Posted on by jtl46

First Look: Hot Wheels ’73 Pontiac Firebird & ’59 Chevy Impala…

A look at some more models from Hot Wheels Batch G.  We will stay in the US for this First Look, with a Firebird and an Impala. 

Now while the ’59 Impala casting is badly overshadowed by the ’61 Impala that came out last year, this one looks good in green…with flames.

And while I liked the two colors of the Firebird in its debut last year, this one looks even better with MC5’s and in blue…with flames.

WHAT IS GOING ON!!  I have always expressed my grief with Hot Wheels lack of shame by putting flames on anything.  What is happening to me?  I like the flames…drat.  They got me.

Now I will go paint flames on company car.  Because apparently I like flames.

(HW Batch G for sale…)

Hot Wheels ’73 Pontiac Firebird (2013 Mainline):

Hot Wheels ’59 Chevy Impala (2013 Mainline):

with the ’61:

6 Replies to “First Look: Hot Wheels ’73 Pontiac Firebird & ’59 Chevy Impala…”

  2. One thing to remember with that “Impala” (which is sort of incorrectly named, I'll get to that in a minute), the original design of the casting is about 16 years old now, as it was a First Edition in 1997. So compared to any casting designed in the last few years is somewhat unfair considering the level of detail they are able to do on new ones now rather than back then. It does look pretty great in green, though!

    Now, the reason I put “Impala” in quotes above is because they did some play on words again with casting names. As the FE Impala in 1997, the casting originally had fender skirts and no pillar for the door, making the original casting a “hard top,” and was indeed called an Impala. For 2003, the tooling for the casting was getting worn and had to be retooled. At the time there was an employee for HW (Carson Lev) that had a custom '59 Bel Air. It was a “two door sedan” and did not have fender skirts. So, they re-did the casting to match his car, adding the door pillar and removing the fender skirts, releasing it as ” '59 Bel Air.” This is the version of the casting we have today and is the reason why I will always refer to it as the Bel Air casting.

    For those that want, here's a post made by the man himself when I inquired about the casting change a couple years ago:
    http://forums.hotwheelscollectors.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/55210875/m/6201040376?r=5331045086#5331045086

    -doomus

    Reply

  5. I love Pontiac cars and I'm sure I'll buy another version of Firebird (but I haven't got a green one – I couldn't find it in Poland). In some buccaneer reds I changed painting and wheels. MC5s look better than PR5 but for me it's still a disappointment that the rear wheels are oversized. Next month I'm going to make another custom with all normal wheels. But all in all, a blue Firebird is interesting.
    Dominik

    Reply

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