Hot Wheels 2016 Batch E is just one big Porsche Party…

Those of you who have been collecting for awhile, think back to a few years ago.  Maybe 2005 to 2009.

Hot Wheels was coming off of a major “tooned” phase.  We like to complain about how bad Matchbox got derailed design-wise in the early 2000’s, but Hot Wheels wasn’t doing much better.  Remember the Hardnoze models?  But in the years after we saw realism return to the Hot Wheels lineup.  It was almost exclusively muscle cars, but there were some great castings, highlighted by a slew of Chargers, GTOs, Barracudas, Mustangs, and Camaros.

After that, a few off-the-beaten-path models emerged, and in the last few years we have entered a whole new phase.  Muscle is still part of the line, but JDM dominates, BMW has a huge presence, Lamborghini is doing its thing in place of Ferrari, Aston Martin is around, among many other sports cars from all over the place.

And this new era is also all about Porsche.  Go back a few years again, and see if you can remember the Porsches.  There were a couple of older Porsche castings hanging around, and every few years something Porsche-like would be released.  The Porsche models were mostly replicas of current cars, and there were more misses than hits.

But over time the hits are now outpacing the misses.  Hot Wheels went wonderfully retro instead of just doing current Porsches, and highlights like the 993, 934, 914, 917, and 356A are among the best castings Hot Wheels has done in the last few years.  One of them, the 934, was even Hot Wheels’ latest Toy Fair model, which is used to show major store chains why they should carry Hot Wheels product.  Dare I say it is the Golden Age of Hot Wheels Porsches?  I should say it because it most definitely is.

And that is fully apparent in Batch E.  There are four (technically three) different Porsches in Batch E, highlighted by the first Porsche Super Treasure Hunt, the 993.  There was a Porsche 959 TH back in 2003, but nothing in the Super TH era.

The 993 is a great choice.  Jun Imai’s replica of the 90’s behemoth has been a collector fave, and, as many of Jun’s castings do, plays right into what excites the auto world these days.  The same can be said for Ryu Asada’s 934, which hit its peak as the Toy Fair model, but looks good in Falken Tire racing livery.  And then there is the trusty Carrera GT.  The casting is 10 years old this year, and is still going strong with its matte black outfit.

Back to the Super.  The fact that the 993 is a Super is reason enough to pursue it, but a bonus is that it looks great in HW Racing livery.  The basic model and the Super are essentially the same, outside of real riders, a slightly darker shade of blue, and the TH logo on the roof of the Super.  I can see some of you arguing that the basic version looks better with PR5 wheels, and I think I agree, although I don’t mind the bright orange wheels on the Super at all.  Those wheels fit on a track-racing monster like the 993, and that look goes nicely with the other 993s Hot Wheels has released, including the upcoming RLC Gulf version (future post?).  I like it enough to call it the best Super of 2016 so far, and was lucky enough to find one for purchase at Grana Toys in order to photograph this one.  (Thanks Darren!)

I said on the video below that this batch is loaded, and I am sure once you encounter it in stores you will find  that you are leaving with quite a bit of stuff, including more than a few Porsches…