I have to think it gives Hot Wheels Designers a little sense of satisfaction when they see a reaction like the one given to this sneak peek:
I am sure you saw it, but how rad was the reaction to Hot Wheels doing a 90’s Volvo Wagon? Man how things have changed, and man how cool it is.
The Hot Wheels Design Team has been throwing out a few 2020 sneaks – happily beating the unauthorized leaks – and it definitely shows 2020 is expanding on where 2019 has gone. A wide variety covering an untapped era (the 90’s) in realistic replicas. The Subaru 22b, EG Civic, and now a Volvo 850.
I too did a double take when I saw the Volvo, and I quickly reached out to Designer Ryu Asada to get some background. Ryu send over another rad pic, and a little on how and why the Volvo was done:
From Ryu:
Sounds cliche but it was one of my favorite cars and it seems like it’s been neglected despite of the popularity of the car itself, so we decided to give some love from HW. I can’t be 100% sure but this might be the first Volvo in HW. If so, this is a breakthrough. We’ll see if we can bring more cool Volvos in our lines.
So even today I remember the 1st time seeing my neighbor’s cream-yellow 850R Estate parked really tight in his tiny garage in Japan. I’ve never thought station wagons could be cool until I saw the one. Shockingly good looking. Oh and it’s fast too. If I had to choose a station wagon, it’d be that, or 90s Legacy wagons, or Accord wagons, or…OK, I’ll admit I like many wagons. (In reality I had an IS300 Sportcross.) And it’s good know that HW fans tend to love wagons these days. Our team has been talking and looking at the 850 Estate race car for long time but never had a chance, until now. Some of the fans noticed that the image we posted on IG was inspired by the famous photo of the race car. They got it right. That’s the image we used on our board for our inspiration, and convincing to non-car folks. 😉
This casting is non-specific version so it’s technically not an R nor a race car, but we’re hoping we can maximize the deco variations with this one casting, non-race, or race versions. Of course we’re always expecting to see lots of hard-core HW fans to come up with their super cool customs too!
Yeah I think it isn’t an exaggeration to say collectors have become big fans of wagons, and this adds to a growing fleet of Hot Wheels estates. And half-assed research (looking on eBay) does suggest that this might be the first Volvo car done by Hot Wheels. Ryu has done a few Volvos before, all for Matchbox (C30, P1800, XC90), so this is not new to him. Maybe a Matchbox Volvo feature is in order.
Look for the 850 Estate in 2020.
Nice addition to the hotwheels line. Nice to see stock looking cars! A nice addition to add on to this would have be a Volvo from the 1970 era.
Rad.
So, so, so very cool. No bring us some modern Alfa Romeos!
That is a great new Volvo station wagon coming out. 👍 I will be on the hunt for this one and I can’t wait to add all of those to my hotwheels collection. 👍
One of my favourite estates ever!!!! Being a huge estate fan, I’m so happy to see this (along with the Panamera ST)! It’ll look epic sitting next to my Matchbox Volvo V60 estate.
It would be nice see Hotwheels do version of the volvo p1800 or at leadt have matchbox bring out the old tooling of there p1800 again.
Will the first edition be in a stock color? I hope to see a couple of clean colors with front and rear tampos first before they start decking them out in racing liveries.
I am so, so, so, SO excited for this!!! I owned one of these for a few years (though not the R version), a final-year 1997 in oh-so-90s metallic forest green, and loved it. I never thought they’d make a miniature one (from the orange OR blue brand) so this is fabulous. I REALLY hope they just do front & rear tampo…the full-height taillights are one of the things that make this car so distinctive. And if they do the debut in green I think I’ll probably have a stroke from the sheer joy. Bring it on.
Will it have its headlights permanently switched on, just like the real thing????……. Great choice….shoulda been a “MATCHBOX” though :0)
Agree should’ve been a matchbox. How ever more chance of seeing it under hotwheels here. I just hope its not going to be bogged down with wayout colours and etc. Police (polis)battenburg?….would be good. I wish more could have been done with the mbx v60…towbar for twin pack?…. The list is endless…………. Hope to see that again in mainline….. As with the mbx brand. Also the above Volvo. Impressive.
YES.
It’s way better to see fresh prototypes and samples direct from the factory on all their raw glory than to have “leaked” low-res photos from stolen almost finished models. Helps a lot to build a real hype. Plus, this makes thieves bite their knees in anger.
I want to see an Amazon estate!!!
Yes… yes… hell yes!
I find myself saying that phrase a lot lately in regard to Hot Wheels reveals. But what else can I say? They’re really nailing it lately. Count me among the Hot Wheels fans who love wagons. I can’t claim to have always been this way. As a youngster I loathed those big lumbering barges with “wood-look” decals wallpapering the sides. But as a young man I began to appreciate the benefits of the wagon body on a sporty car chassis as opposed to the new wave of lumbering barges – SUVs. It likely started with Audi. A4 and A6 Avants as well as Volvo 700 series and 850 wagons and BMW 3-series and 5-series touring. There were the outlier Cadillac CTS and Acura TSX wagons as well as hotted up AMG wagons from Mercedes and more sedate Saab 9-3 and 9-5 Aeros. Of course there were a whole raft of cool JDM wagons that would never be seen on U.S. soil.
So yes Hot Wheels, please continue to bless us with new hot wagons for years to come!
Next up an ’02 V70R in flash green with graphite gray “Titan” 5-spokes? Yes please!
Hey Hot Wheels, wanna do something totally out of left field? How about a Volvo 480 hatchback? Now that would be something to see!
Finally found one of these in store. Very nice casting!! It works well wirh othet volvos from matchbox and Majorette. The deco of it in race form looks great.
I would like to see this in a police deco.