If you ordered the Hot Wheels 50th Anniversary Master Set from HWC last month, let me guess your first impression when it arrived:
“Damn, this thing is big.”
That was mine. Mattel sent me a set to preview, and the first thing I had to do to even consider showcasing it was to make space in my office.
Second impression?
“Damn, Hot Wheels did a lot of stuff to celebrate their 50th.”
And well they should have. It was a big year for a big brand. Hot Wheels did 11 different lines to mark the anniversary, and they are all here, with unique packaging.
This set is still available, and I will say it isn’t for everyone. There are plenty of ways for us nerds to celebrate the 50th in our collections, and this set is probably the most complete. But it is huge.
Still worth it though. The packaging is amazing, and it is cool to have all these models with the Factory Sealed stickers. My guess is this is the only way to have that on most of these sets. Maybe having the 50th Faves black Gasser with the sticker is reason enough to have it for you hardcore 55 Gasser collectors.
Nonetheless, here it is:
Nice packaging, but not much else. Getting past the whole 50th Anniversary hoopla and down to the actual cars and decos, there is just nothing here to get me excited. I picked up a 50th Favorites Bluebird Wagon last month, once it finally showed up, and 2 cars from the Walmart Camaro series and that’s it. I considered the 50th Faves Ford Galaxy (only for the Gulf livery) the one time I saw it, but passed and it never appeared again. Considered the VW Squareback, but it never showed up.
Whoops, one more I bought… the Rise & Climb from the HW Race Team series, because I dig the cycling theme.
I agree wholeheartedly. Now that everything’s been released and we can look back on the year, the vast majority of the 50th anniversary product lines were distinctly underwhelming, both in terms of model choices and decos, as you said. The exception was the 50th Favorites…this was a great series, basically Car Culture by another name and I loved most of what came out in the two mixes of it. The rest? Not so much…
Awesome hotwheels 50th anniversary master set you open up and reviewed congrats. 👍I have most of those in my collection. 👍