(Find the Hot Wheels Proton Saga on Ebay here)
I honestly never thought I’d see the day when there was a Proton in a Hot Wheels card. Did you? But here we are, and I’ve got to say what a brilliant Hot Wheels it is.
The Proton Saga arrived in 1985 and was Malaysia’s first domestically designed and produced car.
In the late 1970s the Malaysian government were attempting to bring about national self-sufficiency and economic growth by encouraging domestic heavy industry. Malaysia had existing automobile factories assembling foreign cars in kit form, but by the 1970s this was proving costly and damaging to the economy. Then government minister for trade and industry Mahathir Mohamad therefore had the idea of producing a national car. By 1981 Mohamad had been voted in as Prime Minister and was able to accelerate work on the project, giving it the official go-ahead in 1982. He invited Japanese giants Mitsubishi to provide assistance and by 1983 two prototypes were ready to be produced by the newly created “Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional” or “Proton” for short.
The Saga borrowed heavily from the Mitsubishi partnership and utilised the platform of the second generation Mitsubishi Lancer as well as the Japanese brand’s 4G series of engines in 1.3 and 1.5 litre forms. The first generation model was launched on July 9th 1985 and quickly became a national symbol. By 1986 the Saga had blocked out 64% of domestic sales of cars of it’s size and Proton had begun successfully exporting the vehicle overseas. By 1991 the car was on sale in various countries such as New Zealand, Malta, Sri Lanka and the UK where it won that year’s What Car? magazine award for “best value car of the year”. By the time the second generation Iswara came along in 1992 over 300,000 Sagas had been sold globally and Proton had been ranked by Forbes as the 29th largest car manufacturer in the world. Malaysia’s auto industry had come a long way in a short time.
Hot Wheels connection with Malaysia as a base for manufacturing and design runs deep and there’s also a huge fanbase for the orange brand there. To celebrate the Malaysian factory’s anniversary the team there suggested the Proton Saga would make a perfect addition to the mainline. Once Hot Wheels designer Fraser Campbell had created a few concepts, the Malaysian team chose one and ran with it, selecting everything down to the colour choice and graphics. This was a real project of passion for the Malaysian team and they are very proud of it, and rightly so. It’s great.
This is one of the coolest and best mainlines I’ve seen recently. The proportions are brilliant and the aerodisc wheels suit it perfectly.
The smoked window piece contrasts nicely with the vivid red paint, and the same piece also gives the model clear headlights which is always a nice touch.
You know if there’s any gripe I have with Hot Wheels at the moment it’s the paint. It really isn’t one of their strong points right now sadly, at least for cars in the mainline. But on my Proton there’s a tiny bit of orange peel effect on the bonnet and I had to polish out a nasty smudge on the roof of my example. But… that’s it. On mine at least the paint is pretty damn good and the red has a vibrant shine to it. And whilst there aren’t many areas of graphics on this thing I’m pleased to say where they are present the decals are sharp and well coloured, with tiny detail easily visible on the Proton badge for example.
This is a real win for Hot Wheels and a solid and fitting testament to the hard work the folks in Malaysia do.
I say it a lot about both Mattel brands: there’s really passionate car people behind the scenes working their magic. This is such a unique and wonderful model and I really hope this won’t be the last we see of it. As you can see in one of the adverts at the start of this post, the Saga had a proud history in domestic race and rally championships.
A circuit tuned Saga or one set up for the stages adorned with spotlights would make a great premium model…. I’m sure whatever the future brings for the casting it will be equally as cool as this.
(A huge thank you must be said to Fraser Campbell and Callum Craig at Hot Wheels who helped me with some background about the casting and design)
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