When talking about Fast & Furious, there’s the cars that we all remember. But the movies are full of cool cars driven by the supporting characters which don’t get as much recognition as the stars. They don’t have as much screen time or the iconic status as the Supras, Skylines and Chargers, but they are remembered fondly by the fans and definitely deserve to be part of the Hot Wheels series. Here are a few ‘minor-action vehicles’ which I think would make for a great addition to the Hot Wheels Fast & Furious Premium Series.
1999 Nissan Maxima A32
This Nissan Maxima is driven by one of the films antagonists, Vince. The car’s most memorable scene is when Vince storms out of the Toretto house after seeing Brian at the family lunch, and rips a huge front-wheel burnout all the way up the street. In real life, the Maxima was the daily driver of the film’s vehicle coordinator Craig Lieberman, who supercharged and cosmetically modified it.
The closest car to the Maxima that Hot Wheels have made is the ’96 Chevrolet Impala SS. Its rounded four-door sedan design is similar in shape and I have seen a few customisers use it as a starting point for custom replicas of Vince’s Nissan Maxima. I hope Hot Wheels make the Maxima one day as it’s the only car from Dom’s original team that we haven’t seen yet.
1994 Acura Integra DB8 Sedan
Mia impresses Brian by showing off her skills behind the wheel when she takes him for a drive in her Acura Integra sedan. This Integra has been replicated by a couple of other diecast brands, but they’ve all made it as a coupe instead of a 4 door. It’d be cool if Hot Wheels were to do this one, to be the only diecast brand to do it correctly. Fun Fact: Jordana Brewster, who plays the role of Mia Toretto, didn’t have a drivers license when she was cast in the movie and actually took driving lessons during production. She also used a replica of this car as her real life wedding vehicle!
Hot Wheels have already made the Coupe version of the Acura Integra, but I hope when the time comes around for them to make Mia’s Integra, we can get a new casting of a sedan version to make it accurate to the movie car.
1993 Honda Civic EJ1 Coupe / 1996 Acura Integra DC2 Coupe
In the scene where Brian races his Mitsubishi Eclipse against Dom’s Mazda RX7, there are two more cars in the race, a white Honda Civic Coupe and a Red Acura Integra Coupe. The Civic is driven by Danny who prepares for the race by playing Gran Turismo on a PlayStation inside the car. The Integra is raced by Edwin, played by the rapper Ja Rule. His car’s role was brief but memorable, the red and yellow MOMO livery really stands out.
The Honda Civic Coupe casting that Hot Wheels currently offer represents an EK Civic not an EJ like the cars from The Fast and The Furious. Both the black ‘heist’ cars and this white one are EJ Civics which have slimmer headlights than the EK. If Hot Wheels modify this casting to be used in premium, I’d love to see it changed to an EJ and if they make the black heist Civic, the same casting could be used for Danny’s white one too.
If Hot Wheels were to make the MOMO Integra, it would look great next to all the other MOMO cars that they have already done. It would also be a great opportunity for Hot Wheels to make a casting of the US-spec Integra Type R with the four round headlights, which is sorely missing from the selection of famous Japanese cars they’ve already done.
I’m waiting for the day when Hot Wheels make these two cars so this race can be recreated on orange tracks all over the world.
1992 Honda Civic EG
Despite the short amount of screen time they have, Hector and his EG Honda Civic are fan favourites. It was a serious show car before it appeared in the movie, it had a custom gold-olive paint job with a unique marbleised finish, a bodykit with dual rear spoilers, glass sections in the hood to show off the engine, and a host of interior and engine modifications.
The Hot Wheels Premium casting of the EG Honda Civic represents more of a stock version of the car, so it may not be able to faithfully replicate this extensively modified car, but as far as I can tell through my research, the only diecast replica made of Hector’s Civic uses an EK Civic casting, so anything would be an improvement over what we currently have available.
1995 Ferrari F355 Spider
We all know that Hot Wheels aren’t making Ferrari’s at the moment, but while we’re in the land of the hypothetical, let’s indulge ourselves in the thought of how cool it would be to have this Ferrari F355 Spider in the Fast and Furious Premium series so we can put it next to the Supra. Let’s just hope we can afford the retail…
The Hot Wheels casting of the Ferrari F355 Spider hasn’t been used since 2009, and the last time Hot Wheels released any Ferrari was in 2013. Let’s hope one day we will see the Prancing Horse back in Hot Wheels.
1993 Freightliner FLA086
Hot Wheels have released big trucks in the past, but they have either been in their own separate line, or have been completely out of scale in the Mainline. I’m not sure how they could do it, but it would be awesome if they could replicate the Freightliner ‘Rodgers’ truck from the opening scene. I could even imagine a set with the truck and the three black Civics with green underglow… I’m allowed to dream, right?
These cars see a little bit of vehicular action in the movie, but Hot Wheels have also made Fast & Furious cars which are only seen in the background of the scenes. If I extend my search for cool cars to include ones which are just in the background, there’s even more potential for awesomeness in the Fast & Furious Premium Series. Stay tuned to see those soon!
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I think we have had more than enough fast and furious hot wheels sets, they just end up sitting on the pegs. Might be time to retire the fast and furious series
Don’t get me wrong I think the castings are amazing, just the fast and furious color ways don’t do them justice
I thinks it’s just the oversaturation of the same cars, the ones that sit on the shelves are always the ones which are repeated from earlier releases. If they readjust the model selection I think we would see a lot less cars sitting on shelves.
Great points, Reece! These are all deserving F&F cars that need to be recreated in Hot Wheels form to round out the collection. I hope we do see these cars as they are all certainly memorable ones from the first film.
Thanks Brad!
Hey, Vince wasn’t an antagonist. He just wasn’t fond of Brian, and he acted like a dick for much of the movie, but not an antagonist. Anyway, as we discussed on IG, I think this post covers almost everything I would’ve wanted to cover so there isn’t much I can disagree with, although there are two things I’d add.
1) The Ferrari is definitely at the top of my list of cars I’d love to see from the first movie. I’m a huge Ferrari guy, and especially a F355 fan, and seeing a brand new premium casting of one of my favourite Ferraris would be a joy. Although I would rather they do it with the roof closed (or just do a berlinetta) – even though that’s not how it appears in the movie (but then, Hot Wheels have been inaccurate with their F&F castings many times in the past) cause I’ve never been a fan of convertible castings with the roof down. However, the chances of them doing a Ferrari, well… we all know how it goes. But if Ferrari was to come back, there’s a handful of them from the franchise I’d like to see in addition to the F355.
2) The Freightliner would be another stonking great addition, as would the Peterbilt 359 from the final heist in the movie, which was a pivotal point in the story, although I’m not sure how well-scaled these trucks would be. I think it would be awesome if they had a sub-series of trucks like Matchbox’s Real Working Rigs. They could add a whole slew of castings in this line, which could branch out to non-F&F models as well… but I think I’m dreaming too much. Anyway, that’s that.
There are definitely a whole heap of Ferraris that I’d love to see if the opportunity ever arose again. And that’s a great idea about the trucks, that would be so cool. Thanks for your feedback.