Well, friends, looks like this will be a special year for collecting Hot Wheels.
Don’t even think about Mixes 1 & 2 (Mix 2 does have the Mystery Machine and NCC-1701), because Mixes 3 & 4 are where it’s at. You see, Forza and Gran Turismo have made their debut in Hot Wheels’s top premium line for this year, and they’re bringing badly-needed re-tools and big-name new castings.
Of course I should start with the biggest re-tool: that particularly reviled C7.R cast, seen above, is getting an all-new chassis for the Gran Turismo` sort, and joins fellow retool patients Lambo Veneno and R35 GT-R (the latter is most probably to reflect the later models) with an unchanged Ford GT in Batch 3. But probably the biggest bomb on the mix is Nissan’s Vision Gran Turismo Car. It’s seen as a slap in the face for those in the HWC website, but not here, though admittedly, it’s a left-field choice (BMW’s VGT or Mercedes’ would have been slightly classier).
`Um, you know, that C7.R is in the wrong series. It wouldn’t show up until possibly Gran Turismo Sport, but even then, most race fans will associate that car for a Forza.
Mix 4, meanwhile, is all about Forza, and while there are big snubs (McLaren P1? Ferrari 458? They’re cover cars, for Chrissakes!!!), the batch gets a pass because of retools for the Gallardo Superleggera & ZL1 Camaro, and two new models: Alfa Romeo GT Junior and this decade’s enormous $kaybait``.
``Whoa. Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Isn’t that New Ford GT showing up in the Mainline by virtue of it being a Super TH? Looks like Ford really wants to push that new GT all around.
All in all, excellent stuff. The big question is: Will those retools trickle down to the Mainline?