Mattel Hot Wheels HW Screen Time HW Ultimate T-Rex Transporter Blue Mattel, 2024
Day #2,769: October 16, 2024
HW Screen Time HW Ultimate T-Rex Transporter Blue HW Screen Time 4/10 - #55 / 250
Hot Wheels 2021 HW Screen Time 4/5 Basic Cars
Item No.: Asst. L2593 No. HRY50 Manufacturer:Mattel Includes:n/a Action Feature:n/a Retail:$1.25 Availability: ca. 2024 Other: A tiny version of a $80 playset
It's not too uncommon for a toy company to make large and small models of a product, but the HW Ultimate T-Rex Transporter Blue was unusual. There's a $80 electronic playset that's sort of a truck and sort of a dinosaur, but at $80 it's pretty expensive for a toy line that tends to be cheap. Now it's $1.25, and available in blue or red with chrome silver chompers. I was pawing through bins and kept coming across it, and I thought "sure, why not." As a kid of the 1980s I love mechanical dinosaur toys.
Mattel was smart to make a mini version of a major driver. Some companies make the same toy in dozens of sizes, which is a bit much, but two makes sense - this can advertise the bigger one, and also just plain sell to the kids who would never, ever get a $80 Hot Wheels playset. (And that's most kids.) It's a neat, weird little toy - and backdoor advertisement - for the price, and if anything it shows you how Hot Wheels is a platform as much as a toy line. Funko has done the same thing to a much greater degree with its Pop! Vinyl figures, and toys in general used to serve as a valuable pillar of a new movie's (and sometimes TV show's) marketing campaign. Just think about your life in the 20th century if you were old enough - how many toys reminded you of an upcoming movie or other media event? Matchbox heralded the return of Halley's Comet, the 1984 Olympics were plastered on everything, even McDonalds was a valuable marketing partner to everything from the Berenstein Bears to Popoids to Garfield. And those toys stay with kids for years - that's something streaming, TV, or radio ads never do. And now, this ad for a much larger toy is going to be with me for a while. It might be with your kids for years. Maybe it'll inspire them to buy the big one as an adult! ...but probably not.
It doesn't stand up or transform, and two of the six wheels are merely cosmetic. I assume it's to keep costs down, but there have been a number of six-wheeled cars over the years. This one's chrome midsection may have increased costs a bit. The shiny finish beams through on the sides and the eyes as well, resulting in a toy that's got a little life to it and is probably something Hasbro should steal for Transformers. Light-up eye ports can sometimes look dead in an indoor display situation, but chrome and shiny reflective surfaces can sometimes come to life even in a very dark space. Having this kind of mirrored finish on an action toy could be worthwhile.
It's a more or less standard weight car, just a smidgen over 30g, meaning it isn't too heavy and it probably won't hurt somebody if it flies off of a launcher. It's a little hollow, but it doesn't look it. The interior has been filled so it won't crumble to dust due to lack of internal support. There's no cars small enough to worry about needing to carry them on board, so this should just be a goofy and sturdy toy for kids. I assume we'll see these with play-worn chrome in sacks at thrift stores over the next few years, as collectors are unlikely to hoard this one.
It's not a perfect replica of the original, but it's got enough fo the major landmarks that it's a buck worth of entertainment. It's weird, it's cheap, and I assume a lot of kids are going to have some happy memories of it between now and the time it gets sold at a garage sale or tripped on by dad, before that one fall that your mom says wasn't your fault but you know better. Oh, you know better. Where was I? Right, buy the orange and blue dino truck, he's got shiny teeth.
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