But does this beat collecting the diecast cars?
Just like everyone else, gearheads have grown to love the little diecast Hot Wheels toys over the years. The might have sparked your early interest in cars or just helped fuel your interest. Well, Mattel has big plans for moving the brand forward using the latest technologies and trends, which includes the launch of the Hot Wheels NFT Garage – Series 1.
Learn more about NFTs and how they could affect the car collector hobby here.
If you don’t know what an NFT is, it’s a “non-fungible token” that’s digital but represents an object in the physical world. In this case, it’s a digital version of a Hot Wheels diecast car. That might sound silly, but NFTs are all the rage in some circles these days with people dropping serious cash to own certain ones. It’s gained some traction in some sports card collector circles People seem to either think NFTs are just super cool and are totally the future of everything or that they’re a complete waste of money.
In this case, it appears Mattel is banking on Hot Wheels fans being in the pro-NFT group. Or at least it thinks people who are fans of NFTs will get involved in collecting the virtual diecast cars. This might be a strategy to increase the appeal of Hot Wheels to people who might never consider buying the physical cars, but there’s a risk of alienating the longtime fans.
However, not everything about the Hot Wheels NFT Garage will be digital. Rare NFTH (Treasure Hunt) cars will be redeemable for a physical special-edition Hot Wheels diecast. There will also be Base, Rare, and Premium NFT cars in the release.
Trading these Hot Wheel NFTs will be done on WAX blockchain. It’s supposed to be a secure and certified carbon-neutral platform. Will most people even care? Again, this is a gamble, so we hope Hot Wheels hasn’t extended itself too much on this venture in case it flops.
To start out, Series 1 will contain 40 NFT Hot Wheels designs. They officially go on sale November 16 with pricing starting at $15 each. Hot Wheels is telling fans to prepare in advance by setting up a WAX Cloud Wallet so they don’t run into any problems once Series 1 drops next month.
We’re sure other toy companies and even high-end model car brands will be watching this launch with interest, perhaps weighing if they should do something similar. Are you interested in owning some digital Hot Wheels instead of the little diecast cars? Will this thing be a success? Is the future of collecting little toy cars going to change forever?
Just as importantly, will this affect collecting regular, drivable cars? It’s a topic which has been explored increasingly, ostensibly as a way to protect the environment. We’ve touched on the subject here, despite receiving harsh criticism for speculating about the possibilities. However, one can’t deny that the possibilities are there. For now, let’s hope this remains just collecting Hot Wheels NFTs and nothing more.
