Out Of The Blue

Chances are, you'll recognize the above image as that of a Hot Wheels diecast toy car. It seems like they've been around forever, but in reality, they were only introduced in 1968. I had a few of those original releases, but sadly they're no longer in my collection. I do still have a collection of Hot Wheels, but only one that I started later on in the mid-1970's. They have released thousands of varieties it seems like and they never cease to amaze me at their creativity in coming up with those new designs. Of course, they always have the perennial classics such as this 1932 Ford Roadster:

And some such as this 1940 Ford 2-Door Sedan:

But, what many people may not realize, the good folks at Hot Wheels have designers hard at work to come up with vehicles that are not based on real cars. These are cars you won't find anywhere else, such as the Street Scorcher:

What amazes me the most is where they are able to come up with these futuristic vehicles such as this way cool surfing mobile called the Deora II. They apparently just pull designs like these from out of the blue:

Sometimes, though, I think these far-out, futuristic designs are all too common in their basic nature, and that the draftsmen at Hot Wheels just fall back on something they've seen in real life. They just try to pass it off as something you've never seen before. What prompted me to think this was I was sitting at my computer bidding on a Deora II on eBay one day and looked out the window at my Ford Taurus station wagon sitting below. I saw the back end of it in a whole new light and realized where the inspiration for the Deora II had come from. See if you don't think so, too:

On the Deora II, the way to get inside the vehicle is through the front - the whole nose of the car lifts up like a gullwing door. Kind of like the hatch on my station wagon. Maybe I should apply at Mattel as a designer. I think I could do work like that.