The making of the $140,000 Hot Wheels 40th Anniversary car
Earlier this week we brought you amazing photos of a Hot Wheel car Mattel valued at $140,000. "WTF?!," is what we heard from a lot of readers who wondered how a $1 toy could possibly be worth more than their entire collections of late-80s Buicks and/or Mustang IIs.
We asked similar questions, too, and got a series of photos from our buds at Mattel documenting what it took to create what is probably the worlds' most expensive 1:64 scale toy car.
In our previous post, we said most of the value came from the diamonds and rubies on the car's white gold body. We may have been wrong. Studying the photos in the gallery, the amount of patience and painstaking attention to tiny, tiny detail is where at least half the $140k is spent. We get bleary-eyed just thinking about having to place each of the 2,700 jewels in each of those microscopic little holes drilled in the car's 14k body.
So, yeah, $140k is still way too much money to pay for a car you can't even live in, but we now have a little more respect for what it took to create it.
Update: For all you HW collectors out there wondering what model is beneath all that glitter, it looks to be the Custom Otto casting.
[Source: Mattel]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Richard 10:16AM (2/22/2008)
As detailed as that was, its a pity that they couldn't get the hood gap a bit more even. Still, some nice work there, and an interesting addition to the jeweler's resume!
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FThorn 10:46AM (2/22/2008)
panel gap? It was an AMERICAN CAR! :)
That's a lot of mullah for the car. Just think how many starving ___________ it would feed.
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Papercutninja 10:55AM (2/22/2008)
Anybody else assume this is going to be sold to someone in the Middle East? I'm looking in your direction, Dubai.
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Deathshead 11:16AM (2/22/2008)
pretty cool, but why did that have to add all the douchebaggery?
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Chad 11:33AM (2/22/2008)
lol!
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Playdrv4me 3:01PM (2/22/2008)
Better than a 675k License plate. You can at least play with this.
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rcampbel3 3:45PM (2/22/2008)
Both the model above and the custom otto casting remind me a lot of 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado -- proportions, overall body style - especially the back half (rear window, drainage louvers, deck lid, bumper shape...) - change the front nose on this car, adjust the fender flares a bit and it'd be a ringer for a hot rod Toronado.
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mike325ci 6:46PM (2/22/2008)
this bling thing has gone way too far now... >
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jerry 11:46PM (2/22/2008)
Big deal.
Adding jewels to (fill in the blank) is an easy way for the media to pick up a story and give a lot of free publicity to (your company goes here).
I'll sell you my calcified feces from 1998 with three rubies in it for $28,000. Such a deal. Be the first on your block!
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