Hot Wheels – Disney Classic Movies (Walmart Exclusive Set of 5)

Oooh boy, remember when little sets like this used to fly off the shelves all the time? It seems like we got a new one every couple of months at least, and now we’re down to what, 1 or 2 a year…? Although not on the “Premium” level of the more well-known stuff on thicker cards, I can actually appreciate getting this kind of artwork for $1.19 a pop rather than the usual $5.99.

The artwork on the cards resembles the spines of an old VHS collection and like some other sets the edges of one card line up with the next. They actually form one big circle, as the bottom half of “Aladdin” on right side of The Lion King (5/5) lines up with the top half of “Aladdin” on Peter Pan’s (1/5) left edge.

I wish I could find official names for these sets (would it be so hard to print the damn thing somewhere on the cards!?) but on eBay it seems to be known as something like the Disney Classic Movies so that works well enough for me. Here’s what we got:

• 1 / 5 – Peter Pan – Baja Hauler
• 2 / 5 – Beauty and the Beast – ’49 Merc
• 3 / 5 – Aladdin – Boom Box
• 4 / 5 – The Nightmare Before Christmas – Kool Kombi
• 5 / 5 – The Lion King – The Vanster

Now generally the Baja Hauler doesn’t do much for me…maybe it’s the white frame, maybe it’s the contrast of the blue and green…I’m not too sure, but whatever the case I think this truck has loads of visual appeal. It looks fresh – light – springy – despite it being a big boxy truck. The artwork is impressive both in its level of minute detail and the amount of color squeezed into such a space. The left side features Peter and the other children, while the right sees him in combat with Captain Hook and Tinkerbell watching over. The bright colors of the characters’ costumes play well with the deep blues, purples, and otherwise shadows of the backdrops. Oh and the backdoor opens to reveal usable storage space inside!

Next is the ’49 Merc, a decidedly modern-looking vintage car. We get small scenes from Beauty and the Beast on the sides; the right features the titular characters and the left sports Belle and the other castle inhabitants who’ve been transformed into dishes, flatware, and the like. And there’s that white frame again! What I really love about this guy is how it catches the light. There’s a base coat of rosey purple but in the light you can see the purple dusted over by a glittery / shimmery indigo-blue sort of color. The effect in its entirety makes it look like it’s 2 colors at the same time.

Then there’s the Boom Box in support of Aladdin, drawing inspiration from somewhere between family kid-haulers to urban bass machines. We get some fairly intricate artwork featuring several characters on each side, further accentuated by shadows of various heights of the Taj Mahal in the background. Yet again we get that white frame!

The Kool Kombi has been everywhere lately; this time it’s adorned with artwork from The Nightmare Before Christmas…an appropriately weird flick for an appropriately odd car. The matte black gives it a truly dark and dreary tone and we get spot-on artwork of Jack, Sally, that scientist guy and the dog-thing. Everything down to Sally’s stitching has been given the utmost in care and consideration. (Oh yes, and again with the white frame!)

Then we get to one of my favorites, The Vanster. This design has always appealed to some kinda retro-modern sensibility in me. Decorated in homage to The Lion King we get some nice poses from several of the film’s main characters. What I like most about this piece is the deep, metalflake turquoise that makes up most of the ambient background. I like how it’s kinda dark and cool but also calm and inviting. And it goes real well with those white wheels (and white frame!).

All in all I think this is a pretty decent set of cars – it may even skew just a tiny bit girly. The small bits of art are all immaculate, though I can’t help but wonder why so much empty space is left unused. The running theme of white wheels / white frames gives the set a sense of cohesion, plus the white wheels look great with most color schemes. Anyway I guess that’s about all I got on the subject for now, so until next time!

Disney “Tribute” Cars (RealRiders / Hot Wheels Premium) – Mid-2020

Hot Wheels has pumped out a lot of these little Disney-inspired sets, haven’t they? I wish we could go back to the days of breakfast cereals and Universal Monsters, but these RealRiders always turn out beautiful nonetheless. I don’t know if there’s a connection between all these flicks, but they do share a rough time period with each other: ’92, ’91, ’93, ’98, and ’94. This is well within the so-called “Golden Age” of Disney so it’s possible that they’re just trying to induce some nostalgia in the adults that grew up on these films.

Right now we’re looking at…

• 1 / 5 – Beauty and the Beast – Super Van
• 2 / 5 – Aladdin – Deco Delivery
• 3 / 5 – The Nightmare Before Christmas – ’59 Cadillac Funny Car
• 4 / 5 – Mulan – Dream Van XGW
• 5 / 5 – The Lion King – Custom GMC Panel Van

As usual, the whole presentation here is nice and polished. Heavy for the size, thick card stock, slick and glossy finish, and beautiful, vibrant colors on the card from edge to edge. Yeah…they a lil’ pricey but worth it so long as your plans don’t involve slamming them into each other. Most of these body designs will be exceedingly familiar – I guess they’re chosen for the amount of surface area available for graphics.

The first entry, a Super Van adorned with Beauty and the Beast artwork, is decked out in a deep, slightly sparkly midnight blue. Little flourishes around the edges make it feel a little like a fairy tale book. One side features Belle and the Beast in an embrace while the other shows Belle piling books into the Beast’s arms. One of the things I really appreciate about these is how they use almost all available space. The back gives us a glance at Lumiere (? the candlestick guy/think) and the clock guy/thing. Even the roof gets some attention with a simple depiction of the magic rose.

Next up is Deco Delivery, something I’m sure was very futuristic for its time. It looks like a cross between one of those fancy retro campers and a 60’s hippie van. There’s something about the Aladdin-themed decoration that really makes this design pop more than usual. It’s primarily a lush, regal purple with plenty of metalflake. Although gorgeous on its own, I think it’s the golden accents that really get the magic flowing. One side features Aladdin, Jasmine, and the monkey (Abu?) soaring above the city in the night sky on a magic carpet. The other side is taken over by the Genie himself, and the unobtrusive lamp is featured on the back. The soft curves mixed with its boxy shape always gives this vehicle a distinctive look and so far, this is one of my favorites.

Bustin’ in at numero tres is The Nightmare Before Christmas by way of the ’59 Cadillac Funny Car. It’s perfectly appropriate seeing as how the Funny Car very much resembles a hearse, and yet it’s also a little offbeat and “crooked,” words we might also use to describe the animation as well as the tone of this world itself. The body is hinged to the chassis so it doesn’t fully detach…still I wonder what the point of this feature is.

The whole Halloween thing is thoroughly embraced here with a black body and orange windows. The hood is filled with an emblematic image of Jack’s head (skull?) right in the middle of a spiderweb. The actual roof features a great portrait of Jack and his Corpse Bride. The sides feature jack’o’lanterns and vines, keeping most of the focus on the upper designs. What a great combination.

Then there’s Mulan and the Dream Van XGW. She sports an unusual reddish-orange paint job with scenes of Mulan training on either side. On the top is her dragon friend enclosed in a circle, like some kind of talisman or trinket.

Our last bundle of fun is the Super Van decorated with The Lion King. The background is a mixture of soft blues forming a sky full of great-looking clouds. One side features a grown Simba and Nala and several friends overlooking the kingdom, while the other sports a snapshot from Simba’s past where he’s just hangin’ with Pumbaa and Timon. Most bizarre is the back – it’s a still of an airborne Pumbaa just about to catch some large beetle with his mouth!

So how do these latest Disney-films-silk-screened-onto-diecast-cars strike you? Aladdin is easily my favorite. The unusual shape plus the purple and gold give it real presence. I suspect its only a matter of time before we get a new batch…!

A Closer Look at DISNEY Series 2 Character Cars

Alrighty, this is right on the heels of my other Disney Series 2 article. I kinda wanted to include this stuff in that article, but I was already falling so far behind. At any rate, now that I’ve got all of the cars open, there’s a few more details I want to get into. Remember, the Series 2 lineup is as follows:

• 1 / 6 – Minnie Mouse
• 2 / 6 – Peter Pan
• 3 / 6 – Belle
• 4 / 6 – Pinocchio
• 5 / 6 – Stitch
• 6 / 6 – Sulley

If any of these seems redundant from the previous article, my apologies. It won’t kill anyone to read a couple of adjectives an extra time or two.

Naturally, Minnie Mouse is pretty basic and essentially a feminized version of Mickey from Series 1. The sporty car has a bit of a deeper curve and generally more rounded features. The “ears” comprise what could be considered a spoiler, yet they’re almost obscured by the 3D-ish box that sits on top behind the cabin. It definitely feels a little “simple” but if they’d gone in hardcore with the details it wouldn’t feel much like the classic “Minnie Mouse.” I am slightly interested in what it mightlook like with pink replacing the red (a more modern interpretation) but overall I like the “boy-clone / girl-clone” dichotomy for this pair of characters.

Previously I described Peter Pan as something coming out of the Bugatti camp, and I still feel that way. It’s a little sleeker and more “spaceship-y” than your typical hyper-car. The fin-like protrusion created by Peter’s feather gives it a very sleek look. A couple of touches I didn’t notice until opening it were the small belt in hood area and the sword resting along the right side of the body whereabouts the passenger door would be. Also, the entire green body rests atop a grayish semi-transparent “foundation.” The reason? Well I don’t really know. Maybe it’s a nod to everyone’s ability to fly around. It is a bit of a bizarre addition.

I really love the throwback design of Belle’s car. It’s big and yellow and grandiose like her iconic evening gown. It’s classy, sophisticated…impressive without being flashy or outlandish. The muscle car-ish design belies Belle’s femininity a bit but I’ll let it slide. There is a very cool detail on the back windshield – I won’t bother trying to take a picture of it because it won’t show – but instead of a regular ol’ windshield, it resembles green stained glass and in the very middle is a rose housed within a dome, a very clear nod to the magical rose that drives the plot of Beauty and the Beast.

Originally I pointed out that Pinocchio’s elongated hood was a representation of his famous nose. As I opened it, I noticed a seam about half way down…check it, the front half of the hood (“nose”) pulls forward revealing an uber-tiny engine! It’s almost like opening the hood by sliding it out like a drawer. What’s the one, big, defining feature that everyone knows about Pinocchio? His growing nose! Even though it is a total gimmick, the fact that they’ve worked it into the design without it interfering is pretty cool.

Stitch is neither a character I’m all that attached to nor one I grew up intermittently exposed to, so I sortta judge it from a “super-objective” standpoint. Upon closer inspect, I really like the compact yet sporty shape. It look a lot like something you might expect to see whizzing around the Italian countryside in the next 5 to 10 years. It’s also a very unique, indigo hue that I didn’t pick up on at first, further accentuated by the vibrant turquoise undercarriage.

Besides Minnie, I’d peg Sulley as the most recognizable, provided one is familiar with Monsters, Inc. I’m not sure if anything really jumps out at me now that it’s out of the package…perhaps the prominent brow-line which now functions as the overhang on the windshield is a bit more obvious. It is the only matte piece in Series 2, which I suppose is a small nod to Sulley’s fur. Most of the truck’s lines are slanted, giving it sense of motion and action and not just a boring, static tow-truck. Sulley was hardly the most nimble of the monsters, but he was alive, and all the diagonal lines contribute to the illusion.

So there we go, a little more up close and personal with these newbies. I love the variety of shapes and color, and as bizarre as that Pinocchio thing is, it’ll be a while before its oddness is matched or topped. Let me know what you think below!