Vintage Redline HotWheels Cars

Hello and welcome to Vintage Redliners. Your pit stop for vintage Redline Hot Wheels cars. Whether you're a first time collector or have been collecting for years, we have some great deals for you.

Prior to Hot Wheels, the large market for miniature car models was ruled at that time by the British company Lesney with their Matchbox cars. Elliot Handler, co-founder of Mattel, chose to develop a line of diecast miniature cars for boys.

Even though his executives believed it was a risky idea, he was able to gain control of a good deal of this market by putting in a number of new characteristics, including low-friction wheels suited for racing on a track, and styling in tune with the present time of custom, racing and show cars coming out of places such as California.

There were sixteen casts published in 1968, eleven of them created by Harry Bentley Bradley, with the first one created representing a dark blue customized Camaro. Even though Bradley was from the automobile industry, he hadn't created the full functioning editions of the actual cars, except for the Dodge Deora concept car, which had been constructed by Mike and Larry Alexander. Other notable designs were the Custom Fleetside, which was founded on his own heavily customized 1964 El Camino.

Of the first 16 cars, many times labeled the "Sweet 16", by collectors, 9 were based on custom editions of regular production cars of the era, and 7 were based on actual show cars and automobiles created for track racing. All of the cars sported traits that made them easily recognizable are:

• Spectaflame Paint: This paint was metallic in nature and had many bright, shiny and eye-catching colors.
• Redline Wheels: All of the original Hot Wheels are now known as Redline Hot Wheels, for the red paint around the tires.
• Chrome Rims/Hubs: Another famous trait of the Redline Hot Wheels is the chrome rims. When the cars were being made both in Hong Kong and the United States, the Hong Kong wheels typically had shinier, brighter chrome.
• Customization: While the Redline Hot Wheels were based off of actual cars, they were all customized and were designed to portray a custom or hot rod style. These customizations often included emphasizing the raw power of the engine.

The metallic 'Spectraflame' paintwork also distinguished these models from the dreary enamel of Matchbox cars. The appealing finishes were attained by polishing up the bare metal of the bodyshells and then covering them in a clear colored lacquer, and sported such unusual colorings such as 'Antifreeze', 'Magenta' and 'Hot Pink'.

Since 'Hot Pink' was thought of as a "girls color", it wasn't utilized much on Hot Wheels cars. For most castings, it's the most difficult color to obtain, and nowadays can command prices ten times as much as more common colors.

As it turned out, the Hot Wheels cars were a huge success. This achievement must be placed in its historic perspective: in essence, the series "re-wrote the book" for miniature diecast car models from 1968 forward, pressuring the competition at Matchbox and elsewhere to totally rethink their concepts, and to scramble to try to regain lost ground.

By this time Harry Bentley Bradley had left Mattel to return to the automobile industry. When the company asked him back, he suggested a good friend, Ira Gilford. Gilford, who had recently left Chrysler, took on the task of designing the next Hot Wheels models. A few of Hot Wheels' best cars, like the Twin Mill and Splittin' Image, came from Ira Gilford's drawing board.

The success of the 1968 established Hot Wheels as the most important brand of miniature toy car models in the USA.

With that being said, we now invite you to look around as we're sure you'll find some great deals on vintage Redline Hot Wheels cars to add to your collection.

Please note that we update this site throughout the day as we find good deals so we recommend you bookmark it in order to be kept up to date on all the great finds of Redline Hot Wheels.

Enjoy