This could easily be the most competitive poll we will do this year in the Lamley Awards. I truly have no idea what model will win. JDM? Muscle? Fast & Furious? I really don’t know what model you will pick. Hell, I don’t know what model I will pick.
Because there are a lot of great premium models released this year. Just watch and see.
Hard to pick, right?
So I am doing something I haven’t done before. You get to pick two models. At least in the BEST New Model Poll. Watch the video, check out the photos below, and vote on the polls. The model that gets picked the most among your two votes will win.
Enjoy.
The Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL is a timeless automobile that will forever hold it’s stature and poise.
The Volvo Amazon is my most disappointing model. It’s such a cool car and I really wanted to see a more standard version of it. We have enough slammed stuff from Hot Wheels already. It also came out in a stock deco, which made me want it to sit higher without a roll cage inside even more. I know we aren’t voting based on deco, but this casting looking as it does would’ve made more sense with a racing deco.
As for the two best, I went with the ’70 Nova SS and the Land Cruiser. Two cool classics looking mostly stock, save for the wheels.
This one was very tricky considering how many nice new castings there were. But if I have to choose, hands down the best one was the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI. The proportions are absolutely spot-on and having a clean, stock example is always perfection. My second favorite is one I don’t even have yet which is the ’18 Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro (I don’t know why they didn’t specify the trim since it’s clearly a TRD Pro version) Judging from what I’ve seen in pictures, it looks really awesome! Hopefully I can find it in store without having to resort to eBay. Between the massive distribution issues and scalpers, finding certain vehicles is virtually impossible and this is no exception. But yet there’s a s*** ton of posts on Reddit of people finding these no problem as I look at the empty-pegs galore at all of my stores! But I digress.
The most disappointing model was easy: the Ford Bronco R. I’m just not a fan of desert rally vehicles and was really hoping for a stock Bronco. I realize that Matchbox has their own fantastic stock version but it would’ve been nice to see a one as a Premium from the other side. Both brands make identical vehicles to each other so it wouldn’t have been completely out of left field. Two good examples right now are the C8 Corvette and upcoming Tesla Roadster.
Best model – easy: Mercedes CLK GTR. You can keep your JDMs and muscle cars, but this 90s Le Mans GT1 legend right here is the last car I expected Hot Wheels to make this very year, and do it this well. Yes, the casting is missing side mirrors and I would have rather seen the plain silver version, but anyhow, the CLK GTR (and 90s supercars in general) deserves more recognition than its getting. I was inclined to vote for the Lancer Evo, which is also a brilliant casting, but I’ve seen too many JDMs and tbh I’m a bit bored of them. Honorable mentions – Audi S4, Merc SEL, Ford Escort and FnF Chevy Nova. All great casting but not great enough to beat the CLK GTR in my eyes.
Worst model – this was tough. I have two options: Aston Martin Valhalla and Sauber C9. I voted for Sauber and I know it’s a shock, but it was disappointing to me because it was my most anticipated model of the whole year (tied with the CLK) and the casting isn’t as perfect as I wished it would be, the opening rear lid takes away much of the accuracy and those are the worst wheels they could’ve put on this car. Honestly, the only thing I hate more than Hot Wheels’ current casting selection for premium sets, are their wheel choices on some cars. Absolutely trash wheels on so many good cars and this Sauber is one of them. Could’ve been the single best new model of the year, only to be let down by all these things. The Aston is also obviously flawed, but firstly, I wasn’t that interested in it anyway, and secondly, that casting not being perfect doesn’t annoy me as much as the Sauber. I’m a huge Le Mans fan, and to see Hot Wheels not do justice to one of the greatest Group C cars ever is disappointing to me. Maybe if they fix the wheels on the next release, it might look better, but as it stands for this year’s poll, it’s the C9 sadly.
Have not even seen 11 of those, but that vahalla thing seems to be the ugliest hot wheel I can ever remember showing up in the premium lines.
Problem is though.. you couldn’t find many of the majority of cars listed here on the list … Let alone complete sets!!!
I found & kept ten of the cars here including keeping the MERCEDES BENZ box set (just for the Sauber C9)!
The closer it gets to the holiday, the lesser the inventory is on shelves in big box stores. It seems the premium series were very, very vacant & if there were any put up on the pegs, the leeches came in & snatched them all up.. save for a couple here in there.
Supply chain issues really killed everything (and did I mention the leeches too??!!
Wow, what a year!
Most Disappointing was easy (because I actually love the Baja Bouncer, and maybe we can see some interesting/licensed liveries!!). I chose the Stratos. The real car is so weird and cool, but the normal mainline does it better. I realize this one has the Group 5 bodywork, but the small 4-spokes look HORRIBLE; it looks like a parade float. I felt the most let down by this one; huge expectations! There are others that I just didn’t care much about, like the Valhalla, Mustang, Hellcat, Cherokee… that actually surprised me, once I had them in-hand.
“BEST”, though! Sooo many great ones! The Red Pig was the easy first pick, glad there was another, but the second proved much harder. I really love also: the CLK-GTR, the Sauber, the Escort, the Volvo, BOTH Mitsubishis, BOTH Novas, the multi-piece Corvette…THEN the Toyotas; 4Runner, Starlet, LandCruiser; could all be in my Top 5, but I didn’t consider them for this poll because I haven’t held them yet. One takeaway from 2021: a lot of great Side Mirrors!!!
For me the best ones were the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and the Lykan Hypersport, both have nice lines and look very close to their real counterparts. The most disappointing had to go to the Sauber Mercedes C9; is the vehicle that should had smaller front wheels to really get the side profile right.
The cheap looking wheels on “Premium” cars killed most of them for me. The red pig was the most disappointing. I think the wheels ruined it. Matchbox seems to be able to make a convincing steel colored wheel. Also I’m done buying cars with black wheels. Guess this really turned into a rant but I sure feel better now that I uncorked that bottle.
I love that mattel finallt gave us a supercar mix, the valhalla is a super cool car but proportionally its a very poor execution, so easily the most disappointing. So many great ones this year, all the insane mercedes castings are a toss up for best model in my opinion.