Full Scale Hot Wheels

Addiction.

Addiction.

Yeah, I’m addicted. I’m not too big to admit it. I love these little cars. I hunt a few times a week. I have a huge collection. I give them out with nearly every order.

I love Hot Wheels.

I also love Miatas.

This is going somewhere…

Hot Wheels ND Miata

Hot Wheels ND Miata

In 2016, Hot Wheels did an ND Miata. It’s a really pretty one. Rollbar, nice proportions, front intercooler. They did a few different colors on the car. This red one was the first livery. Simple, but really cool. A big roundel on the door, some swooshy side graphics. It works well with the car.

And for the past 41 years, I’ve basically been a little kid who’s always wanted to drive a Hot Wheels of his own.

And so…

1:1 scale Hot Wheels

1:1 scale Hot Wheels

… I made my ND into a Hot Wheels.

See, after putting some numbers on Mona’s doors, I got bit by the livery bug. I started trying to figure out what I could do. I have huge vinyl printers and this nice blank canvas. Seemed like a livery would be fun. My eyes turned to my Hot Wheels collection.

I thought the first version red ND would be a good place to start.

The graphics are simple. I just used simple cut white vinyl. No ink required. I grabbed a quick google photo of an ND profile, laid out the graphics on it in Illustrator, and sent the shapes to the printer to get cut. A couple of hours later, Ramona had a Hot Wheels livery!

Fast even when parked.

Fast even when parked.

She just makes me smile.

She just makes me smile.

She makes EVERYONE smile.

She makes EVERYONE smile.

Driving THIS in traffic is way too much fun. Kids smile and wave. Grown ups smile and wave. People wanna chat. It’s… pure fun.

Just like a Hot Wheels.

And while the vinyl isn’t meant to stay on there permanently or anything, it’s fun for now. A fun first step. I learned enough with this first dip into full-size car livery that I’m ready for the next round. I might put more than 15 minutes into the livery design and actually measure the car before printing and cutting…

oh yeah, I did this also.

Hot Wheels x revlimiter

Hot Wheels x revlimiter

An hour or so of playing in Photoshop and I have my own car under a blister.

Needless to say, my inner child is extremely happy about this.

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  • Larry Hopper says:

    Great story. Having nothing for scale in the first ND photo is very clever. Thanks for sharing.

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