The third round for Doom’s You Pick It! series sees the HWC Series 7 Real Riders Evil Weevil take the victory, by quite a margin. Remember, if you want a say in what I feature, keep an eye on my Doomus_RLC Instagram account for a vote in my stories!
This winner of the third vote was the HWC Series 7 Real Riders Evil Weevil from 2008. This was the 4th release of this retooled casting at the time, however this one was slightly different… you see, all the prior ones had a sunroof.
The Evil Weevil originated during the original Hot Wheels redline era, debuting in 1971 in the Spoilers line. It’s a highly customized VW Beetle, with a dual engine setup. It’s almost a Baja/desert runner with these wheels. It was retooled in 2004 for the HWC Series 3 NEO Classics, and a Real Riders one in Hot Wheels racing deco came a year later. It was again used for the 2006 RLC Rewards program, utilizing the same deco as the NEO Classics release but in new colors. But then 2 years later, this spectraflame magenta beauty came without that functional sunroof.
I wasn’t collecting premiums at the time, but I imagine it was a bit odd seeing this one come up without the sunroof. I want to say it was the first time in the HWC at the time that a feature on a car was actually taken away for a later release rather than adding something. And, what made it an even more odd release after the fact was that a year later the sunroof was back for the spring Nationals RLC Party release. This tooling literally became a one-and-done deal.
Now exactly why they did this one without a functional sunroof, I have no clue. And unfortunately, this one sat in the shop for quite a while, still being available well after I joined RLC in 2011. But I’m hoping the tooling exists still somewhere, as it’d be a great car to feature in my dream sort of retail series (that write-up is for another day). For now, though, we have one anomaly of a release in HWC’s history.
