These Amazing Concept Cars Were Sold By The Thousands, Just Not Full Sized

As a designer attracted to interesting shapes and bright and shiny objects in general, I notice forms, color and textures in everything around me – a good thing, as my lightly ADHD-afflicted brain has a tendency to get bored easily, after which I get fussy. This results in many gigabytes of pseudo-artsy iPhone snapshots, a nearly overwhelming plethora of knick-knacks, four cats, and various tchotchkes. Plus, as mentioned in a previous article, a rather sizable model car collection (with a few spacecraft from TV and film thrown in). Sooo many shapes and sizes and colors in everything!

[Ed note: We are joined once again by our friend Carlos Ferreira who, when not tending to his unfathomably huge model-car collection, is a professional designer and professor at Art Center College -The Bishop]

Unsurprisingly, dream cars from Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini and the like are well represented in my model car collection. However, as a steadfast pursuer of the unusual, quirky, esoteric and left-of-center however, I find myself irresistibly drawn to designs that are less well loved, and (I feel) deserve more attention.

This began when I discovered concept cars very soon after I started noticing and loving cars at a very young age, and there’s a spacious wing of my collection dedicated to them. Concept vehicles are a pure expression of a singular vision, expanding the boundaries of the norm and mainstream, imagining a better (or just more interesting) future world, before the harsh realities of manufacturing, safety regs, economics and product planning kill the dream.

Many toy manufacturers, acting like miniature coachworks, frequently create in-house designs because it’s cheaper and simpler than paying a licensing fee for a production vehicle. Collectors often dismiss these unlicensed designs, which is a shame because talented in-house teams are essentially designing tiny concept cars. Just because these fantastic custom hot rods and trucks and inventive futuristic vehicles never become 1:1 production vehicles or aren’t featured on an auto salon’s turntable doesn’t make them any less great. In fact, many of the designers that work for Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Jada, Maisto, and other brands have automotive design degrees, and many toy brands also collaborate with outside automotive designers.

I feel unlicensed designs (UDs) are further overlooked because they are often saddled with questionable, infantile graphics and garish colorways that obscure their interesting forms and details, adding to the perception that they are mere toys for children. Like an art expert who discovers an emerging talent or uncovers a rare work by a master, I derive great pleasure from using my professional acumen to spot a beaut and then proceeding to reveal its underlying aesthetic value by removing said graphics, enhancing details, or applying more realistic finishes (or all three). Lets shine a spotlight on these underdogs, starting in the 60’s with this far-out concept vehicle transporter kit.

1/25 MPC ’67 Daytona Transport

We’ve all been there: You have a long race car that looks awesome, so you wanna show it off when en route to and from the track or car shows, but you also want it protected from the elements. Being a customizer or a discerning automotive connoisseur, you will not settle for any pick up and trailer combo or even a heavily accessorized flatbed. Those are for plebes. What you need is a purpose-built Daytona Transport truck, shaped in a wind tunnel (I’d like to believe) and featuring an articulated chassis!

This fantastic bit of kit has an attached bed that rotates at the cab to make maneuvering in cul-de-sacs more graceful, and a massive top-hinged, one-piece canopy. In this reality, there exists transparent structural materials that allow some twenty feet of uninterrupted views of your pride and joy, yet somehow reflect heat so your car is not baked to a faded, cracked crisp. Back in the reality of 1964, it’s highly likely the zoomy racing transporters of the 60’s such as the Holtkamp Cheetah Race Transporter and the Mercedes Renntransporter fueled the Daytona’s designer’s imagination, perhaps with a bit of Deora show truck in the sauce.

Matchbox ’72 Racing Car Transporter K7 ‘Super Kings’

The Americans were on Team Hinged Canopy in the 60s, but ever since Mercedes was inspired by a sea bird that poops on everything and steals your chips to create the 300SL’s entry points, MB’s top-hinged doors have become integral to European visions of the cool future and super sportiness. So why not have them on a racing transporter? Contrary to most full-size transporters, which are converted production trucks, Matchbox’s vision is a bespoke thing, a la the 70’s GMC motorhome, with a passenger van-like profile. Like the GMC, it has six wheels, because any number greater than two for axles slaps, as the yutes say. I imagine the three horns prominently mounted atop the roof play a variety of classic tunes. La Cucaracha, certainly. Or perhaps Dixie, or God Save The Queen depending on the racing team.

Many UDs are inspired by real vehicles and futurized for added appeal, but because they are still toys, the designers often take liberties with the realities of real world vehicle construction. When I encounter such designs, I imagine how they could be modified to better ground them in a believable alternate reality. In this case, the one-piece orange tint transparent bed cover would be impossible to manufacture, but with a few changes it could work IRL. It’s the same with the massive wrap around windshield. With this in mind, I often mock up design alterations in Photoshop that are cohesive with the overall form language and will serve as blueprints for the day I carry out these changes. Sometimes I’m happy to just have the digitally enhanced photos as proof-of concept for my personal archives.

Matchbox  ’76 Car Transporter K-10 ‘Super Kings’

As a kid, I was never very interested in commercial vehicles unless they looked like something out of Thunderbirds. I found commercial machines to be boxy and unexciting for the most part, but I did have a fascination for car transporters, so this specimen checks two boxes. The low-slung, cab-forward, uh, cab encloses a massive engine behind the driver and passenger seats, with glass roof panels to better show off the truck’s enormous 8-cylinder powerplant. The interior temperature generated by the engine in the back seat and heat gain from the glass would require a powerful AC unit and very efficient ventilation system, but hey, it’s the future – they’ll figure it out. The tires’ chunky tread appears designed to pick up and deliver vehicles to very muddy or snowy dealership lots, and since it shares its horn array with the K7, it undoubtedly plays La Cucaracha – maybe a synth-version. The headlights appear to be concealed by grilles that match the radiator intake, so I’m imagining they retract or are covered by louvers that rotate to expose them. Either way, far out man. I intend to one day detail this rig with more realistic finishes for the interior and engine.

Hot Wheels ’77 Spoiler Sport

This casting was released at the height of the 70’s vanning culture, predating the current Van Life movement by some 45 years, but with err, let’s say different underlying philosophies and goals. If the radically canted windshield flowing seamlessly from the sloped hood and the high-mounted rear wing provide any indication, you won’t have a chance to do any knockin’ on this van cuz it will be a-rockin’ at a high rate of speed to the nearest Star Trek convention. Pop-up headlights, Vista Cruiser-style roof windows, and rear louvers make this a benchmark for 70’s van design. As you can see by the before and after pics, I updated and refined this fine shaggin’ wagon, adding low profile tires on larger-diameter multi-spoked wheels, and painting it in a tastefully refined metallic blue to offset the red leather interior.  Radical, dude…

Hot Wheels ’84 Dream Van

Gullwing all the things! As the Europeoples of the 50s and 60s knew, it was the right thing to do then, and it’s the right thing to do now. This low-slung space capsule on wheels provides its lucky driver with a panoramic view of the interstate thorough a massive windshield, dramatically sloped for a van. Adding to its totally tubular credentials is a U-handle shifter and a CB radio, which was a must-have for staying connected with the rest of your van convoy in 1984. The rear area provides plush accommodations upholstered in saddle brown leather, luxurious deep pile carpeting, and of course a bed, which was left unmade for this photo shoot. Pretty sure the doggo is to blame, as her deer-in-the-headlights expression seems to infer. No wings or pop- up headlights here, but we do have turbine wheels with raised white letter tires, by Good Year, no less – an unbeatable 80’s combo. Note too the grille and headlights, which somehow predicted the ’89 Pontiac 6000 STE.

Hot Wheels ’09 Avant Garde

The 90’s were on the weak side for fantasy castings, so we’ll skip to the aughts when creativity kicked in again. This Hot Wheels model leads me to imagine what a Citroen DS Coupe would look like were it designed in 2009. The French flag colors and Franco-fantastic name support my theory, as do the large trapezoidal headlights, pointy nose, and tapering butt: all hallmarks of the OG DS sedan. It’s begging for a redone interior and more interesting wheels, which can be had from the aftermarket. Yes, you can buy aftermarket wheels for 1/64 models (and other scales), as well as seats, wings, decals and other accessories. More on another time …

Hot Wheels ’16 Tour De Fast

Both Hot Wheels and Matchbox have histories of creating unique designs that compliment each other as if they were part of the same model range, which I heartily salute. Fast-forwarding seven years, I can imagine the Tour De Fast as Citroen’s shooting brake follow-up to the Avant Garde. Citroen never offered a 2-door version of its Safari Estate, sadly, although there seems to have been at least one custom one-off.  The very well done photochop below provides a taste. The Hot Wheels version is fittingly equipped to carry spare bikes for the Tour De France, the most-Frenchiest of sporting events, so when I take this one apart to repaint it and apply tiny, tiny Citroen badging, I may also add a few baguettes to the passenger seat.

Hot Wheels ’08 Fast Fish

The brilliant design teams at Mattel leave no genre untouched, as this alternate reality muscle car shows. Fast Fish is obviously a call back to the famed ‘Hemi Cudas of yore, and it deftly modernizes the muscle car aesthetic for the 21st century, combing chiseled Gundam-style details, the traditional low-set, broad-shouldered proportions of the coolest American coupes from the 60’s and 70’s, and a “big and little wheel” stance. This would be a worthy and stunning replacement for the recently retired Challenger, and it’s a lot more athletic and agile-looking than the Chally in my opinion.

This is a good time to remind you that these are (roughly) 1:64 scale models you can buy for a buck and a quarter at your local Target or Wally Mart, and in that context, they are pretty damn amazing. To keep costs down, product designers are typically limited to four components (and a set of wheels, of course): the body, the chassis, an interior insert, and glass (which is plastic, of course). And so, the designers have be clever to include as many interesting and realistic details as possible while sticking to the rules. Sometimes that means we get chrome interiors to get reflective headlights as the ones peering from deeply set grilles in this design, but it’s a trade-off I gladly accept. Besides, that’s easily addressed by drilling out the rivets, disassembling the car and painting the super shiny interior.

Hot Wheels ’24 Drift’n Break

Borrowing a page from the Matchbox Team and hot on the heels of the Fast Fish (umm, 16 year later), a shooting brake muscle car two-door sport wagon arrives to share the garage. Although it’s not strictly a Fast Fish with a wagon back, the shared DNA is unmistakable, and as a big fan of shooting brakes, I welcome this modern Magnum to the collection.

I‘ve seen the next-gen Challenger, and as cool as it is, I feel the Dodge design team could do worse than integrate some aspects of these two non-Mopars (wink, wink).  Just as the Fast Fish’s metallic green could have been pulled from a Mopar paint catalog from the 60‘s, the Drift’n Break (terrible name) is finished in what could be Plum Crazy. I immensely dislike the wheels, but I’m hoping the next variation comes with less garish rims; but if not, there’s always the aftermarket, or my spare wheel bin, for less money.

Hot Wheels ’18 HW50 

If, like me, you often daydream about a Custom Rod that was designed in a Star Wars universe, the HW50 is a tiny physical manifestation of that dream. The wheels-at-the-corners stance is pure hot rod, as is the chopped cabin, cab-rearward proportions and long engine bay, probably housing a twin turbine ion engine with in-line turbothrust capacitors, which are all the rage across the system. Fat steamroller tires with turbofan-inspired disc wheels push this into a universe I would love to visit and drive in. Just imagine if this had been built as a 1:1! It would have crushed at SEMA and been on many auto e-zine’s landing pages. It’s a modern day Prowler, but better executed. I don’t mind the cyberpunk graphics, but if that’s not your cup of Moogan Tea, it has been released in other liveries.

Hot Wheels ’22 Dimachinni Veloce

Mattel has been on fire with imaginative releases for the past ten years, dramatically increasing the diversity, detail and uniqueness of their offerings, both in the models of “real things” and in-house UD designs. This one is simply epic, especially in its Alitalia-inspired guise. It’s clearly inspired by wedgy 70’s Italian sports cars, and integrates many cool quirky details they were known for. I see elements of a Lamborghini Jarama, Ferrari 308GT4 and Maserati Khamsin, and a general whiff of period Bertone.

Angular forms, pop-up headlights, and rear louvers á la Lambo Miura and Stratos are period essential, and the oversized mud-flaps and integrated auxiliary driving lights complete the rally spec. If you showed up in an 1:1 version of this to the Concorso Italiano at Pebble Beach, you would be admitted like royalty, and absolutely slay the local Cars and Coffee. This seems like it would be a front engine / rear drive 2+2 GT, powered by a 3 to 5 liter V12 or V8, but certainly nothing smaller. As soon as I check off the other 987 things off my to-do list I swear I’ll detail all three versions I have and make one into a stradale street version. I love this thing with a passion.

Hot Wheels ’23 El Segundo Coupe

Named after the Los Angeles suburb in which Mattel is headquartered, this looks like a retro-modern sports car that could have been made by a boutique brand like TVR or Ginetta. Creativity rarely happens in a vacuum, and with dozens of castings to design every year without the luxury of the development schedules of 1:1 cars, Mattel designers absorb inspiration from whenever they can. I see 60’s influences from Miura to Ferrari 330 GTO, with a dash of OG Nissan Fairlady Z, beautifully proportioned and refined for modern times. I imagine this being slightly larger than a Toyota GR-86, powered by a twin turbo I6 or V6, perhaps coupled to a rear transaxle. It looks agile and toned but approachable, unlike seemingly every modern car with their look-like squinty angry robot faces. I very much want a fairy godmother to wave this into 1:1 fully functioning existence, as I’m sure it would fit me perfectly and then I could lay some 11s all the way to the ball. Just don’t make it out of glass, if anyone’s listening.

Matchbox ‘03 4×4 Buggy

I end this piece with one for off -road enthusiasts, a prime example of a casting that was all too easily dismissed and forgotten, because just look at how it left the factory: cartoonish tires, no tampos, and in most versions, adorned with graphics targeting 4 year olds. Why do they get to have all the fun?  The uber generic name doesn’t help either. A quick swap to more realistically-sized wheels, a repainted and accented interior and exterior details, and this bit o’coal is polished into a diamond, or a least a cubic zirconia, looking like a concept Jeep might reveal at their annual Jamboree.

Toy designers put a ton of fun and interesting detail into their castings, touches that often tell a story about the imaginary world the design is supposed to exist in. In the front area alone, camouflaged by monochromatic shiny plastic, are a finely textured air intake grille, several types of lighting, turn signals, a beefy skid plate, and a dimensional brand badge. On the body, hinges and door handles and light bars beg to be enhanced.  The interiors in 1:64 mainline cars (as opposed to the premium items that cost 15-20 times more) are also rife with molded-in items and Easter eggs. I derive great enjoyment from calling them out with different paints and finishes, accentuating the designer’s underlying narrative and elevating a mere dollar-and-change impulse item to an interesting collectible automotive art-snack. It’s quite addictive, and unlike most vices, not very expensive.

These are but just a few of my favorites, and there are so many more unique designs I’d like to share with you, dear readers. Perhaps I will at some later date, but in the meantime I hope you can begin to appreciate the less popular kids from the scale car world. As always, Praise The Funk!

Photos by the author from his personal collection unless otherwise noted.

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