You Can Tell It's Mattel... It's Swell!

I found this photo on Google,
but I don't remember where. Sorry.

This is the first Hot Wheel I ever had. It was called The Silhouette. I was six years old when I got it. It was part of a Hot Wheels set which included about six hunks of track, which, when assembled was about eight feet in length, a pink plastic clamp to attach one end of the track to a table, and about six pink things to hold the track segments together. And of course, The Silhouette. I was at K-Mart with my parents when my mom bought it for me. It must've been 1968. (The Beatles were still together, for crying out loud.) All's I remember is my mom saying, "Is that what you want?" I don't remember if my answer was verbal or if I just nodded. All I knew was I was obsessed with this little car and track set. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I bet it only cost about $1.98.

I don't still have the car. (That's an awkwardly constructed sentence, isn't it?) (What I mean is I don't have it any more.) (Why didn't I just say that?) (Don't worry, I'll white all this out before I hit publish.) Anyway, I don't have my original Silhouette any more, but I did buy one at a flea market about ten years ago. It's the same color, same as this picture, Metallic Purple. Someone told me that the plastic bubble over the driver's compartment was available in either clear or blue-tinted plastic, and that the tinted one today is worth more to collectors. I'm remembering my original having the tinted bubble. The one I got at the flea market has a clear bubble. Just my luck, huh? My original one is prol'ly worth seven million dollars and it's buried in the earth somewhere.

But this ain't about money. This is about a happy childhood memory. But what is it about this little die-cast mass-produced purple thing that fits in the palm of my hand that makes me remember so much about it? And so fondly? I figure Hot Wheels are to little boys what Barbies are to little girls.

And they're both made by Mattel. Talk about lightning striking twice! Every girl for the past 50 years has had a Barbie and every boy for the last 40 years has had a Hot Wheel. That's... well... everybody. Not bad for a toy company to capture one hundred percent of the population. And each of those boys and girls can prol'ly share the same sort of "I remember my first one" story that I just shared.

They're just toys, right?

Or are they?

I don't know how to end this post, so I'll just say, as ever, thank you for blogging at Bleggah!