"Hot Wheels Designer Looks Back on 50 Years" Topic

Larry Wood started designing Hot Wheels cars a year after they first hit the shelves on May 18, 1968. Over six billion cars later, he's still at it…

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I wish I had my Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars from when I was a kid, probably had a hundred but all gone.

Still basically the same price point

I remember May 18th Vividly. I was nine and we were on vacation visiting relatives in Brooklyn. My aunt took us to a store and they were just then stocking the shelves with these cool cars and this track thing that you set up and let the cars run down the track and go through the loop…… My parents bought me the loop set, a custom Thunderbird and a custom Fleetside. A couple days later as we drove home to Buffalo I remember waiting with great anticipation to show all my friends my cool "Brooklyn" stuff. With my cars in my pocket I knocked on my best friend's door, and he answered all excited and said "let me show you what I got while you were gone!" Waa Waa Waaaaaaaaa…..

Most of my eventually large collection was stolen. I was playing with them in a dirt pile in the back yard, and when I came back from lunch they were gone.