels Driftsta before I saw the 2016 super treasure hunt release […]
Coming off of the fresh disappointment that the 2013 New Model “raked” ’69 Dodge Charger Daytona casting was not a return of the 1996 First Edition “standard” ’70 Dodge Charger Daytona casting (which had been final run’d in 2003), many collectors chose to pass up on the 2014 […]
Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? … OR, in this case, a makeshift Hot Wheels series comes together? To me, its one of the reasons I love Hot Wheels collecting and more specifically, collecting the #Hot Wheels Race Team. There is no numbered sequence […]
Give it up for the #HW Art Cars series this year — definitely one of the underdog series for 2016. It had some quality castings in it and had one unique caveat that had collectors scurrying to collect them all. The tops of all 10 vehicles contained a letter/number which […]
Life on the farm tends to be a slow, monotonous life-style. But what if your farm had a drag-racing tractor? Well, that may speed things up a bit! Thats exactly what the Hot Wheels Dragtor is … a drag-racing tractor. From the mind of Hot Wheels designer (and […]
As the early editions of the Hot Wheels ’83 Chevy Silverado continue on their meteoric rise in value, a lesser discussed white version from last year has started to climb. Released as a #Toys R Us Exclusive, the white colorway of the HW Performance (Fram) ’83 Silverado is proving to be hard […]
ORANGE TRACK DIECAST 