A perusal of Instagram this morning yielded this gem of a find my former Matchbox Ambassador Chuck Wiersma:
Yep, that is a Hot Wheels wheel on a Matchbox. How it happens I have no idea, but it happens. And it is one of those errors that are found once in a blue moon, but frequently enough to merit a mention.
Long-term collectors all have a story about one of these errors. Hunt long enough and you will come across one. I would not be surprised if this isn’t the first mixed-brand error Chuck has found.
I have come across two.
The first was an Open Speedster in a Matchbox 5-pack, with a rear Hot Wheels 10-spoke wheel, found at Kohl’s over the holidays several years ago:
While that was a pretty cool find, this one was the mind-blower:
Yep, a Hot Wheels large whitewall wheel on a Matchbox Olds Vista Cruiser. Found at a local Walmart around the same time. One of those “am I really looking at what I am looking at?” moments. The blister was cracked badly so I opened it.
Matchbox and Hot Wheels do share some factory space, so this can happen, but not a lot. It does make for nice little find when you do come across one. Some others:
Who else has found a mixed-brand wheel error?
Gives us customisers great ideas on wheel swap options. Just sayin. And do you think MBX will ever release the Shelby AC Cobra ever again? How did I miss that one?
I have! I posted a picture at FB…
Dang it. I know I’ve found one, too. I vaguely remember thinking to myself “this is neat” and packing it away. Now I’m going to have to go digging through box after box to find it to remind myself what car it is, because I’m obsessive like that. Thanks for nothing, John.
I haven’t found an error yet, particularly a country Golf one, but maybe I’ll get lucky this week. Dollar General in my area just put out a Hot Wheels/Matchbox display for the Buy One-Get One Free sale that starts tomorrow-but I already started this morning. I’m not waiting for the sales because they’ll be gone before then-got to stay one step ahead of the scalpers.
I have a matchbox ford Taurus with marshal misspelled on the side with a hot wheel front wheel.
The “Marshall” is meant to refer to a location, not the word “marshal”, so that’s not an error, even though a lot of folks online think it is. Even if Matchbox screwed up and misspelled “marshal”, it’s not an error because they were all produced that way. Now, the Hot Wheels front wheel is most certainly an epic error…the lettering not so much.
Actually it was a mistake. It was meant to be Marshal as a peace officer not a location. AND it was corrected mid run to the correct spelling.
https://i.imgur.com/MwGk3xo.png
Shoulda bought it.
I don’t have any HW wheel on a MB or vice versa, but I just bought a gunmetal Nissan GT-R today that has a chrome PR5 wheel on the rear instead of the correct gray J5.
Well ben it was certainly an error on the spelling because matchbox corrected the spelling on the next release and noted that they did spell it wrong. Fyi. No biggie either way, I bought it for the wheel error.
Apparently I had the wrong info, that’s a more interesting story. Guess I have the “error” version, even though I guess it’s pretty common.
I have a Matchbox 63 Snorkel truck with a Tomica wheel on the one axle.
I have a Matchbox Checker Cab with a HW 5sp wheel on the rear axle.