This isn't the first release, but I saw and had to buy a yellow Pixel Shaker over the summer. The packaging implied Mega or LEGO compatibility, and pixel things are appealing to me as someone who remembers the very early, very blocky game graphics.
This car has been released in several colors - and will no doubt be in more - so get one. It's a dollar.
One of my all-time favorite cars is the Fig Rig, which fits LEGO figures quite nicely - this one does too, but in a different way. There are places for figures to grip, but this time there are no studs on which to build. There are no spots to plug a figure on, but you can seat average figures inside and they sit comfortably. You can't fit the figure, seated, with hands in the interior, but you can get the figure in there and the arms sort of clamp them in place. It's a great way to have your figure cruise around tracks or launch across the floor.
The yellow element is plastic with a metal undercarriage. There's not much paint on this one, other than red on the wheels, a pixel skull, and some stripes on the sides. I would wager it was a cheaper car to produce, with sculpting that certainly works as Minecraft-chic or retro gamer-friendly. Because it's a Mattel Hot Wheels car, it rolls well - this blocky buggy zooms across my desk nicely.
Seeing a design that would've been at home on an NES game - or maybe later-era Atari console - in 2019-2021 - just goes to show that you can't really predict trends. It makes sense, given how kids of the 1950s clung to rock and roll and old cars in the 1980s. Now 1980s kids - and their kids - are obsessed with pixel-based 2D games of their youth or the 3D games which drew inspiration from them today. And at a dollar with no licensing fees, cars like this sell well to people who see them and go "Oh, I get it." Nowhere on the package does it say it's compatible with LEGO or Mega products, but there's a pictogram wink on the back that you might look at and figure it out. (But really, who looks at the back before making a purchase?) I won't say this particular Pixel Shaker is a must-buy figure, but if you own so much as one LEGO figure I recommend picking it up. It's a car for your other figures - you can actually play with it. If you don't like fun, buy it anyway and as soon as you meet a kid or a co-worker with kids who love LEGO toys, pull this out and say "I've got something for ya."
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