Lamley knows nothing about Fast & Furious, Part 2: Full Force

Part 2 of Lamley Reader Blackwind’s breakdown of the Hot Wheels Premium Fast & Furious cars, because I am worthless when it comes to the roll each of these cars play in the movies. Even if I wrote this post for Hot Wheels: (Ssssshhhh)

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It is a natural match. The definitive brand in toy cars creating replicas of the most popular car movie franchise ever. The last few years have seen the Fast & Furious franchise turn into a Hollywood juggernaut, and Hot Wheels follow suit by creating a miniature world of Fast & Furious favorites.⁣ ⁣ The Hot Wheels and Fast & Furious pairing didn’t occur until after the franchise had gone from a niche series of films about street racing culture to a true tentpole phenomenon. Hot Wheels and Fast & Furious finally found each other in 2013 with the launch of an exclusive line of replicas at Walmart. A new set has been released every year, and the massive popularity of the line finally spurred a collector-aimed premium line in 2018. ⁣ ⁣ Hot Wheels has miniaturized a wide variety of Fast & Furious cars, from the most famous – Dom’s Charger, Brian’s R34 Skyline, – to the players that zipped through the screen in seconds. Ultimately, the movies serve as a starting point for Hot Wheels to create replicas of the numerous car culture icons that fit both in and outside of the Fast & Furious world. That family of cars means the most ardent of fans get what they want, but there is plenty for the car culture-loving collector to enjoy as well.

A post shared by Hot Wheels (@hotwheelsofficial) on Oct 20, 2020 at 9:16am PDT

For today’s post, Blackwind takes on Full Force. Enjoy.

Part 1

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So, continuing on from the previous set, let’s take a look at the next Fast and Furious premium mix. There may be spoilers in this one, so beware. Anyway, let’s start.

It’s called Full Force (I honestly have no idea what it means in FnF world) and it marks a first in any HW FnF set, in that we have almost zero idea about 2 of the cars. Fast 9 was supposed to release in May of this year but due to Covid-19 it’s been pushed a year ahead, so we’ll have to wait till 2021 to find out about those 2 cars’ role in the movie. In the meantime, we can at least check out the models. Like before, I won’t go in order, and save my two favourites for last. 

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Let’s begin with the repeats first. The ’95 Mazda RX-7 is from the original The Fast and The Furious and was first used in the aptly named Original Fast set from last year. It’s driven by Dom during the first two-thirds of the movie, most notably in the first drag race against Brian’s Eclipse (this scene was used in the card art of the original set) and also used in other minor scenes like race wars etc. I’m not a huge fan of the graphics (who is?) and considering the car in the movie was very much modified whereas the HW casting is stock, that problem is even more magnified, as that flying rocket thingy looks horrible on a stock RX-7. The wheel choice is nice though. There is literally no difference between this and the Original version, so for those who couldn’t get it last year, now’s your chance. 

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Next up, the ’70 Dodge Charger RT. Well, technically this is not a repeat but it kind of is. Some may think this is the same as the Charger that’s in the recently released box set with the Supra, only with a different paint, but it’s not. Even though this is the first time the Charger makes an appearance in the FnF premium series, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this exact model. Because it’s the same as the one that was in Retro Entertainment many years ago (back when it used the old packaging). The paint is the same, wheels are the same and the details are also mostly the same. As for the movies they come from, the gloss black one from the box set is from the original movie (obviously) while the matte black one is from Fast & Furious 4 (the same movie that had the Gran Torino and GNX from the last set). It’s driven by Dom in the second half of the film, in the desert, and is destroyed in the underground tunnels in the final chase scene. It’s a cool and iconic FnF car for sure but there have been a gazillion black Hot Wheels Chargers and I hope this is the last one for a while.

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Now some new stuff. The ’71 Plymouth GTX was a much needed relief from all the Chargers, when Dom decided to drive a really badass looking one in New York in The Fate of the Furious (F8). He uses it to try and escape his team and after a 5-against-1 tug-of-war type battle, as the team harpoons the GTX with their cars, Dom manages to free himself and escape, although in the end everyone’s cars are destroyed, including the GTX. I’m not necessarily a muscle car guy but I really loved this car in the movie. As for the HW model, I wish I could say the same. This Plymouth GTX casting is from a decade ago, when Hot Wheels was in its muscle car prime and large rear wheels were the rage. So although the casting looks fine on its own, it looks nothing like the real car. It’s also missing the movie car’s spoiler (which could be a deal breaker for some). I wish they’d used the Road Runner casting instead, which is the same as this GTX but does have the spoiler, or just made a new tool altogether. Nevertheless, this is the first time this car is used in any FnF set and it does look nice, so those who like to collect stock muscle cars will like this one.

Finally, my two favourites and easily the highlights of the set imo. Both of them make their first appearance in any FnF set. The Jaguar XE SV Project 8 was a mainline new model just last year and already makes its debut in premium here. And what a debut! It gets the official Jaguar livery (which the mainline didn’t have) along with full details all around. I’m a big fan of the real car and I’m happy to see this one staying clean. However, I wish they’d used different wheels as the 10sp GT ones simply don’t suit the sporty and track-oriented Project 8 at all. The other problem, from what I’ve seen, is the light tampos are a bit messed up, so it’ll be a challenge to find one with perfectly aligned tampos. But still, it’s a great looking car and it’s joining my collection for sure.

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Now, like I said at the beginning, this car is going to be in Fast 9 and we have almost no idea what role it will play, whether it will be used by any character in a chase or just a background car. Although, based on what I know, and my predictions, this will be used in a chase scene in London, and knowing Jaguar, it might be the villain’s car. But these are my predictions, and I could be spectacularly wrong, so don’t quote me on it please.

Oh, and one fun little fact is that, although this is from Fast and Furious, it’s the same spec as the Project 8 that Jeremy Clarkson drove in an episode of The Grand Tour. So fans of the show, including me, have one more reason to get this one. Even if you aren’t a Fast and Furious fan, you should be wanting this one.

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And lastly, the ’17 Acura NSX. Perhaps my favourite of the bunch. This too, like the Jag, makes its premium debut here and stays clean in plain silver with just front, rear and trim details. And just like the Jag, the wheels on this one don’t work imo. They should’ve used the TE37 6 spokes instead as those would look perfect on this (I sometimes really don’t understand some of the decisions they make, especially when a perfectly acceptable alternative is available. But hey, what can I say.. it’s not my choice to make). Anyway, I’m happy that we finally have a clean premium version of one of my favourite cars IRL and a casting that usually doesn’t too much love. Until they make one with the TE37s, this will be the best version of the NSX and my favourite.

Like the Jaguar, this car will also be in Fast 9. Whatever little information I could find (and the official poster), says that this may be Tej’s ride. If that’s true, then it will be a throwback to Tej’s 1st gen NSX from 2 Fast 2 Furious and that, imo, is a really nice little easter egg from the producers.

All in all, contrary to some of the comments I’ve been reading on Instagram and elsewhere, this is a brilliant set. I do still feel that if they wanted to repeat models (for whatever reason they might have) they could’ve at least repeated some of the more desirable models like the black R32, yellow Gallardo or the blue WRX STI. Anyway, despite those small niggles, I think it lives up to my expectations in general and it’s a refreshment from all the tuner and muscle sets we’ve been seeing till now. I’m definitely looking forward to this, as well as the movie next year, and will gladly take these cars and enjoy them in the meantime. 

So that’s that, I hope you didn’t get bored reading my super long article and found at least some information useful. Please let me know if I should’ve done anything differently and I’ll keep that in mind in the future. See you next time!