Here’s Why Early to Mid-2000’s Hot Wheels Was Awesome

Shame, because for generations before, Hot Wheels was the be all end all for any young gearhead's after-school fun. It's tuning month at autoevolution. So let's have a look at the toy-car series that turned us all into petrolheads in arguably, its absolute peak.

To our eyes, their apex was not in the 70s, but the mid-2000s. In that time period, the Internet and social media had not yet become the path of least resistance method for child entertainment, and boy did Hot Wheels sure make the most of that grace period. A line of iconic die-cast cars, a very memorable direct-to-video movie, a sequel TV miniseries, and a fondly remembered video game. Not bad for a bunch of little toys with no Bluetooth connectivity.

As mentioned, many collectors believe the golden era of Hot Wheels collectible toy cars came in the 60s and 70s. A mint 1969 edition of the pink rear-loading Beach Beach Bomb recently sold for $175,000. We can only hope it was traded for an actual sports car instead of cash, but that's just wishful thinking. But to people of a certain generation of kids, the mid-2000s and Hot Wheels go together like PB&J sandwiches with the crust cut off and a tall glass of chocolate milk.

It all started with the release of arguably the most iconic Hot Wheels model of all time, the famed Deora II. This futuristic cab-over pickup truck with a space-age forward opening cockpit door was conceived by the American Designer Nathan Proch. His design welcomed Hot Wheels into the new Millenium in the year 2000, and it would go on to become the de-facto halo car of the brand.

Jumping from the physical plane to the world of fictional media, the Deora II would have a starring role in Hot Wheel's then-latest attempt at an animated film, Hot Wheels: World Race. The direct-to-video film would be divided into five episodes and aired on Cartoon Network as Hot Wheels: Highway 35.

This #35 designation celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Hot Wheels franchise during the summer of 2003. Thanks to the American pop-rock band Smash Mouth, the movie had a professionally done theme song. Coincidentally, they're the same band that made the opening theme for Shrek - small world.

As plot summaries go, you'll need to suspend your disbelief if you want to enjoy this kids cartoon from nearly two decades ago. But once one does, it's actually a reasonably decently written and well voice-acted little direct-to-video movie.

15-year-old CGI animation usually looks god-awful after being spoiled by more modern fare. But we dare to say that if the film were to be re-released today, there wouldn't be much at all to complain about. That said, a 4k remaster sure sounds appealing.

Of course, the film and its divided TV adaptation spawned a line of 35 collectible die-cast toy cars, buildable plastic tracks, and a VHS and DVD edition in stores. The success this line of products generated spurred a sequel series released in 2005.

Hot Wheels: Acceleracers follows the same story arc as was left off in World Race, with many main characters returning alongside new characters in unique and wicked-looking cars. This sequel saga was well received and had a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Not a bad result from what could have been a complete throwaway corporate promotion.

And what successful animated series from the early-to-mid 2000s would be complete without its own video game franchise? At the time, game critics weren't all that kind to the Hot Wheels World Race: The Game, especially the mobile Gameboy Advance version.

But to kids who grew up with the movie, and the TV series, looking over the flawed driving mechanics is no hard thing. The track construction in this game is pretty spectacular for what it's worth, especially for something released on the Playstation Two and Nintendo Gamecube.

It's a shame that kids these days generally don't enjoy collectible toy cars the same way people less than two decades older were able to. But at least Generation Z was able to enjoy them, just before iPhones and tablets completely changed the average childhood forever.

It was never anyone's intent for Hot Wheels, and physical toys in general to fall by the way-side in favor of brightly lit slabs of glass with pictures inside. But this made sure that Gen-Z was the last to enjoy them properly.