Hot Wheels were a big part of many of our childhoods, and you’ll be amazed at how far miniature car technology has come since then. 15-20 years ago, Hot Wheels were pretty much just small scale models of real cars. The wheels moved and, in some cases, the doors, hood, and trunk could even open.
There were some cool, unique concepts too, such as cars with wheels which would wind up tight like a spring, then blast off across a smooth surface. Other cars had physical features like crash damage or color changing. Most of those still exist, but Hot Wheels have had to modernize as well, which they’ve done wonderfully with ideas such as the Video Racer which includes a tiny video camera.
Their latest idea is called the RC Nitro Speeder, an RC car with a top speed of 8.3 miles per hour: quite fast for its size considering that if you were to scale up size and speed together, the full-size version would zoom along at 600 miles per hour.
Much like the other pocket cars, the RC Nitro Speeders are stored in a rectangular case which not only protects them, but also serves as a charging station and remote control. The case uses 4 AA batteries, from which it can charge the miniature vehicle while it’s docked. When the car is ready to be used, the case has speed and steering sliders, ensuring that everything needed is in one compact package. The cars work on standard Hot Wheels tracks, with no needs for special upgrades; the presenter in the video says that since these cars are so fast, they can handle the standard Hot Wheels loops with no problem, something which other RC cars can’t accomplish. And if that weren’t enough, she also mentions they have proportional steering, making them control more like a real car rather than turning at sharp angles (which would be sure to flip a car going so fast). Instead, you can control the Nitro Speeder with more subtlety, a necessity when having the fast cars zooming around a larger space and serving to give races against others a more realistic feel. They aren’t in stores yet, but they’ll reportedly sell for under $30 each. For more fun, check out the Hot Wheels Batman Tumbler or this Insanely Huge Hot Wheels Track.
