Hot Wheels HW40

To celebrate Hot Wheels’ 40th anniversary, Mattel did something it’s never done before. It asked outside designers to come up with designs for its miniature toy cars.

Hot Wheels invited major automakers to submit ideas that would be turned into a line of 1/64 scale toy cars. Six car companies sent at least three designs apiece, which were judged by a panel that included Hot Wheels executives and designers as well as editors from the Los Angeles Times, Car and Driver magazine, and Men’s Journal magazine.

Since these weren’t going to be made into real cars, there were few restrictions (wheels don’t need room to steer, for instance, and drivers don’t actually need to see out).

There were a few guidlines, however. The designs had to reflect Hot Wheels’ “Power, performance and speed” credo. The final cars would also have to go around “the loop,” the classic circle of Hot Wheels track.

The final set of seven toy cars, which will go on sale in the spring, will include the six cars designed by outside sources and a seventh, shown here as a sketch, from Hot Wheels.

Ford Gangster Grin
Designer: Steve Gilmore

Gilmore was one of two winning designers with previous Hot Wheels experience. He interned there while in college.

The Gangster Grin had been living inside his head for years, Gilmore said, waiting for an opportunity to come out.

The bullet shape in the center of the car’s grill was inspired by a similar shape on a 1949 Ford. The overall shape of the car was inspired by customized Mercury cars of the 1950s.

Other designers looking over his shoulder as he worked suggested the evil-looking car had a “grin” to it, which inspired the name.

Although it looks impossibly low, the Gangster Grin passes Hot Wheels’ loop test.