Limozeen 1998 Collector No. #716 - Low 'N Cool Series #4 of 12 Cars
Hot Wheels 2002 Basic Cars
Item No.: Asst. ??? No. 18782 Manufacturer:Mattel Includes:n/a Action Feature:n/a Retail:$1 Availability: ca. 1998 Other: One of dozens, there are cop versions, fire versions, even an armored transport military version
Going through old Hot Wheels cars is the most fun when there's no goal. I stumbled on this Limozeen and chuckled, because this car design predated the Homestar Runner gag by over a decade. I don't know if this toy was in the Brothers Chaps' heads, or if the concept of the silly misspelled word was enough that a lot of people thought it was a good idea.
The low-riding limo has an open roof where you can see some of the seats and a bar table, with a white interior, a metalflake black exterior, a gold base, and a cursive, underlined "LIMOZEEN" painted on the side which reeks of 1980s excess and/or cocaine. It's remarkable this car didn't hit until 1998, as it strikes me as something of a throwback - maybe it was an early concept that just took a while to make it to shelves.
Much like many older cars, the base is incredibly simple - the bottom doesn't have a lot of sculpted bits or pieces, it's mostly just flat and lacking in textures. Since you will mostly be looking at the metalflake black top, that's fine. The gold bottom fades into the background as the not-too-black top part, complete with gold grille and bumper. The headlights aren't painted, but that's OK - they're sufficiently shiny and look pretty good under most lighting conditions.
The gold wheels look good, but the car itself benefits from looking more or less like what a kid might have pictured when a limousine was mentioned. You can stand in the sunroof and scream, it's extended, there's a place for a driver and also a place for you to "party," whatever that means with regards to your levels of innocence. The boxy hood looks like a modified towncar, and it manages to walk the line between "gaudy" and "fantastic." If you saw this on the street, with the name on the side, you would laugh. But without the text, this is pretty much what you want from a limo.
I bought it mostly because I wanted an excuse to show you toy fans who are also Homestar Runner and Strong Bad fanatics that an actual Limozeen exists. That's just delightful and so many flavors of it exist that you can probably find one on the cheap. I paid $2 for it, a bargain for a toy that's 26 ghastly years old and somehow feels just as rock-solid as a fresh-off-the-line car from 2024. I don't say this enough but it's kind of staggering to see an old car like this with "GUARANTEED FOR LIFE" slapped on the packaging and then you find out that this isn't mere hyperbole - this was built to last.
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