It’s the most wonderful time of the yeeeeeear!
The 2024 holiday season may have come to an end, but the annual Lamley Best-Of lists from all the at-large writers are still trickling in (including some of my own) — and I couldn’t properly wrap-up the 2024 diecast collecting season without covering the magnificent roster of new Hot Wheels fantasy castings.
2024 had a great mix of ultra fantasy castings, like a birthday cake and T-Rex car, and designs that could be real, such as a custom mail truck or hot-rodded commuter bus. There were also some cars that blurred the lines between diecast and gadget, thanks to some delightfully engineered hidden features.
So put away those “peg warmer” gripes and throw those snarky comments in a dump bin because we are here to celebrate everything that’s great about Hot Wheels’ originals.
THE 2024 HOT WHEELS ORIGINALS
I’ll be listing each car in the order that they showed up in the 2024 line-up, give a small summary of the model, then at the end we’ll wrap-up with a breakdown of my favorite 2024 fantasy casting — as well as some other deserving accolades the designs prompted this year.
And if reading isn’t your thing (or you want a closer look at any of the cars), I also did a giant unboxing/review video of every car on this list:
026/250 – Punk Rod
Punk Rod is one of those castings that does an excellent job of blending realism with fantasy. It looks like it could be a real hypercar or even a IMSA GTP class racer, but has a few wild aero elements that truly make it a Hot Wheels original. One thing to notice on the blue car is that its particular shade, Moody Blue, has been used on one new original casting per year since 2019.
035/250 – Drift’n Break
Drift’n Break is actually a rare double fantasy casting in that it’s another version of an existing fantasy casting, Fast Fish. This version of Fast Fish is now sporting a shooting brake design that takes the already great looking Fast Fish and turns it into a sporty wagon-back’d drift machine. Both castings are heavily influenced by the real-life Plymouth Barracuda (Cuda), which is where the OG casting earned its fish moniker from. Drift’n Break carries on that Mopar influence with two high-impact colors, hockey stick and AAR inspired graphics, and Hemi style Shaker scoop on both the hood and roof.
055/250 – HW Ultimate T-Rex Transporter
The T-Rex transporter isn’t just another dinosaur casting — it’s another mainline rarity in that it was a full-sized Hot Wheels transporting playset before it was launched in 1/64th scale. An early toy tie-in for the Netflix animated show Hot Wheels Let’s Race, the full-sized T-rex may be the only bigger-scaled Hot Wheels vehicle to be turned into a mainline, rather than a regular scaled car being “blown up” into a larger scale for use in another line (think the Hot Wheels Pullback Speeders line).
As a small scale casting, it’s done pretty well. You can definitely see the T-rex shape and the rectangles on the sides are where you’d store regular sized Hot Wheels in the full-sized transporter. It’s also one of a few modern castings that use a part of the casting to simulate a wheel/tire as the actual transporter has a third set of wheels.
073/250 – Mo-Stash
Mo-Stash was one of the castings that I was really hyped on ever since it was previewed in one of the convention slideshows. This 1930’s speedster-style race car has one of the coolest hidden features ever: a fake mustache.
Yes, Mo-Stash is named for it’s fold-out fake mustache feature — I mean how cool is that?!The car itself is beautifully sculpted and could stand on its own without the hidden hairy hallmark that splits the casting, but it’s twice as cool because of it’s dual purpose. I gave a Mo-Stash to my four year old nephew and he thought it was hilariously fun, as did I.
I also couldn’t not show the mustache feature in action, so I pulled one of my foot-tall Ninja Turtles down from its shelf and gave Leonardo the proper ‘stash he deserved….and a gray ‘stash too because the Turtles are over 40 years old at this point.
103/250 – Flippin Fast
In the sea of roughly 500 mainlines that Hot Wheels releases during the year, it can be hard to see what a true hidden gem a seemingly random fantasy casting is. Flippin Fast is one of those hidden gems.
The oddly flat casting is part of the Celebration Racer line — a new series of cars that Hot Wheels describes as “Holiday themed vehicles that celebrate cultures, inclusiveness, and other festivities all year long”. Flippin Fast would fall into the inclusiveness category as it is celebrating a collab with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.
But you may be wondering why it’s a odd shape — that’s because it doubles as a fidget spinner!
But why a fidget spinner? That’s because many people with Autism Spectrum Disorder fidget, or stim, to help calm themselves or deal with ADHD symptoms, and now they can do so with one of their favorite toys – a Hot Wheels!
The car has a plastic axle in the center that you can hold to spin the car around on. The cool part about it being a spinable casting is that the design team made the car two-sided, so no matter which side you set it down on, it’ll be right side up. Another cool note is that the spinable axle features a driver’s helmet in the middle, so the car even has a driver on both sides too.
131/250 – Terra-Tracktyl
The second dino-themed casting of the year, the Terra-Tracktyl, combines the sleek shape of a Terradactyl with the ruggedness of a pick up to form a dinotruck…or is it a truckosaur? Either way the idea actually translates well as the Terra has a pretty mean-looking, semi-realistic shape for such a wild vehicle concept.
137/250 – Rapid Pulse
What’s not to love about a hot-rodded ambulance? Rapid Pulse is a sleek, futuristic take on the classic box-style ambulance. It’s a bit Super Van-ish with it’s staggered wheel sizes and raked stance, but adds some great medical features like a guy on a gurney, various machines/medical devices like tanks of oxygen (or perhaps some nitrous?), and more in the back. It also features a mid-mounted gas engine as well as grid paneling on the roof spoiler to power the electric motors on board.
146/250 – Birthday Burner
Is it cake?! No, well, kind of. One of the latest releases to Hot Wheels’ line of food-themed cars, the Birthday Burner is a rolling piece of birthday cake — and it’s not just the cake — the Burner’s chassis is a paper plate-base topped with a fork running the length of the car. There’s probably some other details I’m missing, but while looking it over, I came to the conclusion that the round indention on the top of the engine is where a birthday candle could probably be sat. Is it recommended to put an open flame on top of a flammable plastic car? No, but it really would be icing on the cake if you could do that.
164/250 – Mailed It!
Mailed It! is a great example of what Hot Wheels does best : turning the mundane into something awesome. Based on the instantly recognizable Grumman LLV postal truck, HW’s latest mail truck features a wild wide-body kit, a huge twin-turbo engine sticking out of the front, drag chutes and a wheelie bar, and is topped off with a dope graffiti paint job. This is a casting that can easily impress both licensed and fantasy casting collectors alike and is one of my favorite 2024 releases.
166/250 – Later Crater
Part baja truck, part lunar lander, part rally car, the Later Crater was designed to get some air. Its metal base/plastic body design coupled with a decent amount of ground clearance makes this one a fun casting to send down the track or drive through some dirt in your backyard. It’s also one of a few new fantasy castings for 2024 that didn’t get a recolor to go with its initial release.
168/250 – Rink Racer
Hockey fans should get a kick out of this one — it’s a freakin Zamboni! Technically it’s just an generic ice resurfacing machine as Zamboni is a brand name, but can you name another brand of ice resurfacing machine? Me either.
HWs’ Rink Racer features that classic Zamboni shape with a large rectangle snow tank up front, where the ice the machine shaves off is kept. It also features a moving part in the form of a tank cover, which comes off to reveal a small plastic tub. It’s a bit of an odd feature as the tank doesn’t have any instructions with it, but some have suggested you could freeze some water in it and thus it could be an ice cube maker. The tank is quite small and I don’t think the plastic is food safe, so you could use the ice cube for play-only.
The Rink Racer is also a mini-fig compatible vehicle that features two cylindrical bars on the back so that a Lego or Mega Bloks mini fig can take a ride around the rink.
187/250 – Kowloon’d Hypervan
This next one is special on multiple levels. Kowloon’d Hypervan is a highly customized Hong Kong public transit bus.
Its name is a reference to the Kowloon urban area in Hong Kong — which is where Hot Wheel’s Hong Kong team is located. The bus gets even more meta with the name of the stop on the front, Tsim Sha Tsui, being the actual district the Mattel office is in. The team members even got a special shout-out with each of their names printed on the roof of the bus. Now their names are cemented in HWs history forever — seriously a dream come true.
The bus itself is absolutely killer. It’s equipped with a widebody kit, tons of aggressive aero bits, two different wheel styles, and a unique design feature that puts the metal part of the casting at the top, being the green roof portion. It’s very well done and gives most collectors their first glimpse at what a highly-modified Hong Kong bus could look like.
189/250 – Track DWagon
A drift station wagon? Yes please! Track DWagon is stacked with detail and features more aero modifications than an F35 fighter jet. Part rallycar, part drift car, the DWagon is seemingly HWs version of Travis Pastrana’s Family Huckster Subaru hoon-wagon. The Huckster is the only station wagon I’ve ever seen with active aero, so it’s safe to say DWagon took heavy inspiration from it — but that’s not a bad thing. HWs has been making castings that are their own takes of other automotive IP for decades. Doing so have given us knock-off A-Team vans, General Lees, and Mach 5s, so it’s pretty on-brand to have their own Huckster.
Inspiration aside, the DWagon is its own design. I see elements of Subaru and Audi, as well as possibly some Nissan mixed in there as well. The rear taillight panel reminds me of a ’70 Roadrunner too. This is one I’ve already enjoyed drifting across my desktop table and can confirm it’s as fun to play with as it looks.
217/250 – Ravenger S/T
Ravenger S/T is probably one of the most badass names to come out of Mattel in the past few years and the casting it’s attached to is pretty deserving of it. Ravenger is a mix of different muscle car styles combined into a modern street machine. It has a swoopy yet edgy design that reminds me of the HWs Ion Motors Thresher casting. This is another one that really excels in tabletop play and is enjoyable at every angle.
225/250 – Sushi Tuner
2024’s second new food casting, the Sushi Tuner, turns a piece of sushi into a mini track terror. A bit of fresh seafood piled atop a bed of rice has been nicely attached to a compact chassis. I’m not a sushi eater myself, but the chassis looks like it has one of those soy sauce dipping trays on each side of it.
IMO, the coolest part of the car is the fresh Hot Wheels flame logo with chopstick graphics added to it.
228/250 – Small Bloc
“It’s a Pinewood Derby car!!!” – that’s what I shouted at my computer screen while watching the Small Bloc get previewed during one of the convention slide shows.
Small Bloc is indeed a Pinwood Derby car. Brilliantly designed to look like the classic wedge block-style Pinewood body, Small Bloc is big on detail…but also low on detail. The rectangular body is textured to look like wood grain, which I believe is the first time HWs has attempted to make an entire car in that wood texture pattern. I know they have done wood paneling and wood accessories on cars before (like the ’40s Woodie and the Hot Tub car), but never just a wood car.
They nailed the design though — from the wood grain textured body to the smooth chassis and front/rear panels, it just screams Pinewood Derby. The top is plastic and much like Flippin Fast, it also features a driver AND passenger helmet in the “interior”. But I think one of the coolest features is the engine — it’s a smooth, detail-less design looks like the lead weights used on real Pinewood Derby cars that help add some forward momentum uumph to front.
247/250 – Hi-Roller II
If I had a dollar for every fantasy casting this year that was based on another fantasy casting, I’d have two dollars. It’s not a lot, but crazy we have two this year. Drift’n Break and Hi-Roller II.
Hi-Roller II is the second generation design based on the Hi-Roller casting that was first released back in 2016. The first Hi-Roller was a classic hotrod stretched and chopped, which made it look pretty gangster if I do say so myself. Hi-Roller II builds on that vibe and to me, looks like a highly customized Rolls Royce Wraith. The casting is interesting bc it features an almost plated zamac center portion with the fenders and doors being painted blue with a very designer-brand looking Hot Wheels flame logo deco on the side.
Hi-Roller II and Rink Racer both take the awards for hardest to photograph this year because of their colors and materials.
–THE WINNERS–
My vote for 2024 Fantasy Casting of the Year is….
SMALL BLOC
The competition this year was tough as there were a lot of great castings, but Small Bloc was just so well executed and looks great from every angle. The fact it’s a wood-themed car is cool, but the little design elements like the lead-looking engine and helmets hanging out under the low-slung roof just put it over the top for me.
Behind-the-Scenes Triva: Small Bloc was the only fantasy casting to receive multiple votes by the Lamley committee to be included in the 64 Car Bracket at the end of the year. Sadly it didn’t get a spot, but it was good enough to catch several non-fantasy casting collector’s eyes this year!
My vote for 2024 Real-Car Turned Fantasy Casting is….
KOWLOON’D HYPERVAN
The Hypervan just embodies what HWs is about. They took a regular bus and hot-rodded it, then went to the extra step of making it even more special with the Hot Wheels’ Hong Kong team tie-in. I had never seen one of these style buses before, so I’m being introduced to it for the first time because Hot Wheels took the initiative and the time to make it — and make it cool. It’s designed well, has a great play factor to it, and joins a long line of utilitarian castings made into something everyone would want in their garage.
My vote for Most Impactful 2024 Fantasy Casting is….
FLIPPIN FAST
Some Hot Wheels are just cars, but for me, Flippin Fast is a forever toy. I have struggled with symptoms of ASD/ADHD my whole life, constantly rocking in my chair, fidgeting etc, and gadgets like fidget spinners are a godsend for helping myself and countless others to help keep our attention on an even plane. As soon as I popped open the Flippin Fast I knew it was one I’d probably carry around with me for the rest of my life. I favor the black and orange release, and have one in my pocket right now as I type this, one in our family car, one at my work station, one on my bedside stand, and another in the bookbag I take with me places so that I will have one wherever I go.
And that’s what I truly love about Hot Wheels.
No matter your age, race, religion, nationality, whatever — there is something for you. Whether it’s a custom mail truck, an animal or food themed car, a fidget spinner car, a Bigfoot monster truck or a custom R34 GTR — Hot Wheels are for everyone.
So go out and grab a Birthday Burner to give to your co-worker for their birthday, a Small Bloc for your local Boy Scout Troop leader, a Rink Racer for your local hockey team’s Zamboni driver — grab those fantasy castings and use them to spread the joy of getting a Hot Wheels to people outside your typical collector’s network. And maybe you’ll help launch some new collectors’ excitement for the hobby in 2025.
“I believe is the first time HWs has attempted to make an entire car in that wood texture pattern” – and what about Pizza Planet truck from Brave movie?