As if being bought by Disney wasn't corny enough, Star Wars is going to sell its soul to the devil by transforming into a line of toys for children. I mean, how are we supposed to dream of one day becoming a Jedi if Darth Vader is available as a cute stuffed toy or a pig in Angry Birds?
We've never seen a vehicle with wheels in the Star Wars universe, but Hot Wheels went ahead and made little tribute cars based on the most famous characters. A couple of days ago, we showed you the latest ones, which are based on the BB-8 droid, among other things.
However, the Darth Vader Hot Wheels car, which is our favorite, is a little older. To celebrate the partnership with Lucas Film, the toy company commissioned a full-sized version of the 4-wheeled Vader. It made its debut during the 2014 Comic Con.
Sometimes concept cars are just mock-ups with no interior or engine. Considering the Vader car doesn't exist in the movie and is based on a crude little toy, we expected that to be the case here. However, Hot Wheels brought it to Jay Leno's Garage and showed the world that it was a fully working machine.
The designer came to the show, and it seems he's an old friend of Leno's. After working for ten years in the automotive industry, he jumped ship from Honda to Hot Wheels. It's kind of funny how he said he didn't want to do a dopey literal copy of Darth Vader, yet that's precisely what he did. Nevertheless, the design is cool-looking and fresh.
The coolest feature is how you get into the dang thing. First, the Vader's helmet comes off and then the visor-inspired windshield tilts forwards. You're not going to get inside this thing in a hurry, but everybody will want to check it out if it ever shows up at a local Cars and Coffee event.
For the record, the Vader body is placed on top of a heavily modified C6 Corvette body made using a lot of tubing.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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