This is not your two month old mainline K.I.T.T. You’ve been duped into buying a subpar diecast car. I was duped, too, so don’t think I’m criticizing you. Then I saw this example of the car that introduced David Hasselhoff to the masses (after the Young and the Restless, of course). I was not sure I wanted to buy this car. I have the recently released mainline. It should be good enough. And it was $1 versus the $6 Walmart and Mattel were asking me to pay. I loved the show. Hell, I was eleven years old when it came out. Of course I loved it. So I decided to go for it.
Metal body, metal base? Check. Real Riders? Check. Ok. Typical. Then I decided to DLM the car because I’ve started learning something. Opening cars makes enjoying them easier. Trust me.
The 1982 Pontiac Trans Am. The light played on the black surface in a way that gave K.I.T.T. a presence on screen that matched the Hoff’s good looks (he was young once, too). It was a beautiful car. And HW did a solid. While not exact (who could forget the red Pontiac emblem) they got the wheels right. It is such an important detail to me because the show car had them. And customers that wanted K.I.T.T. could get the solid high gloss black hubcaps on their cars too!
Seriously. This car is incredibly well done. But how hard is it to do this car well? Make a cast of the T/A, paint it black, slap some RR wheels on it and ship it, right? Well, not exactly. And this is where opening cars gets good.
No this is not the same shot twice. The first shows off the wonderful digital dashboard that was mocked up in the show car. The second shows off the custom steering wheel! Such incredible detail! And most people won’t see it in this perspective since it will remain in the package. It’s a shame. I understand the desire to keep them couped up. They may be worth money. The card art is beautiful in some cases. But, you’d miss out on things like this.
There is one thing Mattel can’t seem to get right with K.I.T.T., though. It was obvious on the mainline and it is obvious here as well.
K.I.T.T. had a scanner on the front. A red light that would sweep across the front, back and forth. The red bar is there. But only at certain angles.
The scanner faced forward and yet HW can’t get it right. Not sure why since they’ve tackled bucket headlights successfully. But I will forgive this. Like I said before, this car is well done. It’s still a $3 car, but it’s worth the extra money, if you like the car or the show. Or if you like when Hot Wheels goes the extra mile with details.
Thanks for reading!