Hot Wheels! 1969 Pink Charger Redline
I’m quite sure that many of you got your start in automotive collecting (ok, playing) with Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Corgi, Aurora and other similar toy cars. My “car room” is currently decorated with two 108-car display cases holding my favorites! But none of mine come even close in value to this mint in package original 1969 “Redline” Dodge Charger in Spectraflame Pink. Current bidding in the auction here on eBay is up to $998.31 and the seller is including free shipping from Montclair, New Jersey in the total.
I’m old enough to remember the furor when Hot Wheels were first introduced. The simple orange track and incredible low friction wheels of the cars meant that all your other toy cars were left in the dust. The bright graphics and Spectraflame paint still stand out as differentiators today – a great example of meeting customer needs that no one else was at the time. I studied marketing and Mattel’s entry with Hot Wheels is a well-known case of how to pay attention to what potential customers really want. Over 6 billion (!) Hot Wheels have been sold!
This Charger is in beautiful condition! Have any of you tried to duplicate this kind of paint job on a real car? It’s actually done using a somewhat transparent paint and takes advantage of the shiny metal surface of the diecast body. The original Spectraflame painting process was banned in 1973, but enthusiasts have created a modern-day equivalent if you want to restore an old car. Sounds just like modern real car paints!
So I’d like to see which ones of these original Hot Wheels you’ve owned? Please post below! I’ll start you with my list in the comments.
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Comments
Here are those cases I mention in the post. Of the original cars on the back of the card above, I owned 12; The Demon, Nitty Gritty Kitty, TNT-Bird, TwinMill, TurboFire, Torero, Splittin’ Image, Ford J-Car, Custom Eldorado, Silhouette, Lola GT70, and the Ford Mk. IV, which is the only one I still have from my originals (it’s in the bottom right hand corner).
My wife worked for Mattel I have to go up in the addict but we have a bunch of the limited Toy fare Hot Weels .Every year at toy fare they gave them out but they were never for sale.Collectors would stand outside of the event to try and buy them.We had a son but I convinced him not to open those
I know one is signed by Richard Petty
Paddy wagon, red baron, heavy chevy and splittin image here. All well played and long gone sorry to say.
I never had any Hot Wheels, not one. I thought they were kind of lame when you could have an Aurora AF/X slot car set. A friend and I combined sets, and spent many an hour modifying them, until we got our license, that is.
Howard, I have a six-lane routed HO track in the shop…and had a 16×4 lock and joiner layout until I had to sell it to keep my TR on the road in college.
I not only have every Hot Wheel that I had when I was a kid, non of them in the bubble packs but all near mint. I also have my AFX Aroura race track with probably 50 cars. All from the late ’60’s. Every make and model of slots they made, Mopar Daytona, Super Bird, 1st gen Camaro’s, Vettes, ect…..In the early ’80’s I bought as many Hot Wheels as I could with out opening them. My son was born in ’85 and I continued buying while he was young. As he got older he started buying them and didn’t open any. Now his son is two and the passion will continue….
still have all of mine, even the original 16 in the wheel shaped case. all the snake and mongoose items, power boosters,tune up tower, hot wheels factory, sizzlers, juice machine, etc., etc. big part of my childhood.
Not sure about this one. No Body Tag info, no word on title, front wheels riding high so suspect no drive line. No plates, auto or stick?
I had several of these, back in the day. Can’t remember which ones, but there were well played with. They are all gone now, lost to time.
They came out with re-creations a couple of years ago. Here is one that my daughter got for me.
Back:
The car is that same, heavy gauge, metal chassis that they used back in the day.
I want to open it a play with it!
She also found me this: World’s Smallest Hot Wheels:
I have mine displayed on the bumper of a 54 Chevy pickup. I tried attaching a pic for you guys but it didn’t take for some reason.
Sandy, you need to be a member to directly post a picture.
You can post a link to a picture that’s in cloud storage, like Google Drive.
Or, email it to me and I will post it. [email protected]
Cool, I’ll send it to you. Thanks very much! 🌞
Back of this one:
Sandy’s cool Hot Wheels Display:
Thanks very much!
Another expensive Charger! Dynacorn should make the little bodies for them so people can swap out the numbered chassis from the ones that got beat up.
I have a large collection of the redlines. They were definitely the coolest of the 1/64 scale toys at that time. Matchbox did a great job with the stock utilitarian stuff but Hot Wheels killed it with the hot rods, show cars, track sets, etc.
Brings back memories! I had a lot of the ones in this picture.
I have most of these pictured…just not in nearly that good of shape….my Hotwheels have HIGH MILEAGE on them. !!!!
Jealous !!
I have been colleting Johnny Lightening cars for quite awhile too in an effort of keeping them nice.
I really like the 442s.
BLUE super van. No, I’m kidding about the color. Most were black.
Those were the days!!! I wish I still had mine from back in the day… So GRATEFUL and PROUD to be a part of my childhood generation… Lots of fond memories indeed!!! THANK YOU FOR SHARING…
A few years ago I sold almost all my HotWheels 1:64 collection (mostly Muscle Cars by the way) to pay for a holiday to Turkey. The holiday was nice, but I really miss those models.
I still have mine. They were all played with and I have the hot wheels carrying case. I have light my firebird, twin mill,python, hot heap, classic 36 Ford, Lola gt70, custom AMX, custom charger, Mercedes 280SL, Rolls Royce silver shadow. I was offered a little over $200 for the whole collection a few years ago but decided I would rather keep them.
Who’s the bigger turkey now?
Nobody mentioned it, but there were two series of at least the original series of cars. They were made in the U.S. and Hong Kong. The Hong Kong cars tended to have more detail to the chassis and engine compartment than the U.S. models and often had different size wheels front and back. The U.S. built cars seemed to be heavier, less detailed, and often had the same wheels on all four corners. I had most, if not all, of the Sweet Sixteen cars but they got played with and customized. Once I got past 15 it was time to get bigger toys, unlike the Hansen Brothers.
Had a bunch of 1st year Hot Wheels. Played with them until they lost most of their paint and the wheels got serious positive camber. Threw them in a shoe box and sold them as-is 15 years ago for over $450. Those were the days when you would play with your friends on a rainy day combining everybody’s track to create to longest circuit imaginable.
I had all of the one’s listed and still have all but 6 of them. A few times I have thought about selling them but I know I would regret it. Many hours of good times as a kid. Thanks Mattel.
I don’t collect Redline HW much, but I have a collection of 250 or so cars (mostly classics), and I like to modify them. HW purists hate me. :-) I am hoping to get a diorama town up sometime soon, it would be nice.
I had a repairman over to the house last summer and we got talking about cars, of course.
He has 2 younger boys and together they collect Hot Wheels – old and new. They have 100’s of them, and they also enjoy modifying them.
It’s great to know that these still have some kid appeal in the electronic age.
That, indeed, is great to hear. I’m happy to report, I’ve an 18-year-old
nephew, who collects die-casts. He’s, just, not getting mine…yet.
I have about 100 Red Lines, many are bought as junkers that I restore. The later Redlines are harder to restore because you can’t remove the wheels. The few I have done involve destoying one of the 50th anniversary cars.
I have lots of those metal tags that came with the cars…probably 50. Not sure what to do with them.
No A/C , so I’m out…….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH6bP2FJ7jg
The Hot Wheels Story.
House of color Candy.
Sterling siver base.
Take same silver start tinting Candy red till you hit that color…
Take a minute to match. JS
I had several(including Tom Mc.Euen & Don Prudhomme’s funnycars)back then. My taste leaned toward Corgi. My collection went to the children’s ward, of an hospital, in ’76. I miss them, to-day.
I just remembered about a car that a neighbor gave me back in the early 70’s.
It was a chrome ’69 or ’79 Mustang fastback.
It must have been some kind of special or limited car.
Anyone know what it was? It’s probably pretty valuable now.
Of course, like all of my Hot Wheels from back then, it’s long gone.
That was the mail-in Club car. They did a Mustang and Barracuda.
It is in the lower left in this pic. The Barracuda is in the next row up.
The Heavy Chevy Camaro was also a club car. Most of the club cars have black interior. Finding one with a white interior is much harder.
Yep, that was it! Has to be rare if you could only get it by mail-in. Funny, the kid who gave it to me didn’t seem to be a big Hot Wheels fan. I guess that I may have been the third “owner”.
I also see the Jack Rabbit Special at the end of the 3rd row. that was one of my favorites. Maybe because of the cartoon show – remember that? It got forced off the air because it was determined to be nothing but a 30 minute product commercial.
Boss Hoss was what it was called.
They were first only available as a mail in, but later you could buy the kit in stores -I bought one thinking I was going to get a Boss Hoss which I wanted, but got a Heavy Chevy ; I still have it !
Still have my one owner Blue Charger from the first series – although I wanted the Cuda – they were just out in the green color at that time……..along with a bunch more – over time a loooong time ago I bought my school buddies cars and still have them if they ever want them back.
I still have my Chevy Camaro, with the collector pin. It has always been my favorite. I was also able to purchase the club Camaros, with the blue and red stripes.
I have 87 hotwheels cars and growing