Model: Hot Wheels Custom AMC AMX
Release: 2010 Red Line Club Membership Car, 4th color in purple
EBay: HW RLC AMX
After posting a picture of one of my Jammer cases of my HWC/RLC cars on Reddit, someone pointed out this AMX. So figured I’d do a Lamley Daily article on it!
For the first half of the Hot Wheels Collector’s site (HWC) and Red Line Club’s (RLC) existence, many of the cars used were retools of original redline-era castings. The original premise of the line was to make many cars the way they used to, with spectraflame paint and bearing wheels. Over time some details changed, but the basic premise stayed the same. Many classic castings received 20th century upgrades, like the Olds 442, Beach Bomb, TNT Bird, Evil Wheevil, and many others. Eventually, the AMX had its turn for resurrection.
The AMX was sort of AMC’s answer for the Corvette: a 2 seater short wheelbase sports car. It wasn’t as flashy as the Corvette, but could be ordered with AMC’s venerable 390 CI engine. The little company that could, they did their damnedest to compete with the big boys of racing. Between the AMX and the SC/Rambler, they did their fair share of damage, but it wasn’t enough to fully bring the car to the overall limelight and is basically reserved for auto enthusiasts nowadays.
Hot Wheels originally introduced the car in 1969, it was done in most of the spectraflame colors of the time. There’s even a VERY rare release in blue that came with stickers based on Ed Shaver’s drag racing AMX released in Europe, I believe only in the UK. The casting only saw life during that original redline era, until it was chosen to be retooled for the 2010 Red Line Club membership car.
Released the year before I joined the RLC, I believe this 4th color did eventually sell out later in the year ahead of the sale of the original Blown Delivery, which was a shock after the VW Bus membership car the year prior did not. (Remember, before 2017, the RLC membership car was released in 3 or 4 colors; when one color sold out, the next one became available). The AMX seemingly was a lesser expected car to pop up as the membership car, and unfortunately for fans, only had one other release, the 2015 RLC sElections release in pink (a tale for another time, as that one was wrought with issues). Many including myself hoped for another release at some point, but with all the change over between making RLC cars in China to Malaysia and back to China, and seeing as the tool is now 7 years out of use, and the general shift of what RLC focuses on nowadays, the likelihood of seeing it return is sadly low.
For a redline-era casting, this one was quite tame compared to most of the other “custom” cars such as the Mustang and Camaro, and because of that it appeared to be rather accurate. Here’s hoping we see a return some day!
I joined rlc in 06 so I should have one of those, probably the purple one. It must be buried somewhere. But I have several of the mirrorized pink ones in various shades. They must have sat in the shop and then gone on sale for me to have more than one. Mine have no issues and look great, but not as good as the purple membership one. Mattel needs to find that tool and release it again.
I remember because that pink sElections one got so delayed, and at the time they didn’t actually charge your card until they shipped, my card had expired once they finally shipped and I didn’t bother renewing my order. But I ended up getting 3 in a holiday sale, and they were cheaper than normal there, so I made out OK haha. Unfortunately one of them had a paint issue on the rear window pillar, but oh well. Mirrorized finish, this pink seemed to give them a LOT of problems, hence the delays.