Let’s start with this pic:
It’s a bunch of Hondas. Not all Hot Wheels Hondas, but some. The first three are 80’s/90’s era Hondas, and that one in the back is a newer Honda with a deco inspired by an 80’s era Honda. But you probably have that figured out.
It was quite a thing when Hot Wheels did the Odyssey. One of those wonderful left-field pics that we see occasionally from Team Blue. They made it even better by introducing it with the deco they did.
But if the Odyssey was from left field, then the new Honda City Turbo goes into the stands and passes the hot dog stand. It is full-on parking lot.
It isn’t unprecedented. We Hot Wheels collectors have grown accustomed to all kinds of Japanese offerings the last few years. You probably don’t see the Honda City if you haven’t seen an R30 Skyline first (or a C210 Skyline and Laurel as well – coming soon). The Hot Wheels Team pushed the normal limits with their JDM offerings, and the response we collectors gave allowed them to kick the door right in. And that blasted door has given way to three crazy entries this year alone, all designed by Ryu Asada. The R30 and R33 Skylines, and now this Honda City.
So how did this tallboy hatch from the 80’s get made into a Hot Wheels? It goes back to that guy Ryu. Hot Wheels Designers have been putting all kinds of their favorites into the line, and the more we eat them up, the more they will do. That photo at the top? The CR-X, EF Civic, and City are all from Honda-obsessed Ryu, and the Odyssey is from Jun Imai, who has been seen hauling his family around in. And like I have stated a few times, as we ate these offerings up, Ryu and the Team felt comfortable enough to push further. Hence the City.
I asked Ryu about it. His answer?
Yeah I was obsessed.. among the other Hondas around that time. I was planning to buy a City if I stayed in Japan.
I was surrounded by the Citys.. Well, toys of the City. We didn’t have the real car. But the car was sensational, it was everywhere. the icon of the 80s Honda too. So many variations, like turbo, turbo ll (aka Bulldog), Cabriolet, and the turbo ll racer like the HW version.
The comic book artist akira toriyama, well known as the creater of the Dragon Ball, used to own a City, when he was young. That’s why u see cartooned up city nanny b times in his comics. His style influenceed me big time!!
Had lots of City toys when I was a kid. ChoroQ( penny racers) diecast cars, etc. Also I remember getting so addicted to this Nintendo game called City Connection.
Look up those references. It is a goldmine of Honda City references. Or don’t look them up. What I think you will see from what Ryu said is that he LOVES the City. Some of this Tamiya kits:
And then there is this, all from Ryu’s IG page:
Obsession bruh.
And it is this passion that makes me love this new casting. Some of you already loved the City, others were just introduced. I’ll say this. Love it because Ryu loves it. Pretty soon you’ll love it just for what it is: another slice of car culture wonderfully replicated by Hot Wheels. And then park it next to your favorite.
Happy times to be a collector indeed.
This is a fantastic casting, and one I just picked up the other day. I couldn’t be more pleased with it…well, maybe I could if it had front & rear tampo, but I know the rules on that, so I honestly can’t complain. Having it in hand, I’m very glad they kept it (relatively) small. There’s a tendency with both HW and MBX to scale up their smaller models. The most egregious example I can think of is the freakish Austin Mini Cooper, which is just so many kinds of wrong size-wise. So it’s cool that this one’s nice & small. And the new wheels are killer too.
Can’t wait to see how they do this one up in the future…my fingers are crossed for a clean deco with front & rear tampo.
The casting didn’t do much for me, maybe because I had higher expectations… like Ben Addie mentioned, the lack of front/rear tampos is evident. The price of Hot Wheels mainline at Wally is $0.94, Target $0.99, TRU $1.09. How much more could be the factory/production cost to add front and rear tampos? 10/15 cents more??? I am willing to pay $1.09/$1.14/$1.24 for a Hot Wheels with front/rear tampos, no argument. Who agrees?
Doesn’t matter how many of us are willing to buy them, if Wally’s (or whoever) isn’t willing to stock them. Remember, Mattel’s customer are the stores, not the person who actually buys the cars to bring home.
Yuneek Cypher you make a good point.
Hector Lopez you must keep in mind that the production cost for these little toy cars is likely closer to 45 cents, maybe 50 cents after freight to import them. Adding another 15 cents to that puts the retail price to us closer to $1.30 for starters. Walmart, Toys R Us, Target, etc. have a profit margin they expect out of these and aren’t going to want to give that up to higher cost of goods if they keep their retails at $1.00. The retailers also no doubt like the low pricepoint around a buck to make it a no-brainer purchase for parents and kids.
In other words, either Mattel or the retailers would have to be willing to “eat” the additional cost or raise the retail price. The retailers would be very leery of raising the retail without justification, i.e. is the added paint details going to generate higher sales volume even at a higher retail price?
I too would give another nickel and dime to the base price for some extra tampos, but you and I must be the ONLY ones as ALL the Wallys around me have tons of the Camo series Matchbox still clogging the two pegs alloted for them, at a price of $1.27 each, so price is a point for some folks more than the castings as I feel MB did a better casting call on their Camo series, but noone else is buying them.
Got it last week, great casting, love the motocompos in the back…was fascinated by these back in the ’80s when they were briefly sold in the UK as the Honda Jazz…love how small the casting is…reminds me a bit of the go kart and hyper-mite from the 00S..hope more nostalgic Hondas will follow, a mk1 Civic, Accord or Prelude would be great…
Can’t wait to find one in the wild, you say it got the Motocompo in the back too???!!?! AWESOME. I would like to see a few more early Hondas in the lineup vs the fantasy stuff gobbling up all the shelf space, let’s hope Honda and Hot Wheels are going to allow us more great stuff in the near future, I mean 2018 is done and 2019 is probably already wrapping up soon.
I’m glad they’re using extra small wheels on this one to stay as close to scale as possible.
Yeah, I was just trying to imagine this casting with larger wheels and immediately thought of the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine…I imagine it’d have the same effect.
Saw it today, had to pass. Didn’t do anything for me, although I’m glad it is a hit and we are getting to see Ryu’s passion. Keep it coming.
Curse you. Curse you for making me like cars that I might normally pass over. Curse you for making me like cars by educating me about them. Curse your mind control powers. Curse my…weak…mind? Must buy Honda City Turbo.
Curse you AquaScum, couldn’t resist. LOL I too MUST BUY HONDA CITY TURBO, as well as build my Tamiya model of the same name.
The Honda City Turbo II is easily one of my most anticipated releases of the year. My fear however is I will never see one. Just like how I never saw the Civics from 2017 P & Q cases. If Hot Wheels is going to delve into Hondas, they would do well to start packing each release into 3 cases in a row rather than the current 2 in a row. Give us collectors half a chance at finding one.
Please tell me what is so special about all the Japanese Cars coming out? What happened to the HOT in HOT WHEELS? 3/4 of the basic cases are peg warmers (Chicken Cars, Dragon cars, Dog Cars …etc) and what’s left is made up of mostly Foreign Garbage. While i know Hot Wheels has made foreign cars since it’s inception, it gets really old seeing every incarnation of Skyline produced. Why are 4 cylinder diecast replicas of cars a thrill to so many? Throw a Hemi in that Turbo City and I might pick one up. I have left half a dozen in the bins. Not a true Hot wheels car to me. HW are pretty much done! Mattel should just combine the 2 1/64 car companies and change the name to Hot MATCHBOX Wheels! AUTOWORLD here I come!