OVERWATCH Adds a Character!

Seemingly out of nowhere we get a new addition to the Overwatch swath of Character Cars: Winston! Yeah ok, my Overwatch knowledge is pretty much nonexistent but they have made for some pretty cool Character Cars. Winston is some kinda super-smart gorilla a la Gorilla Grodd and he sports some tech-y looking armor. There are also a couple of appendages on the back that look like they’ve got something to do with propulsion, like you know, a jetpack. The 6 wheels and general design give it a kind of rugged yet sophisticated moon rover look.

I’m sure fans of Overwatch can offer further insight into one feature or the next – feel free to share if so. Otherwise I think I’m about all tapped out on the subject; overall it fits in well with its ilk owing to its hi-tech and somewhat futuristic appearance.

OVERWATCH Character Cars

Has anyone else out there had any trouble finding these? I broke down and ordered them off eBay for a very fair price mostly because I haven’t spotted any of these anywhere. This changed like, 3 days ago when I saw a single D.Va over at Best Buy. I’ve even made it a point stop in various GameStops to see if they had ’em…no dice.

But oh well, they’re here now and that’s what matters. I will admit that I was marginally dismissive of this set when I first learned about it. That’s not to say I ever planned on not getting them, I just put it on the back burner. I still don’t know any more about Overwatch than I did back when I covered the art / tribute cars…FPS, wildly popular take on the Battle Royale format…you shoot shit.

As it turns out, these cars are really freakin’ awesome looking. Everything from the color schemes to the little details tacked on hither and thither make for some really unique interpretations. I’m not familiar with the characters in Overwatch but from just glancing at promo art I can get a feel for the overall fun, cartoonish style in use. There’s an obvious hi-tech, futuristic vibe, so lots of room for creative juices to flow…and I think that’s what makes these vehicles such standouts.

• 1 / 5 – D.Va
• 2 / 5 – Solider: 76
• 3 / 5 – Tracer
• 4 / 5 – Reaper
• 5 / 5 – Genji

D.Va is first out the gate with a very expressive and anime-inspired color scheme. The vehicle itself is like a sports coupe with a futuristic twist. Two little pink spikes protrude just in front of the rear wheels….I of course know nothing about the purpose of these but they’re obviously an aspect of D.Va that a designer felt pertinent to use.

Soldier: 76 leans a little more towards the conventional side with its matte finish and relatively tame color scheme. There’s not much here to suggest a fighter or a “person” of sorts, but based on the artwork on the card, it doesn’t look like the designers had a whole lot of distinguishing features to work with.

Tracer is up next, and the colors strike me as a little old school. I looked at her illustration on the card and she actually has an old timey bomber jacket on. That cozy combination of browns and tans with that cream color and hints of orange contrasts with the overall futuristic theme. I like how the collar turns into the spoiler and the “arms” leading into the headlights…gives it a bit of a TNG spaceship feel.

Reaper comes in fourth, and as the name would suggest, this guy’s appearance is based on the Grim Reaper, right down to the black cloak and skull-like mask or helmet. The car does a pretty good job of looking like Mr. Death – I’m pretty sure most people would make the connection even without the name. It’s fairly sleek with a skull-ish shape worked into the windshield. Running down the front sides are what look to be some kind of firearm, and then the blower is fashioned after the shells shown hanging from Reaper’s belt on the card art.

Genji is our final character and by far the coolest looking car. It’s shooting for a very tech-y look with the chrome and transparent lime green. Honestly I can’t get much from the card art except this well-armored individual with what seems to be a sword at his disposal. Ok so judging from a cursory Google Images look, that clear green stuff tends to glow from within his armor and on the edge of his sword. I guess the remaining gray and chrome are the armor….it’s a bit abstract but it does make for a great looking vehicle. I also dig how the clear green make up the undercarriage, wheels, and some bleed-over into the rocker panels and front bumper.

Yeah I know those were some clunky descriptions, but that’s about the best I got short of getting to know the game itself. I do think this is a fantastic looking set of vehicles though, and I think other Character Car enthusiasts will appreciate.

Loads of New Character Cars in Q3/Q4 2020 & 2021

So I stumbled across this article a while ago, lost it, found it again, and now I’m gonna talk about it a lil’ before I lose it again. According to some stuff at ComiCon 2020, we’re in for a boatload of new stuff come Holiday season 2020 and into 2021. I sortta kinda wish Hot Wheels was putting more focus into its 3 juggernauts – Star Wars, Marvel, and DC (I guess you could 3.5 that now and lump Disney in) but it looks like they’ll be branching out into a buncha new subseries as well.

Note: The “pictures” presented here are all sketches and all lifted from the original article over on cnet.com. I was originally just going to link to the article, but I had some serious problems loading and reloading the relevant pages.

Note 2: I have since found some “real” images of some of the vehicles mentioned, and have inserted them in lieu of the sketches where possible.

Star Wars

If you’ve been following anything Star Wars related for the past few months, you probably saw this one coming a mile away: a Character Car based on The Child, colloquially known as “Baby Yoda.”

Supposedly his little head will bob up and down as the vehicle “rolls,” which in and of itself is meant to give the effect that he’s hovering along in his pram. This is sure to be hard one to find; I can only hope Hot Wheels isn’t as scarce with the upcoming wave as they have been with the last several Star Wars releases. The Child is slated to drop along with some “other Star Wars characters,” according to the source. I’m down with all the new stuff but I really wish they’d utilize these slow periods to tick big dogs from earlier movies off the list. And Bodhi. Jesus we need a Bodhi.

But hey, try not to get too excited about this bundle of joy – it’ll be as late as Spring 2021 before we see him!

DCU

DC’s been in a bit of a hibernation for a while and I think we all understand, though I wish that in the meantime Hot Wheels would fill in some gaps like Scarecrow or Clayface or Ra’s or Man-Bat or a million other friends and foes I could rail off. (Kinda surprised we didn’t get a Batwoman treatment…) It looks like our next batch is coming (or may possibly be here in some places) and will pay respects to Wonder Woman 1984. So far it looks like we have our Justice League-era Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman in that Gold Angel Armor we’ve been seeing everywhere, and of course (a very pale version of) Cheetah.

It ain’t a huge addition to the Character Car DCU, but they are good looking cars. I can’t really tell if the “regular” Wonder Woman is different or not…I know at a glance she’s familiar, but that blue rear area can be tricky on some of her releases. In the past it’s been gray, almost black, and what I think is an extremely dark blue.

Masters of the Universe (He-Man)

He-Man was a little before my time but the waves of its success rippled through my early childhood. I’ve never really taken the time to get into it properly, but I have long appreciated the combination of sci-fi and fantasy – I guess it’s a bit like Star Wars with its setting. The toy line is extremely impressive with all shapes and sizes of figures with all sorts of functions and I have no doubt it would make a compelling line of Character Cars. The only problem is that He-Man doesn’t hold a lot of culturally relevant stock with anyone except those on the older side of nerdom.

He-Man

Skeletor

So far it looks like all we have is the concept art for He-Man and Skeletor, though it appears the series will span at least 5 cars with Man-at-Arms, Beast Man, and Teela joining the fray. He-Man looks a lot like a muscle car with a sword on the side, though I’m sure its difficult to convey his “features” to a car. I really like the cool colors on Skeletor, though I wish it didn’t appear to veer into that “rat rod” territory. I get it, the shape lends a sneaky, sinister quality to the character, though I would prefer either a more refined direction, like a hearse, or just going balls crazy with some kinda death machine full of skulls and guns and spikes, I dunno, like something outta Death Race or Twisted Metal.

Marvel

Well, we were supposed to get that Black Widow top-off back in February and I guess we all know how that went. Marvel seems to be picking up the pieces though, and along with Character Cars for the Black Widow flick, they’ve thrown in some for Falcon and the Winter Solider and some other odds and ends as well.

Taskmaster

Ms. Marvel

And these are the ones we really care about: Taskmaster, the Big Bad from the upcoming Black Widow flick, and Ms. Marvel, from….something…looks fairly cartoonish from the art on the card.

Rounding out the wave is Black Widow, Falcon, Black Panther, Miles Morales, and Captain America. None of these are labeled as “First Appearance” but I like to get a good look at ’em myself first. I had hoped that whatever the next Marvel wave brought it’d give us Scarlet Witch but it looks like S.O.L. again. Such a strange hold out…I mean they gave us friggin’ Rescue from Endgame and yet I still got no one for my Vision car to get all smoochy smoochy with. TF Hot Wheels.

Overwatch

Now I keep my ear to the ground but I’m by no means on the up and up with everything that’s hip and new right now, but…Overwatch…isn’t that, like, totes 2017ish? I mean I remember it being all over the place, but haven’t we cycled through quite a few games since then? PUBG, Fortnite, Apex Legends…? Whatever, I guess there’s always some degree of appeal to people in mech suits.

Looks like we’re lookin’ at another set of 5. From L to R we have: Tracer, Reaper, Genji, D.Va, & Soldier 76. I’m…ambivalent at best about the inclusion of Overwatch into the Character Car pantheon, but the concept art is decent looking and I’ll be interested to see how the final product turns out.

Rugrats

This is definitely an unexpected subject for a set of cars, though I guess like SpongeBob you have a relatively small number of very identifiable characters which can make for some very creative cars.

So far it looks like we only have 3 characters, Chuckie Finster and Tommy Pickles up top, respectively, with Reptar below. Reptar seems to me an odd choice, mostly because he isn’t exactly a character…more like a meta-character. If I had to come up with a 5-car set for Rugrats I’d bang ’em out – Tommy Chuckie Angelica Phil & Lil! I’m not really sure how the younger viewers see Dill, Tommy’s “new” younger brother, but for those around during the earliest days, Dill never quite got the foothold in the family that I think the writers were going for.

Then there was Suzie, a very strong 6th wheel but a 6th wheel nonetheless.

The overall artwork is decent, yet I can’t quite get over how closely the fronts are done to resemble faces. I’m also more than a little perturbed that Tommy is imagined as a literal dump truck full of literal shit. Yeah yeah baby diaper poo pee poo poo is “funny” but Rugrats was never a show that fixated on toilet humor. We deserve better. And so does Tommy.

Disney

These 2 just kinda popped up on the list out of left field, but the “Disney” banner seems appropriate enough. I’m assuming it’s a sneak peak at Season 8 or possibly even Season 9.

That’s a dead ringer for Snow White and I think she looks pretty much like what we’d all expect. The apple with the bite taken out of it for the hood ornament is a nice detail. Ooh, does this mean we have a shot at getting all 7 Dwarves as cars…? That would be kinda neat; they could be sold as their own “gift pack.” (I wonder if I can even name all 7…Dopey, Sleepy, Bashful, Happy, Sneezy, Doc, Grumpy…that’s 7! Awesome!)

It’s kinda hard to tell what sort of vehicle they’re shooting for here…it looks vaguely militaristic but so far I’m kinda diggin’ it! Oh and if you didn’t know, that’s Bruce. Still lost? So was I. He was in Finding Nemo. So yeah.

Sanrio

What the hell is Sanrio you ask? It’s something to do with the whole “Hello Kitty” world. This is yet another confirmed subseries featuring Hello Kitty, Gudetama (pictured below), and Keroppi (not pictured).

These guys are…ok. I dunno, that weeabo / fetish for all things Japanese never really hit me. I guess it’s cool that Hot Wheels is trying to get its tendrils into as many corners of nerdom as possible and I can appreciate that, but obviously that’s gonna lead to some of us feeling a bit ostracized from one subset to another.

Final Thoughts

I’m not necessarily jumping for joy over a lot of these choices, but I don’t hate them. I understand wanting to branch out into as many possible directions, though by doing so you do run the risk of diluting the fan pool so much that you have fans of one set or another instead of just “Character Car fans.”

Personally I wish they would stick closer to the roots of “nerdom” and collectibility rather than concerning themselves with certain fads – both past and present. Rugrats, for example is just over and done with. The original show is long since over, there are no current reboots or sequels in play, and peak nostalgia for the franchise has already passed. This is a collection we just don’t need right now, along with Overwatch and Sanrio. And if they want to keep something like He-Man going, then go nuts and give us more than 5 or 6 pieces.

Hot Wheels still has plenty to mine from Marvel, DC, and even Star Wars and I’d really love to see ’em re-center their efforts.

So what do you think of all this upcoming stuff? Exciting? Overwhelming? Are any of these IPs that you were really glad to see? Any that you can’t stand…? Let me know!