matchbox vs. hotwheels die-cast cars

Hotwheels makes some nice die-cast metal cars. Matchbox on the other hand makes all very crappy ones. It’s embarrasing the stuff that matchbox puts out. Then much to my surprise, I just found out today that hotwheels and matchbox are made by the same company, Mattel. WHAT!?

So basically here’s what happens over at Mattel. You got their die-cast car designers there. They make a bunch of designs. Whatever is really bad gets assigned to Matchbox. And whatever is cool gets a hotwheels name.

Why keep the Matchbox name? I don’t know. Maybe there’s some old school designer or someone really nice they don’t want to fire. And they don’t want to hurt this person’s feelings by not producing this person’s crappy designs. And somehow this matchbox person is just totally clueless that the matchbox brand is the brand of junk.

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unlikelymoose
18 years ago

i love die-cast cars. i have a little collection going. I like to collect the die-cast cars that you see on the street like the Jeep Liberty, Volkswagen Jetta, Volkswagen Beetle, Mini Cooper, Chevy Avalanche. Cars like that. And they’re only a buck. can’t get many toys for under a dollar any more.

Tom Saaristo
18 years ago

They keep the Matchbox name so they can keep making crap and so that the Hotwheels look better I love my mini Mini Cooper!

unlikelymoose
18 years ago

i like to collect the actual street cars cuz i makes me feel rich. “yea, I own a black Jeep Liberty, a silver Jeep Liberty, a black BMW Z8…”

laura k.
laura k.
18 years ago

it’s all marketing. they are creating each line of cars for a different market, with different features/advantages/benefits. since Mattel makes both brands of cars, they are not marketing them to the same group of people, or as similar products. so you have to figure out what group of people is buying Hotwheels and which group is buying Matchbox. it’s not the same people. do they have different prices? that could be the differentiating factor right there. if one brand is more expensive, it has added “value” in the eyes of the customer. different packaging? different vendors? it’s amazing what i learn in school these days!

unlikelymoose
18 years ago

naw, matchbox cars are just crap.

laura k.
laura k.
18 years ago

if they didn’t sell, Mattel wouldn’t continue to make them. so someone is buying them.

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