Art & Inspiration Hot Wheels Commercials for 1968

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Hot Wheels Commercials for 1968

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My first was the Snake and Mongoose funny car set... think I still have it.... plus the dragstrip set with the drag chutes...

 

Exciting times for a kid. Every boy in my age group that I grew up with was into Hot Wheels, we had a lot of fun.
Dan

 

i got my first track and cars in the late 60's, i remember it clipping to the window seal. i have close to 200 hot wheels still packaged as well as some johnny lightnings. few others that caught my eye over the years.

 

I still have my very first Hotwheel. Beatnik Bandit. And, I have all my Redlines, track, curves, Power Pak, Cases, etc. Can't let them go yet. Plus I have about 10,000 other diecast cars. Mostly Customs and Hotrods, but over 300 Mercurys.
I used to hold $100 Hotwheel races at my HAMB, "Bad Bob's BBQ" every year for my birthday. There's threads on here with pics.

 

Those are rookie numbers!
Let's just say that if one of those guys that advertise Wanted Hot Wheels! would pay more than pennies, I could get a cheap t bucket.

 

Grandma bought me my first Hot Wheels in 68 when they first came out. And I haven’t been right since!

 

Xmas, 1969, my mom gave me every car in every color! Still have all of them. She said, "play with the Hotwheels, collect the Matchbox". HAHA, Too bad it wasn't the other way around. The Hotwheels still in the packs are HUGE money!

 

I've met many guys over the years, with more than me, but mine were played with by me! Not collected for investment. Best toys I ever received....

 

I did a thread, years ago, that's titled, "Any of you guys collect other stuff?". There's lots of HAMBers who collect diecast cars.

 

All mine have been cycled through my younger brothers, my kids and then grandkids, most are in poor shape. I wish I still had my Nomad and a chrome Boss Hoss that I believe I got from cereal box tops.
Mom had a piece of track till the day she died.
Here’s the story:
1970 ish my brother, a bunch of friends and myself had our hot wheel tracks set up and probably 100 cars all over our basement. Nearing dinner time Mom came down “time to pick up boys” yeh yeh a little while later she came down. Of course we were still racing, I said something smart assed and Mom swatted my behind (rare) and then I giggled. My bad well she picked up a piece of track and swatted my behind WOW that got my attention. The basement was the cleanest ever. During Moms dying days I noticed the piece of orange track in the bedroom. We had a good laugh at the track incident years ago. I asked her if she ever used the track again “ nope - the word is out”
Dan

 

Howza Bruthas!!

As I was a wee lad when these came out, my Grandad's then girlfriend would buy my Hot Wheels everytime they would come by and visit.


Over the years, my redline stash just disappeared, or were played with til they were garbage.

However- today, we have 200 redline cars in a display case and a wall full of Hot Wheels track sets on display in our garage.

It's a sickness-

 

I remember going to the toy aisles in Sears and JC Penny (now both gone) in the late sixties and spending my saved-up allowance on Hot Wheels, which were then priced at 69 cents.

 

I had 8 of the first 16, kept them all these years. All were in “played with” condition. I started to let my grandsons play with them, but some were still pretty nice, and the boys were just going to step on them. So I put them aside and let the boys play with the newer ones. And I sold the originals last year. But I kept the old drag strip. I set it up and play with it even if the grandsons aren’t around!

 

I still have a bunch of them I had as a kid. I was 8 in 1968.
a buddy of mine since childhood passed away about 30 years ago. a few years later me and a buddy drove by the house and his mom was going to have a garage sale the next day. she brought out his Hot Wheels carrying case with like 20 cars, all wrapped in tissue, and all mint. I opened the case and told her there was $1,000.00 worth of cars in there but I was wrong... I sold them for her on Ebay and as I recall I got $1700.00 total.

she was going to sell them for $1.00 each.

 

I got the first 16 in 70-71.. Had the wheel cases, Matchbox cases, the whole shebang........ Snake and Mongoose Funny's, and Dragsters with the chute's....... SAD=....Parents sold everything at a garage sale in the early 80's......
I flipped out one day in the early 90's, as I found the original 16 for sale=NIB! I guard those with my life now!
In the mid 90's, I saw the traveling Hotwheel trailer at Hot August Nights....... The guy told me then that Snake and Mongoose stuff was fetching over a G a piece............

 

The first one I bought must have been in ‘68. I’ll see if I can dig it out, but it was a Thunderbird, on the bottom is casted the year.
I have the loops, drag release thing, lotta old track, the little thing with the rubber wheels that propel the car to make another lap, etc.

I also have the thing you would stick the tubes of plastic in, heats it up and then you’d place chassis parts in a mold, pull the handle down and open the mold and you had a plastic HotWheel.
My folks never got me additional tubes of plastic, so after awhile I’d cut up the old cars I made, mix all the colors together and come up with some funky looking plastic cars.
Good times for sure. Never had a thought of keeping one in the package, I played with all of them for hours at time.

Thanks for the memories!

 

Meh- I'll stick to Matchbox cars. Even Though I actual did some Hot Wheels Designs.
This is an actual 5 packs you can buy at the store right now! Probably the end of my era for this for me.

also my Caddy-

 

My grandmother used to buy me matchbox cars. She’d also get me the larger ones than the 1/64th.
Man, I gotta dig those out too.
The larger cars were like 30’s styled cars, big, long, elaborate.
Didn’t have the pizzazz of the matchbox cars, but were pretty cool.

Edit: For me, the matchbox cars didn’t have the feeling of the HotWheel cars. MB’s were like stock, etc, while HW were hot rods

 

It took me a long time to like them. I liked the realism of Matchbox and Leslie much better. I think my Uncle had every one of them until he just had to stop collecting for lack of space. Both him and his family sort of went insane over the years but his hot wheels collecting kept him focused till the end LOL. I usually have a dozen or so impulse / $1.00 buys around the house but end up giving them away to friend's kids.

 

I had 90% Matchbox cars at 8yrs old, then got the Hot Wheels about 2yrs later. Gave them to the neighbor kid when I moved out along with my baseball cards. Kept these and a few baseball cards. I like these best of what I had so I kept them. The Hurst sticker on the'32 Ford Vicky probably came from some model kit. These all have 1968 date codes except for the Demon which is from 1969.

 

I did like Matchbox more as a kid. They had opening doors or hoods. I threw away my Hot Wheels track when I was a kid after my mom beat me with it. I was about 7 or 8. Ahhh, good times!

 

I still have my original 3. I got them on my birth. They were the Custom Barracuda [hood missing, beat to shit, labeled 1967]. Custom Camaro [hood missing, beat to shit, labeled 1967]. Teroero [hood intacted, beat to hell and back]. for my first birthday I got a 1968 Shelby. Doesn't look like any Shelby I've ever seen but, thats what it says. yep, beat to hell.

 

My collection includes at least one of every production casting from the first five years of production, 1968-1972.

 

I think it's just about only us now. Most Kids don't get off the xbox.
This is Hot Wheels today.

 

I started at age 8 in '68, collecting all 16. Had the Snake/Mongoose and Drag sets, supercharger and lots of extra track. My friends, kids at school, cousins all were Hot Wheel crazy! Only a couple of kids preferred Johnny Lightning.
I joined the Mattel Hot Wheels club and ordered the Jack Rabbit and Boss Hoss specials.
I'd drive my parents nuts, because anytime we were driving in an new neighborhood, I'd bug them with "hey, let's stop at that Woolworths and look for Hot Wheels"!! In '69 the Paddy Wagon and police car were elusive, but finally found them. So much fun. Still have many of them.

 

I had tons of the cars and the track sets. It's all I wanted for Christmas or birthdays in the 60's. Now I'm 67 and still buying 'em.

 

I had the original 16. I bought a ton of them for my own kids and now
I get them for my grandkids!
I also have about 1000 I bought for myself over the years.
They are still making some really nice ones and the price is right.

 

I'm rich!.....