I can’t promise that I’ll eventually stop writing about Hot Wheels Car Culture Silhouettes. These are too good. Silhouettes is to me easily one of the best Car Culture mixes in its three-year history. Two new models, two others that have never been in Car Culture, and all sporting real racing liveries or “tributes”.
It is the racing liveries I will use as the reason to show off the Silhouettes. When I first had the set in hand, I filmed the showcase without knowing all the liveries or inspirations. I do now. So let’s use that as the background for this feature. A photo of real cars followed by photos of the little cars.
The cool thing? As soon as you see the real cars, and learn a little about them, you will see how international this mix really is.
’76 Chevy Monza
Allan Moffett Racing. The car was built in the US, but raced in Australia. The Hot Wheels doesn’t sport the exact livery but it was definitely inspired.
’76 Greenwood Corvette
The Greenwood/Mancuso Vette, a licensed replica and livery. I just love the color and deco on this one, and what makes this even better is it’s a companion to the Sebring Greenwood released in the ROADRCR mix in 2012.
That is a dream pair. The Greenwood has truly been an all-timer for me, and seeing two in licensed Greenwood liveries is just the coolest.
Porsche 935/78
Like many of these models, the Porsche 935/78 has sported all kinds of cool liveries. PPG is definitely one. The two-tone combo separating the way it does on the rear panel is super cool. Blue wheels are a nice touch as well.
RWB Porsche 930
The original, named after Nakai-san’s favorite beer. Of course Hot Wheels won’t call it the Stella Artois for obvious reasons, but most know what this model is. It is still a trip to think that this is a Hot Wheels car, but I talked about that in the last feature. Let’s just show the pics.
Nissan Skyline Silhouette
No photo, just a video:
Many folks figured the new Hot Wheels R30 Silhouette casting was based on the racing Silhouettes sponsored by Tomica. Nope, it is this one, sporting a #25 and driven by Paul Newman, at least for a commercial.
I’ll talk more about this one is a separate feature, but for now, that link may add a little more appreciation for the Hot Wheels release.
I’m not done with these. A set like this, with two debuts and one of my all-time favorite castings, deserves more attention. For now, add real liveries to all the reasons to get this set.
Nice stories about the cars congrats. 👍 I can’t wait until my stores get these in. So add all 5 of those to my hotwheels collection. 👍
Way cool! I liked the look of this set immediately! Now with a bit of history… I like them even more! 🙂
RWB not my favorite.
John,
Your site may have been hacked.
I just got a popup on your main page. It was a scam which I quickly dumped, and then I ran my Norton to make sure it did not leave malware behind.
.
First off I have to say a big thank you to Hot Wheels for going the extra mile to do true liveries on these cars. Or at least liveries inspired by real paint schemes. The Porsche 935 is easily my favorite of this set and likely my favorite deco so far for that casting. #2 would have been the R30 Silhouette, but for one glaring issue. More on that in a moment. So my second favorite becomes the RWB Porsche 930. So glad we mere mortals will have a chance at this casting in Car Culture. Beautiful execution! I would have loved to have seen bronze wheels on this, but the black six spokes with chrome lip ain’t bad. The Nissan begrudgingly goes to 3rd place. I can see the Corvette appealing to a lot of collectors. Cool paint job with a definite 70’s vibe, but just not my thing, man. The Monza… interesting, but again, just not my thing.
Now for that Nissan Skyline R30 Silhouette. This came so close to being an amazing casting. I love the car this is based on. So dramatic with its long tail, picnic table rear wing and chin spoiler out to there! Striking in its red and black livery. But wow did Mattel fail in the execution of this one! Why in the world would they make the boxed rear fenders part of the base rather than part of the body casting? They look so tacked on instead of an integrated part of the rear bodywork. They had no problem working the wide rear fenders of the Porsche 935 into to die cast body. Similarly, they were able to cast the wide-body Porsche 934.5 as one piece. In my opinion this looks sloppy and cheap. Should this type of penny-pinching be happening on these premium models? I’ll likely still pick this car up, but wish it had been handled better. I can’t tell from the photos how large the gap is between the fender piece and the body, but I’ll definitely be needing to paint the tops of the fenders red.
I happen to agree with everything Speedeeone wrote. The licensed (or “inspired”) liveries are amazing to have all together. The 935 is the best deco of its casting, hands down. The RWB is, I think, my favorite of this set, though. Bronze wheels would have been awesome! The Corvette, super cool. The Monza, wacky, totally 70’s color scheme. And then the Skyline. I love the R30, love the real racing silhouette, love the Paul Newman livery (random!), but I too am wondering what happened with the rear bodywork being split between the red top and black bottom pieces. I assume it must be something technical with the casting process; I wish I could understand what the factors were/are that resulted in this! I do have these models in hand, they’re amazing!