My Want List: 2022 Hot Wheels Case "H" - Part 1

Hello, and welcome to a new edition of My Want List here on the Star Boulevard of Speed. There's been times where a mainline assortment won't have that many releases I want. But that hasn't really been the case with a few of the ones from this year. Some of the assortments have had many different releases that piqued my interest, and this year's case "H" is the latest example of that. In total, there were fifteen different releases that I wanted to add to my collection. That's right, fifteen! Now, unfortunately I was only able to find fourteen of them, which is a little disappointing, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Sometimes you're able to find everything you want all at once, and sometimes you can't. At the end of the day, I was able to find all of the main releases that I wanted, and that's all that really matters. 

Since I got a total of fourteen releases, I've decided to only talk about twelve of them in this multi-part post, and each part is will feature six releases. In my opinion, that's a good amount for each part. As for the other two releases, they are going to be saved for a future edition of White Booth Wednesday. Alright, I've made this intro long enough. Let's go over the six I picked for part one.

The Baja Blazers mainline series has once again given off-road fans some neat releases to add to their collection, and I feel some of the coolest ones were the two Borla themed releases, as well as the HW450F. The Custom Ford Bronco and the Humvee weren't bad, either. I just wish they'd given them black wheels instead. Anyway, the series had one more release for us to get before it was completed, and that release ended up being a new '95 Jeep Cherokee casting. 

The Hot Wheels designers have definitely created a modified Jeep Cherokee that's sure to please many off-road enthusiast. I, for one, am also pleased with it's overall design because it features many of the cool off-road modifications you expect to see on a vehicle like this. I also think this casting has excellent proportions. 

I'm also pleased with how they kept things simple for this first release's exterior, and it's cool how they chose to put decals to the window piece. It's not every day that we see them utilize the extra space that's available on it. So I feel a mainline release becomes somewhat unique when they put details on its windows. Now, the only thing I don't like is how they decided to only put them on one side. If I was going to put decals on my back windows, I'd put them on both sides.

I'd also like to mention that I'm very pleased with the wheels they picked. Sure, I've come to accept the brown wheels that are used for off-road releases, but I'm really happy with their decision to use the black ones for this first release. Hopefully they'll give us a few more clean looking releases of this Jeep. But I know there's a good chance that the next release will be muddy looking like this year's release of the '21 Ford Bronco.

It's not uncommon to see the same car being made by both of Mattel's diecast brands. In fact, not too long ago, their Matchbox brand gave us their version of the Porsche 918. And I happen to think it's a little better than the Hot Wheels casting due to the way they designed the section above its engine. So why am I talking about one brand's casting being the better of the two? Well, it's because I was finally able to get my hands on the Hot Wheels version of the Telsa Roadster. And this is another one of those times where I think the Matchbox one is better. 

 

In my area, this casting was one of the ones people hoarded, and I really don't see why. Everything about it looks okay until you get to the front end of it. In my opinion, this Hot Wheels version of the Tesla Roadster was designed with their younger fans in mind. And that opinion is supported by the "best for track" that's on the top of the card. So Hot Wheels definitely wanted their casting to be played with. 

You might be wondering why I added it to my want list if I don't completely like how it looks. Well, I basically wanted this release because I feel silver is a great color for this car, and I wasn't sure if we'd ever see a silver one from Matchbox. So I figured I'd go ahead and take the opportunity to have an example of the Tesla Roadster that's silver.

So will I continue to add this casting's releases to my want list? Yes, I'll most likely try to get the future releases that I like. At the end of the day, this casting is not perfect, but it's not bad either.

I usually don't put Treasure Hunt releases on my want list, but the designers created a very nice looking one for this year's Compact Kings mainline series. So I made the decision to just add it to my want list. I knew my chances of finding it were going to be slim, but you never know what you'll find when you arrive at the diecast row. Although... nowadays, the diecast row is mostly empty. Anyway, I chose to remain optimistic, and I'm glad I did because I ended up being at the right place at the right time. With that being said, the Morris Mini Treasure Hunt is the next release that I checked off of my want list. 

This casting made its debut way back in the year 2000. Since then, its had quite a few awesome releases. And in my opinion, the 2014 release was one of the coolest racing themed ones because it featured real-life sponsor decals. Sadly, I wasn't really collecting diecast cars around that time. So I missed that release. That's why I'll always try to go after the racing themed release that have real-life sponsor decals.

I'm going to go ahead and say that this release looks a little better than the "British Horsepower" one. Now, don't get me wrong, I still very much like that release due to the fact that it features a cool color scheme and a few real-life sponsor decals. But this one is a little more decorated. Sure, it's just a simple stripe design, but I feel it's the perfect livery for this compact king.  

In recent years, the Hot Wheels designers have created some spectacular unlicensed castings, and two of the ones that I fell in love with are the GT Scorcher and the Glory chaser. In my opinion, both of them look like replicas of actual race cars. That's why they're both featured in the 1:64 Scale GT's auto museum. That might not seem like a big deal, but it is because the auto museums here usually only feature releases of licensed castings.

So why am I talking about unlicensed castings being featured in the auto museums? Well, it's because the Hot Wheels designers have done it again! For the third time, they've created an unlicensed race car that's definitely going to be featured in the 1:64 Scale GT's auto museum. It's called "Dimachinni Veloce," and it's one fine looking 80s rally car. 

Perfection! That's the only thing I can say about this casting and its first release. One of the things that I noticed about unlicensed castings is that they usually don't feature real-life sponsor decals. And I really don't understand why. Fortunately, that's not the case with this casting's first release. It might only be Firestone and Castrol, but two real-life decals are better than none.

The exterior color and the decals aren't the only cool thing about this first release. Additional features that I like are the black hood, the black spoiler, and the "Dimachinni" white stripe that's along its sides. 

As for the wheels, I think the DD8s were a great choice, and I'm sure many of you will agree. Now, I also happen to think they aren't the only great wheel for this casting. Since it's an 80s styled car, I feel it'll also look great with either the Aero Disk wheels or the lace wheels. So hopefully they'll consider using one of those for a future release. But if not, then that's fine.

Sometimes, multiple releases of a casting will have the same wheels. And while there's nothing wrong with that, I do think it's nice to finally see one with a different wheel. So even if a new release is similar to what I already have, I will still make the decision to add it to my want list anyway. And that's why I chose to add this year's release of the Back to the Future Time Machine to my want list. For the first time, this casting has the Aero Disk wheels, and I kind of think it looks better with them than it does with the 10-spoke wheels. 

It's also worth mentioning that the casting has been updated, but I really don't care about the changes they made to it. All I cared about was having an example of the casting with the Aero Disk wheels. 

Recently, Hot Wheels has started to use some of their hottest castings from the early 2000s again, and the decision to do so has made me a very happy collector. Why? Well, it's because I missed out on a lot of those castings due to the fact that I was very young at the time. So using castings like the La Troca again has made it so there's less things for me to look for on the secondary market. 

One of the hottest castings from the early 2000s was the '47 Chevy Fleetline, and the decision was made to use it for this year's Rod Squad mainline series. Now, I actually ended up getting one of its older releases when I was doing a lot of shopping on Ebay. So I wasn't that excited about this year's release of it. However, that doesn't mean I wasn't going to add it to my want list.

The Mooneyes theme created for this release might be simple, but it definitely doesn't look bad at all. The only design choice that I'm really questioning is their decision to use the lace wheels again. In my opinion, this particular release should have had the Aero Disk wheels instead. But I do have to admit that the lace wheels aren't a bad looking wheel for this casting. I just think it would have been nice to see something a little different. After all, many of this casting's releases were given the lace wheels.

Okay, those are the six releases that I picked for part one. Be sure to come back tomorrow to see how I feel about the six that'll be featured in part two. Until then, thanks for reading, and happy collecting.