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Hot Wheels Custom Camaro (1968)
The first Hot Wheels car off the line was a dark blue Custom Camaro, and no other redline casting comes in as many variations. That makes it the best car for learning how to read a redline.
Hong Kong cars have a blue-tinted windshield, a detailed base with gas tank and side pipes, and door lines on the sides. US cars have a clear windshield, a plainer base and no door lines. Early Hong Kong production in blue or antifreeze came with deep-dish wheels and black roofs. Common colors include blue and antifreeze with black roofs; gold, chocolate brown and creamy pink sit at the rare end. Look underneath for the early US "tabbed" and "kidney bean" bases.
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Hot Wheels Custom Mustang (1968)
Based on the 1967 fastback, with a hood that opens on both US and Hong Kong cars, the Custom Mustang is where buyers most need to slow down. Its two famous variations are also its most faked.
Hong Kong made the first cars with open hood scoops, which were dropped from later castings. A late US-only run has a louvered, ribbed rear window, and genuine examples have turned up only in orange and a medium blue. Many fake open-scoop and louvered cars circulate, so check closely before paying a variation price. White interiors are generally the more desirable ones, and orange US cars rate as very rare.
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Hot Wheels Custom Corvette (1968)
Mattel put the shape of the coming third-generation Corvette, drawn from the Mako Shark II concept, on toy shelves before General Motors had the real car in showrooms. That head start is the Custom Corvette's whole story.
Tell the two factories apart by the glass and interior: US cars have a clear windshield and a steering wheel molded into the console, while Hong Kong cars have blue-tinted glass and a separate wheel. The US hood is also slightly smaller. Three base markings exist, including one that adds a Corvette trademark. Creamy pink is the rare Hong Kong color, and magenta, light blue, yellow and brown are the hard US finds.
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Hot Wheels Custom Cougar (1968)
The Custom Cougar, based on the 1967 Mercury Cougar coupe, is one of the easier Sweet Sixteen cars to place by factory at a glance. Only Hong Kong cars have the simulated black vinyl roof, and only US cars have black trim paint on the grille.
The usual tells apply too: clear glass and a dash-molded steering wheel on US cars, blue glass on Hong Kong ones. Early US bases have a smaller gas tank. For a harder hunt, look for the painted center grille tooth, an effort Mattel abandoned quickly, and for Hong Kong black-roof cars in red, aqua, green or purple, all rated very rare. US brown is the toughest standard color.
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Hot Wheels Custom Barracuda (1968)
Based on the 1967 Plymouth Barracuda fastback, the Custom Barracuda looks almost identical from both factories, so the differences hide in the details. Hong Kong hoods have longer power bulges running nearly the full length, and Hong Kong cars carry blue glass, a separate steering wheel and suspension holes in the base.
The variation to chase is the hybrid: a US body, windshield and interior on a Hong Kong base, and a very collectible find. Among standard colors, US rose and Hong Kong olive rate as very rare. The casting's shape returned in 1970 as the King Cuda.
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Hot Wheels Custom Eldorado (1968)
Bill Mitchell's 1967 Cadillac Eldorado coupe became the Sweet Sixteen's luxury car, and every color came with a flat black painted roof imitating vinyl. That roof is the first thing to check: a few examples without it are known and may be production errors.
US cars have the flat black grille section as part of the body casting, a clear windshield and a steering wheel molded into the dash. Hong Kong cars have blue glass and a separate wheel. Interior color does not move the value much, but body color does: US cars in light blue, hot pink, yellow, creamy pink and magenta are among the rare ones. The casting came back in 1971 as the Sugar Caddy.
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Hot Wheels Custom Firebird (1968)
The Custom Firebird is the Sweet Sixteen's open car, modeled on the 1967 Pontiac Firebird convertible, the pony car Pontiac built to take on the Mustang. Its standout variation is a rare late run of US cars with door lines cast into the sides.
Otherwise it follows the pattern: clear glass, a dash-molded steering wheel and a plain base on US cars, blue glass on Hong Kong ones. US rose, light blue, dark olive and brown are listed as rare, and creamy pink is the rare Hong Kong color. Its shape reappeared in 1970 as Light My Firebird.
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Hot Wheels Custom Fleetside (1968)
The Custom Fleetside is the Sweet Sixteen's pickup, tied to designer Harry Bentley Bradley, and its tonneau cover pops open over the bed. That cover is where the factories differ: US castings have a notch to ease it open, Hong Kong ones a tab.
Every Fleetside came with flat black paint simulating a vinyl roof. Early Hong Kong trucks have painted tails, and a few rare examples carry the black roof paint along the bed wall. US light blue is rare and US brown very rare, while blue and red are the scarce Hong Kong colors. As with any opening part, check the cover's hinge and fit on a car sold as original.
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Hot Wheels Custom T-Bird (1968)
Based on the 1967 Thunderbird two-door landau, the Custom T-Bird rewards collectors who look at roofs. Every Hong Kong color has a flat black roof, while US cars mostly do but not always, and the no-black-roof US car has been found only in red, purple, green, antifreeze and gold.
US cars also get a black-painted grille, slightly larger fender wells and a dash-molded steering wheel. A rare late US run adds door lines. Ice blue, red and orange are the rare US colors; purple and olive are rare from Hong Kong. A gold US car with no black roof and a white interior is known as a store display piece, made for catalog shoots and TV commercials.
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Hot Wheels Custom Volkswagen (1968)
Mattel's first Beetle, patterned on a 1965 IMC 1:25 model kit, comes in three castings: US with a sunroof, Hong Kong with a sunroof, and Hong Kong without one. The no-sunroof cars came first, from the Hong Kong plant, and most were sold in Germany and the UK, so they are worth looking for in European sales.
Most no-sunroof cars are blue, and a red one rates as super rare. Among the sunroof cars, US yellow is extremely rare and magenta and hot pink very rare. Do not confuse the early no-sunroof car with the 1974 Flying Colors Volkswagen, also Hong Kong-made without a sunroof: none of its parts interchange with the 1968 car.
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Hot Wheels Deora (1968)
The Deora is a rare thing in the first year: a miniature of a real show truck its own designer helped create. Harry Bentley Bradley drew the Dodge Deora with the Alexander brothers in 1964, on an A100 pickup, and the full-size truck is displayed at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
It also runs on four small wheels, unlike other Hot Wheels. The surfboards are the trap: US boards are red and yellow with a short skeg and a part number underneath starting 6210, the casting number, while Hong Kong boards are orange and yellow with a taller skeg and no number. Reproduction boards exist, so check them against those details.
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Hot Wheels Ford J-Car (1968)
The Ford J-Car is the Sweet Sixteen's real race car, a replica of the prototype that led to the Ford GT40 Mk IV, and it carries more running engineering changes than most first-year castings.
The two factories built it quite differently. Hong Kong bodies are split down the side, with blue glass, black interiors and left-hand drive; US bodies sit on a separate flat chassis, with clear glass, unpainted bases and right-hand drive. Hong Kong cars come in an early hidden-hinge version and a later exposed-pin one. Early hatches could swing open too far, so a travel stop was added: check the hatch, the part most likely to be worn or broken.
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Hot Wheels Hot Heap (1968)
The Hot Heap, a Model T hot rod, gives the first year its traditional rodder and a surprising amount to study underneath. Hong Kong cars use a plastic engine insert, while US cars have a metal engine spun underneath.
US exhaust pipes went through revisions labeled A/B, C and D, with D the most curved and C the hardest to find. Every Hot Heap has flat black paint on the radiator fins. Some cars have a tilted windshield, which some collectors treat as a defect. Brown is very rare on US cars, and light blue, olive gold and yellow are very hard to find.
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Hot Wheels Python (1968)
Before it was the Python, this casting was the Cheetah, and only a few Cheetah-named cars are known, most of them red Hong Kong examples. The shape comes from a custom Bill Cushenbery built in 1963 for Car Craft magazine.
Few first-year cars split so clearly by factory. Hong Kong Pythons have a blower engine, a small rear window, blue glass and small front wheels; US cars have a chrome engine with dual injectors, a large rear window, clear glass and detailed seats. Some early cars of both kinds have a full black roof running onto the rear deck. Yellow is the rare US color, and hot pink, brown and creamy pink are among the hard finds.
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Hot Wheels Silhouette (1968)
Bill Cushenbery's 1962 bubble-top show car was bought by Ford in 1963 and toured with its Custom Car Caravan, and Harry Bentley Bradley's Silhouette shrank it for the first year. It is the strongest dose of pure show-car design among the Sweet Sixteen.
The engine tells you the factory: Hong Kong cars have a supercharger, US cars dual carburetors. Hong Kong domes are tinted blue and US domes clear, and Hong Kong bases have four square openings. Early Hong Kong cars came in purple or antifreeze, and Hong Kong colors other than purple are relatively hard to find. On US cars, yellow is hard to find and brown rare.
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Hot Wheels Beatnik Bandit (1968)
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's 1963 Beatnik Bandit, a fiberglass bubble-top steered by a single control stick, became one of the first-year cars that announced Hot Wheels as a custom-culture line rather than a set of showroom models.
The US casting is the more faithful one, with a proper control stick, while Hong Kong cars use a conventional steering wheel. Hong Kong also adds a blower engine, an oval grille opening and a blue dome against the US car's clear one and open carburetors. US Bandits came in far more colors. Hot pink is very rare on US cars, and hot pink Hong Kong Bandits are extremely rare.
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Hot Wheels Twin Mill (1969)
Ira Gilford's Twin Mill is the most recognizable of the four concept cars he designed for the line's second year, and one of the first Hot Wheels that copied no real car at all. In 2001 it became the first Hot Wheels design Mattel built at full scale.
Every original redline Twin Mill was made in the USA, so any other country on the base marks a reissue, whatever the 1968 copyright date says. Most have bearing-type wheels, though late cars with capped wheels exist. The prize variation is the preproduction Cut Fender, known from about 15 examples, with noticeably reduced rear fenders.
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Hot Wheels Splittin' Image (1969)
Splittin' Image is another of Ira Gilford's 1969 concept cars, and with the Twin Mill it shows how far the second year pushed into pure fantasy design. Original cars were made only in the US and were issued in at least 14 colors, running until 1971.
The earliest production cars have silver headlight paint and black trim above the tail lights, worth checking on lime, orange, green, antifreeze, lavender, olive and purple cars. Magenta is very rare, and light blue and creamy pink are hard to find. Hong Kong-made 1973 Shell promotional versions have flat enamel finishes and no interior, so a Hong Kong base means a later car.
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Hot Wheels Volkswagen Beach Bomb (1969)
The production Beach Bomb carries its surfboards in side pods, but the car every redline collector knows is the rear-loading version, with boards sticking out of the back window. It proved too narrow for the foam wheels of the new Supercharger accessory to grab and too top-heavy for the orange track, so Mattel halted Hong Kong production after a single shift.
About 41 true rear loaders are known, in at least 10 colors, with green and red the most common, and the pink ones are the most prized of all. Rear loaders have been widely reproduced, so provenance matters more than looks. The side-loading production cars are the realistic buy, and rose is one of the hard colors there.
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Hot Wheels Mongoose Funny Car (1970)
Tom McEwen's red funny car came to Hot Wheels in 1970 as half of the Mongoose versus Snake promotion, a publicity rivalry built around two professional drag racers. It shipped both in track sets and in blister packs, each with a sheet of stickers, and it is a faithful replica of McEwen's real car.
It came only in red enamel, made in both US and Hong Kong factories, with clear glass on US cars and blue-tinted glass on Hong Kong ones. Beware the 1993 and 1994 reproductions: they were made in China but carry the original copyright date on the base, which still catches newer collectors.
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Hot Wheels Snake Funny Car (1970)
Don Prudhomme's yellow Snake is the other half of the 1970 rivalry, and most collectors want the pair together. A faithful replica of his funny car, it came only in yellow enamel, with the engine riveted to the base.
The US and Hong Kong cars differ only in glass color and base marking: clear for the US, blue-tinted for Hong Kong. As with the Mongoose, Mattel's 1993 and 1994 reproductions carry the original copyright date, but they are easy to separate once you read the country on the base, which says China.
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Hot Wheels Red Baron (1970)
The Red Baron, with its spiked German helmet for a roof, is one of six Tom Daniel designs in the line and one of the most common redlines, which makes it a friendly first purchase. It was made in Hong Kong in Spectraflame red with a black interior.
The 1970 original is identified by the sharp point on top of the helmet and capped wheels, and its base lacks the crush protectors at the wheels found on later versions. The cross sticker on the helmet was dropped on later redline cars. Prototypes have white interiors, and some fakes have been made with reproduction interiors, so buy those only from reputable sellers.
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Hot Wheels Boss Hoss Silver Special (1970)
The Boss Hoss Silver Special was the first of three chrome club cars, offered by mail to members of the 1970 Hot Wheels Club before the Heavy Chevy and King Cuda followed. It is the car that turned buying Hot Wheels into belonging to something.
Made in Hong Kong with blue glass and a dark or light interior, it was later also found in blister packs, and chrome examples were mounted on the Charter Member trophies. The Boss Hoss casting came back in 1971 as part of the Spoilers line, so make sure a chrome car is the 1970 Silver Special and not a later car stripped or replated to pass as one.
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Hot Wheels Heavy Chevy (1970)
The Heavy Chevy is the Custom Camaro grown up: one of the five original 1970 Spoilers, adapted from the Camaro casting, and a neat way to see how Mattel reused its first-year dies. It was made only in Hong Kong.
Blue, red and green are the common colors, and brown is the hard one. Two special finishes matter. The chromed Club Car was a mail-in offer tied to the 1970 Hot Wheels Club, and the Over Chrome cars are surplus chrome bodies repainted in Spectraflame, found only in red. Know those before paying extra for a shiny Heavy Chevy.
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