Mattel Hot Wheels Racer Verse Scrooge McDuck Mattel, 2024
Day #2,748: August 28, 2024
Racer Verse Scrooge McDuck More or less as seen in DuckTales
Hot Wheels Racer Verse
Item No.: Asst. HKB86 No. HRT10 Manufacturer:Mattel Includes:1 car with non-removable figure Action Feature:Rolls (Royce) Retail:$5.99 Availability: June 2024 Other: The first/only DuckTales toy in this line
I am not a Disney fanatic - but I am a fan of their jerkier characters like Kuzco or Donald Duck or especially Scrooge McDuck. While aspects of the cartoon and his globetrotting adventures (and especially, the old comics) may be a little dated, they're still full of imagination and action. Scrooge McDuck, a.k.a. Uncle Scrooge, a.k.a. Uncle Scooge was the star of his own comic series, a few cartoons, and a couple of video games - not bad for someone named for A Christmas Carol character. While the jaunty theme song of the TV show was hard to escape on after school television, the original cartoon phenomenon enjoyed video games and translations in multiple languages and adventure-focused Happy Meal toys - but not action figures. Most of those shows seemed to exist to prop up a larger industry with 65 episodes of shows to catch kids eyes for 13 weeks and generally sell them on a toy or a backpack or something - a lot of these were, relatively speaking, underexploited in their day.
As such, there's still an appetite for this kind of thing. Scrooge was typically depicted in a red coat, for the 1980s cartoon it was blue and this Hot Wheels car takes its cues from The Disney Afternoon. The figure is determined, in a blue coat driving a go-kart inspired by a purple limousine which he was not known for driving. But hey, who would you pick to drive a toy like this - Duckworth? Launchpad McQuack? Huey, Dewey, and Louie sitting on each other's shoulders in a big coat?
At first blush, this is an impressive toy - the vehicle is absolutely incredible with a bold gold trim, giving the car and its base some ample weight as well as a dollar sign ornament in the rear. The headlights and rear lights are painted, with clear windows and a body featuring two shades of purple plastic. The distinctive wheels have matching gold trim, making this a car that just plain stands out on the pegs in a store. You can't miss it. Seeing it, I can't help but wonder if a non-Racer Verse version may be in the works - I never would have thought to ask for it, but now that I have this version I could see some demand for it.
I would feel silly gushing over it, but I do like the details. It's nice to see a grille, with a bumper that looks kind of like his bill. I appreciate the scuplted door handles, and the headlights had more than a little work done to make them look good. So many headlights on Hot Wheels are either undecorated or just a flat print, it's rare to see something that looks fully realized. Having said that, it's six dollars, so Mattel has the budget to make these nicer than the average $1.25 basic car.
Could they do more? Sure. White wall wheels would be impressive, as would gold door handles to match the series. But aside from that, what we got is on the happy side of "good." It's not a high-end collectible, and it might be a little pricey for an impulse buy. This particular line of cars seems to walk a line between "kid toy" and "parent collectible," given how much of the assortment is stuff kids wouldn't necessarily ask for - 1980s Scrooge, Harley Quinn, and an upcoming Gizmo from Gremlins don't seem high on the wish lists of 2024 tots. But me? Yes, I'd want all of this.
Much like 1980s Happy Meal toys, Scrooge is an unremovable figure. Unlike those toys, he seems to use that inkjet-esque printing process we see on a lot of Hasbro and Mattel action figure faces for "photo realism." It's good, but it's also odd up close. You can see the texture of the paint in ways I wouldn't expect all over - Scrooge's blue coat in particular seems odder than a flat, standard blue paint job. His face is similarly dotted, although it makes a bit more sense given the eye gradient. The beak also seems a little paler than I would have done, but it's still nice. The had seems to be molded in black, and the glasses on his nose are molded in clear. Everything goes together rather nicely, and I can't poo-poo the resulting toy as it paints a lot of details we normally would expect a company to skip. Scrooge's red cuffs on his jacket are even decorated, the eyebrows are straight, the eyes are glossy... I struggle to ask for much more here.
I have no idea how far this line will go, given its surprising variety after kicking off last year. We've got a lot of classic Disney characters, Trolls, Star Wars, both Marvel and DC super heroes, Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, Jurassic World, with Back to the Future, Star Trek, and Gremlins just around the corner. I assume we're going to see more tooling reuse, as that seems to be how most toys go. A red coat Scrooge can't be too far off, I assume Han Solo will join Rey and Chewbacca as future Millennium Falcon pilots, maybe Beast Man will some day pilot a Land Shark. But for now, the line is tight and generally packed with interesting things for pop culture fans. I hope it keeps going, as I would love to see Universal Monsters or Major Matt Mason and Mr. Spock before they call it quits here. Scrooge is a fantastic addition to the line - especially this early - and I couldn't skip it. Six bucks is expensive for a toy car, but at least it's a fairly nice toy car for six bucks.
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