Throughout the year, with excellent premium mix after excellent premium mix being released, I naturally pegged Premium New Model as the most competitive Lamley Awards category. Then I reviewed the Basic Licensed New Models. Whoa. There is some awesome stuff here.
So, like the Premium Poll, I am going to let you choose two New Models in the BEST poll, and keep it to one for MOST DISAPPOINTING. You know what to do. Watch the video, check out the photos below, and vote in the polls here.
Good luck.
The I’m glad one of the designers made the last generation of the Pontiac GTO. That car is under appreciated and needed to be made a HW car. I was hyped for it but it didn’t even turn out to be regular street car. And yet I still have both colors in my car, office, and collection wall. I hope the street car is going to be made in 2023.
This was actually easy for me. My two favorite new castings are ones that came out in the same batch as each other in the H case: the ’94 Audi Avant RS2 and Mercedes-Benz 500 E. The simplicity and proportions of these two are just spot-on. Clean, stock paint jobs, front and rear detailing, decent 5-Spoke wheels. However, there is one gripe with the RS2 since it’s a tall roof vehicle: it does have that ugly safety post in the back just like the RS6 that they have and the re-tooled older RS6 from Matchbox. Someday tall-roof vehicles will get re-engineered to where they were in the 2000s when they were stamped together with a plastic tab that made the rear license plate bracket rather than posted together with that unsightly safety post that completely ruins the rear end of a vehicle.
The most disappointing was very easy: the ’21 Ford Bronco. This is one ugly, disproportioned little box with oversized wheels. It sits way too high, the body is too narrow, no detailing, and no accuracy. The Matchbox version completely blows it out of the water. There’s no comparison. Which is unfortunate because I actually wanted a good comparison. Oh well. I’ll simply skip the Hot Wheels version and solely buy the better Matchbox version. Thankfully there’s a new bright blue one coming out next year. Looks promising.
For me, the BEST Hot Wheels model is the ’67 Ford GT40 Mk.IV. This ;looks just like the real car on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
For me it was a bit difficult to choose my second favorite. The first one is the Mercedes-Benz 500 E, such a spot on casting with the necessary front and rear tampos well applied (I couldn’t find any mayor mishaps on all the ones I checked on retail). For the second one I finally settled on the Ford GT-40 Mark IV, ford the very nice stand and the added detail on the headlights using both details on the metal body and the clear interior piece.
The most disappointing I chose is the Toyota Land Cruiser Pickup, although the casting is very well made and detailed the big, wide and modern looking wheels do not fit this car at all.
For Next’s years most disappointing Hot Wheels I have already decided on the Corvette C8. After the very good Corvette C8.R and Matchbox’s stellar Corvette C8, Hot Wheels attempt looks lackluster in comparison. The casting is very rough on the edges and the bigger rear wheels ruin the sleek lines it should have.
Best: this was both difficult and easy. Easy because I have a definitive top 5 favourite list, there were so many great casting this year, and choosing the #1 favourite was a bit difficult but I did make a choice and it’s the Bugatti EB 110. Absolutely MAGNIFICENT choice of a car to do. I wish Matchbox had done this (and honestly, I even asked them to do one long back) but I’m not complaining. I love the EB 110, it’s such an unknown supercar and especially considering how popular Bugatti is these days and yet the EB 110 seems to be forgotten, so I’m happy Hot Wheels did it and did it very well: love the raised rear spoiler, the wheels and the perfect colour, it all looks great My only complaint is the lack of side mirrors. Yet I still love this casting. And now that it’s coming to Car Culture next year, I’m already anticipating that one very highly.
The other best new model is the 500 E. Again, like the Bugatti, great model choice and Lindsey (I believe she did this one) did a perfect job on this. Proportions are SPOT ON! And it has side mirrors so bonus points there. However, those wheels are terrible and it desperately needs some other wheels (an easily fixable problem) but apart from that, this is pretty much a 10/10 casting. I’m hoping it’ll come to Car Culture sooner than later because it’s begging for some proper details and better wheels.
Worse: I might get flaked for this, but for me it’s the McLaren F1. Not disappointing in a hugely negative way but disappointed I am to an extent. The F1 is the one casting that needed large rear wheels to offset the rake it has IRL, and this one looks too toy-ish, especially with those horrible wheels again (can we please stop using these wheels on newer cars please??) and no side mirrors again. There are other bad castings this year, like the GTO, Bronco and even the Liberty Walk Huracan – and the GTO especially annoys me because I love this gen GTO, it’s very underrated and underrepresented in 1:64, and instead of doing a clean, stock version they did this silly dragster that looks pretty bad, bad enough to deter all my interest in it. So, F1 it is.
I’m such a Matchbox fanboy I feel like an imposter here but I do buy quite a bit of Hot Wheels so I feel entitled to voice an opinion. I voted as best Mercedes Benz 500E fully believing it to be overlooked by most fans. I am very surprised to see it in first place as of this message! There are a lot of others I like : Jaguar F Type, Audi Avant wagon, McLaren F1, Nissan R390, Bugatti EB110. Of course, the Jag, Audi, & Mercedes are all very Matchbox – looking. I must say 2021 was a good year overall for new HW castings. Keep up the good work guys!
Best: Tesla Cybertruck(even though the actual one is a joke) and Jaguar F-Type(Porsche Taycan is a very close third)
Worst: Pontiac GTO and Toyota GR Supra
Too many good ones. That jag f type is a jewel. But a special shout out to the new corvette. Other brands may have made nice ones, or more accurate ones, but none look as low and bad and pure hw one. Third place I give to the black mercedes that looks even better in grey.
Hard to stick with one Best & one Worst. My Best was the Nissan R35 racer. Lots of possible Best cars.
My Worst HW was the Tesla Cybertruck. It reminds me of an off brand imitation Hot Wheels. The ’21 Ford Bronco is more of a Matchbox car. Many of the rest just aren’t New.