Lamley Interview: Bryan Zhao and the Hot Wheels Toyota Prius

(Find the Hot Wheels Toyota Prius on Ebay here)

Let’s be honest, did you have “Toyota Prius” on your bingo card for the 2026 Hot Wheels Mainline? No? Me neither. But here we are.

In the world of the automotive enthusiast, Toyota’s hybrid compact divides opinion more than Marmite, a popular breakfast spread in the UK, whose brand slogan proudly proclaims “love it or hate it.”

Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear is at the head of the “hate” column, claiming he reserves a “special kind of hatred” for the Prius calling it a “cynical marketing exercise for the gullible and the stupid.” Spurred on by Clarkson’s comments and a distinct lack of imagination, a corner of the automotive world has turned it into a meme car, guffawing at home made triptychs of Priuses alongside an image of Greta Thunberg and the inevitable stock photo of a Supra/Skyline/Charger/over-fuelling RAM diesel.

Ok, so aside from all the arguments about wasteful manufacturing processes (which obviously don’t apply to naturally aspirated cars somehow….), the previous generations of Prius have always been a bit bland to look at, and can barely be described as cars that set pulses racing (unless it’s the GT300 Super GT version… Google it). But a bit like any Toyota, they’re brilliant at doing what they are designed for and for a long time. Taxi drivers love them, and the nature of their job demands economy, reliability and somewhere quite pleasant to sit for long periods. They’re perfectly good at being “an car” in other words.

Personally I’ve always found the Prius to be totally harmless. They’ve ferried me around countless towns and cities in comfort, and I actually rather like the later generation models, especially when they’re Japanese market cars affixed with mild aero kits. Indeed I liked one that much I very nearly purchased one a few years ago.

With the latest 5th generation XW60 model, Toyota sought to totally redesign the Prius to create (in the words of the PR department) a “sportier and more exciting appearance”. And all bland media talk aside, what they have managed to create is a very good-looking car in my opinion. Someone who shares that view is Hot Wheels designer Bryan Zhao.

Bryan is a self-confessed latecomer to car culture, only really beginning to take notice of things on four wheels after he moved to the United States from his native China. But when I interviewed him recently, we talked about all sorts of vehicles from Liberty Walk Lamborghinis all the way to the cabbage-carrying Beijing trucks he knew from childhood, and it was immediately clear to me that Bryan is someone who knows his cars. His Hot Wheels Prius is testament to that.

When he initially pitched a Prius mainline in a meeting, Bryan admits there was a bit of laughter from the room, but that it wasn’t an issue at all getting approval. “I mean (the standard Prius) is pretty sick looking car for what it is, we’ve always talked about making a wide body kit for it, and plus, Jimmy (Liu, Hot Wheels Design Director) has one so it was pretty smooth to get it in mainline!”

And even though it seems like a completely erroneous inclusion, this is a Prius that looks like it belongs in the Hot Wheels world. And despite its far from subtle looks, the car that you see on the pegs is actually a tamer version of what Bryan had first sketched out.

“In the first sketches, the car was actually a lot wilder, and I took it back a bit because it was barely recognisable” recalls Bryan. “I guess it was a little over the top for Jimmy and Craig (Callum, Senior Design Manager)”. They proposed a simpler, toned-down design, but one that was quintessentially Hot Wheels: “wide body, slam it, body kits, vents, diffuser, front splitter and everything, but then (a design) that accents the originality of the Prius.”

For influence on the body kit Bryan and the team looked at designs of the late 90s and 2000s, an era when body kits and aero parts from brands like VeilSide, Do-Luck, Wings West et al were in their heyday. “They were very wild, very unique at the time” says Bryan, but some designs hadn’t aged well at all, and had become “a little dated. So he (Jimmy) was thinking of something a little more timeless. Something that makes people appreciate this Prius in say, 20 years.” For that Bryan looked to Liberty Walk body kits and similar designs, and in my opinion created something pretty damn cool, with obvious LBWK overtones but also a hint of the APR Super GT Prius coming through.

The first sketch also included a roof box, an element that Bryan was keen to retain in the finished casting. He explained to me how there was a touch visual trickery involved in including such a utilitarian item in the design process, noting the trend of supercars fitted with them; “The way I see it, when you put a put something that is quite a big bulk of geometry on top of very sleek geometry, it makes the car underneath look slimmer”.

The roof box caused a bit of back and forth amongst the design team as well, with Jimmy Liu wanting a more standard look to compliment the Prius design, but with Bryan and Fraser Campbell in favour of the roof piece. Ultimately, a compromise was reached: “I guess he (Jimmy) saw our passion for putting a roof box on the Prius casting, therefore he proposed ‘Why don’t we do two versions? Two versions of the window piece in the same model?'” This decision has no doubt paid off, keeping Bryan’s original design alive and giving collectors the ability to choose whatever variant they wish. And as you can probably tell from the accompanying images, I’ve opted for my Prius without the luggage!

The window/headlight piece is also an important one on this casting in other ways. One of the main design elements of the Prius is the characteristic front end, with the headlights merging seamlessly into the grille. Bryan wanted to replicate this as accurately as possible, and for that he looked to the competition.
“I looked at a lot of other Prius castings from other companies… and all of them have printed the headlight. And when I saw that… it was definitely an option, but when it comes to Hot Wheels basics I didn’t know with the amount of cars we are producing and the speed they are manufacturing if we were going to be able to decal that headlight perfectly every single time. So it ultimately lead to the decision of me making that headlight as a separate piece. Due to the way Hot Wheels are assembled, I couldn’t get the entirety of the headlight (the bit that goes over the hood) in this separate piece. So that was another decision that I had to make; to incorporate decal and part break to achieve the headlight graphic that you see.”

Bryan goes on to say this approach of “part breaks” is a key piece of his approach to diecast design: “I will take the most advantage when it comes to part breaking. If I can part break something, I will never ask the decal team to decal.” Using this approach he believes “levels up” the detail of the car.

And looking at the Prius it’s hard to argue it’s not paid off. It’s an awesome looking car for something that’ll cost you less than £2/$2. Bryan has knocked it out of the park. It looks every inch the Shibuya cruiser, yet retains the Gen 5 Prius’ sleek looks and all the while it’s unmistakably Hot Wheels. I love it.

And there’s neat details aplenty; with a carbon fibre effect textured roof and make and model badging cast into the part moulds. And like Jimmy Liu’s Prius (also finished in “Wind Chill pearl”) in the Mattel car park, the model is shod with a set of blue lightweight wheels, with blue “6SP” wheels mimicking the Magnum Blue RAYS TE37s fitted to Jimmy’s car. And there’s a very cool Jimmy related Easter egg hidden behind the dark tinted windows: a sleeping cat curled up on the parcel shelf, a miniature version of his own cat Lucy.

And in case you were wondering if these details are supposed to be seen, Bryan left me in no doubt that Hot Wheels designers are fully aware of the custom and wheel swapping scene, with him admitting he “immediately swapped on the Real Rider TE37 style wheels!” on his Prius. This led me to ask about Bryan’s own collection, which includes 1/64, 1/43 and 1/18 cars as well as aircraft model kits (we have since talked about a particularly challenging XB-70 kit!) and Gundam figurines.

As a curveball, I asked if there was anything he or the team would have done differently on the Prius now that it’s hanging from the pegs, and he admitted “the exhaust… that’s something we overlooked!” In the real Prius the exhaust for the petrol 4-cylinder is admittedly hidden under the car, but on something as wild as the Hot Wheels version, you’d expect maybe a custom exhaust system poking out somewhere. But an exhaust of any sort is absent. “It’s a good lesson for us to learn” Bryan says. “We endeavour to do better next time!”

Talking to Bryan was a great insight into how the Mattel team work and just how passionate he and his colleagues are about cars and collecting. These are the type of people you want behind the scenes of your favourite diecast brands. It’s often easy to forget as a collector that the product you see hanging from the pegs is the result of many months of hard work, and I’m always grateful for the chance to see just how models like the Prius come together. Safe to say my best of 2026 has a contender already.

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