Despite the challenges that last year brought, it was a great time to be a diecast collector. The amount of new brands, new castings, and new avenues explored were enough to empty even the deepest of wallets. So while we’re firmly into 2021, the momentum is certainly continuing at an increasing pace.
Case in point – Hot Wheels.
In 2021 alone, the blue brand has released, among many new castings, a Lancia Delta integrale, a Dodge Van in Japanese ‘Dajiban’ style, and a Ford GT40 MKIV. And now, another Roman numeral ambassador to drool over, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI.
Find all those great castings on eBay!
It was only a matter of time before the Subaru Impreza 22B STi’s on course competitor made an appearance as a carded adversary. It’s with great pleasure and appreciation I can present an early representation of the casting.
The pictures, courtesy of Jimmy Liu, show a pearlescent paint job sitting over small gray 5-spokes. The interior and rear spoiler, clearly the same piece, are molded in a bright blue. It looks like the hood vent inserts are part of the window piece, and hallelujah there are side mirrors. Praise to the diecast god of good choices! I should point out that the production car will not look like this (or will it?), if it wasn’t already obvious.
Overall, the proportions look great, even with a bit of Hot Wheels artistic license. The wheel arches cut into the body higher than they should and the trunk lid appears to be for an Evo 5 instead.
It will debut as a premium model in an upcoming Car Culture mix. Deco and mix mates TBD, but it might not be the only triple diamond in the release.
Hot Wheels already tackled the Evo VII and Evo X, so it will be great to get the three together for a family portrait. I already have my hunch that the X will dwarf the other two – I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it’s been packing steroids in the trunk. The VI may also open the door for a possible rally set that might include the WRX, the 037, the integrale, the 959, the RS200…I could speculate all day long and hope until the morning comes, but only time will tell. As if we need reassurance, the Hot Wheels team is filled with enthusiasts with their fingers on the pulse of automotive culture and their noses in the history books of bygone eras. The future is unquestionably bright.
Find the Hot Wheels Lancer Evo on eBay!
Releases like this are making it very hard to focus my collecting. But given a choice, I’d rather have an overabundance of awesomeness than a drought of diecast. So I say, collect on!
For more 1:1 and diecast content, follow me on Instagram and Facebook.
I really appreciate the artistic license on this one. I’ve always thought that Lancer Evos were rather goofy looking cars.
I can see how some of the Evos appear to be caricatures of themselves…but the Evo IV, V and VI are the best representatives of the marque, IMO.
ABOUT DAMN TIME should I say!!! I’ve been asking for a new Evo casting for, what, five or six years now? Considering how strongly the Impreza has been represented in recent years. And I had a big hunch they if they ever did an Evo, it would be the either the VI or the IX, and it happens to be the VI! I’d wish further that it was a TME but hey, I’m not complaining at all.
The casting looks clean and crisp, and thank the car gods indeed for mirrors! Also, I don’t know what you’re talking about when you say the boot lid looks like an Evo V, because it looks pretty accurate to the VI to me.
I hope the final version will look more like the WRX STIs from Cars and Donuts/ Modern Classics 2 (i.e. clean and stock) and less like the mainline Lancia Delta (no racing livery please). This will be a very strong contender for best premium new model of 2021. Definitely looking forward to this!
You want no racing liveries despite the Evo 6 literally having a full-on Tommi Makinen edition? I get keeping it stock is great for lamp detail, but that just makes it no better than if it was sent to MBX, is it? Besides, the Evo 6 competed in rallies — it’s gotta have a fun RalliArt livery at some point.
I just want one standard version that I can have and after that they can do as many racing liveries as they please.
It should definitely have some rally liveries, that’s for sure. The TME has a different front bumper, so it could only be one of those in spirit, ha.
Yes! I was absolutely stoked to see this one. And I agree, I hope it premieres in a nice street livery before being farmed out to rally spec.
And the trunk lid on the VI should have no distinct recess for the plate; whereas the V has the additional taillamps and a narrower plate recess.
https://www.mitsubishi-motors.co.uk/discover/heritage/explore-evolution-vi
https://www.mitsubishi-motors.co.uk/discover/heritage/explore-evolution-v
Okay, I see where you got your references from, but actually I’ve seen both bootlids on the Evo 6 (with and without the extra lights) and, in fact, those extra lights can be seen on the Tommi Makinen edition in particular. So can’t really call this wrong, right?
Yes your reply got me researching a bit and I did find the TME had the “trim panel garnish” as I saw it called in some places, ha. But given the standard front bumper, we know it’s not that. I’ll see if the designer can shed some light on this for me. And if you have some references beyond Google images, as it looks easy to modify afterwards, please share!
I would love to see a car culture Group A rally séries : 22b, delta, escort Cosworth, Evo, and a New Celica gt4…
Oh man, an ST205 Celica GT4 would be incredible.
How long do you expect it will take for these to go into production and become available in store?
I have no idea. I was just a conduit for sneaking the pictures and not much additional information was provided to me to provide to the audience. I bet if you look hard enough, you can find the answers you seek on the Internet.