Model: Hot Wheels ’48 Ford/Mercury Woody
Release: 2003 Wild Wood 2-Car Set
EBay: Find the Ford Woody Wagon!
Finally I return with a blog post! I need to stop being lazy… Anyway, I believe I’ve mentioned it before, but the Hot Wheels Legends/Cool Collectibles/100% line doesn’t get the credit it deserves among collectors. These things were quite highly detailed, metal/metal, and more often than not had opening hoods or some sort of opening/removable part. Price point on these was a little pricey for their time, $7+ from what I remember, in 1999-2008-ish. If Hot Wheels still did these today, they’d rival the likes of M2, Greenlight, Auto World, etc. These things were well ahead of their time, and the line just slowly died out by 2008-ish. Hot Wheels, as usual, put their own spin on most of them, and this awesome ’48 Ford Woody is no different.
There were a few releases using this casting, but this is the only one with the hot rod “California rake” stance, with the larger rear wheels. To me, it suits it nicely. This is also the only time they put surf boards in the back (there are supposed to be 2… I accidentally broke one off *d’oh*). And like true beach bums and hot rodders, you gotta have the logo stickers all over the place, in this case all over the rear quarter windows. It’s honestly the most fitting release of this casting. And yes that’s a tow hitch, something they did with a few of these castings at the time. It got utilized once, in the original Night At The Races set from 2000 (yellow Ford, yellow trailer and a wingless black and white sprint car).
Well, not much else to say, other than this is probably one of my more favorite releases from this premium retail line. It’s a shame these came before the collector market really took off in the last few years, I really feel they’d be a huge hit among collectors, more so than the current Car Culture and Boulevard lines, due to the features offered. Oh well, at least we have all the past releases to keep us busy and searching!
Great piece on an incredible casting. The stickers deco just sets the piece off.
I collect every one of that cast I come across, but now I am not sure I have that one with the surf board and window stickers. It is my fav 100% and one that could easily be a gotta have rlc spectra. Diecast to me is mostly about hw’s, and that hw is about as hot as they get imo.