For the last little while, I've shown you guys a lot of AUTOart's which are a pretty high end model and also Maisto/Bburago. With this huge gap in quality, detail and pricing Hot Wheels has stepped up and kind of slotted itself in between.
Hot Wheels has two different tiers of car models. The lower tier is called Hot Wheels Foundation which resemble Bburago/Maisto quality but contains cars that the other companies couldn't get a sponsorship/endorsement from such as Ferrari, Saleen, Maserati...etc. So if you want Ferrari, you gotta stick to the Hot Wheels. The price point for the foundations are around $30
The second tier are called Hot Wheels "Elites". These models are very very close to AUTOart in detail, but are quite a bit cheaper. AUTOart started off as a $80-$120 tier, but today they are between $150-$250 depending on the "hype" surrounding the car as well as the complications in manufacturing them. Because of this hike in price, Hot Wheels Elite have slotted themselves in that old area and these models are much cheaper than AUTOart but exhibit some insane detail as you will see below.
I have quite a few of these Ferrari Hot Wheels Elites and in the next few days I'll be showing you guys some of them.
The first here is a Ferrari F430 GT. I could have bought the regular F430, but I saw that the GT race built purpose ones for the Ferrari Challenge series of races had a bunch of really nice detail I couldn't skip out on.
Mesh is used everywhere much like the AUTOarts. The little details on this car are what got me:
Mesh is seen even in the rear grill. You can see that the emblem is a separate piece of metal, but it was applied on a bit sloppier so there's a bit of over glue on the edges.
The wheels weren't as nice as I expected. The edge of the wheel seemed to be cut not as precise as most AUTOarts, so the wheel appears very plasticy. Also the finish isn't perfectly smooth.
You can see here the lights are in properly and a lot of mesh is used in the upper grill, lower grill and side grills. Also the tow hook is a nice touch and around the tow hook its covered in carbon fiber decal.
The front of the car uses the same mesh and also has a tow hook.
The engine bay is great. The metal badging, emblems and knobs are all really nicely made. The chrome exhaust looks great and the cover has crystal clear glass with mesh surrounding the edges of the bonnet.
The Seat! This seat absolutely nailed it home for me. The seat is flocked and shaped really well. I've never seen an AUTOart chair this detailed. The Sabelt harness is cut and scaled precisely and they were able to replicate the 5 point harness seat belt lock with photo etched metal as well as the belt buckles and length adjustment clips.
Interior was also detailed very well. It was decked out in carbon fiber and lots of nice metal plates were used on the floor pans and heel plates.
The metal was used for console plaques too as seen below in this picture. You can see the centre console and gauges are wrapped in fine carbon fiber decals.
Other side of the cockpit. The roll bars are replicated really well and the steering wheel is very accurate.
Another shot of the sick seat
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