1968

1968 marked the introduction of the Hot Wheels phenomenon with the initial 'Sweet 16' castings. The first year was a frantic one for Mattel, trying to ride the wave of immense popularity Hot Wheels created. The fast ramp up of the manufacturing process led to a lot of change this year while Mattel figured out its processes, and what it takes to create millions of little toy cars at a profit. As a result almost every casting in the 1968 model year has significant variations, some quite a few.

Each casting was produced in both the US and Hong Kong this year, and there are significant differences between the two versions.

Visit each casting's page to see some of the major variations, but note that there are many variations not tracked on this site. It was common for each component piece to change frequently, with revisions of the hood, body, base, and interiors for the duration of a casting's run. Check out Mike Ott's HWRedlines site if that's what you need to know! You can find it on our Links page.

Interiors

1968 castings contained the greatest variety of interior colors, 10 in all across the 16 castings. They were ivory, midtone (champagne (US) / bronze (HK)), brown, dark brown, red, light blue, lavender, silver, and olive.

Exteriors

Nineteen out of the 20 Spectraflame colors were available in US castings this year, but you won't see any 'salmon' colored cars until '69.

There were also two US castings available in enamel white, and one in enamel blue.

Colors were more limited for Hong Kong produced cars. Only 12 colors were produced, and none of the 2nd generation colors (magenta or later in the table) were available.

There were also two HK castings available in enamel paint, one white, the other dark green.

Wheels

Wheels came in three sizes (small, medium, and large). Front wheels were generally smaller than the rears, but on some castings all four wheels were the same size. You will find an occasional 'wrong' size wheel on a casting, but unless it's in a blister pack it would be impossible to know if it was original or had been swapped out at some time.

White Bearing

Red/Pink Bearing

Mattel started out production with so called hub or bearing (technically bushing) mounted wheels. These interchangeable wheels slipped over 'delrin' bearings fixed to the car's axles. Bearings were usually white, but quite a few were a red/pink color.

The earliest bearing wheels had a different profile than later wheels. These early wheels are called deep-dish wheels by collectors. They provide a distinctive look, and are sought after by collectors. It's not uncommon to find only a single pair (usually the front), or even just one deep-dish wheel on some individual cars.

Large and small deep-dish wheels

Large and small standard wheels

Later on capped wheels were introduced, in which the wheel is formed as a snap together clam-shell. A narrow wheel piece is permanently attached to the axle, over which the larger section of the wheel snaps on. It is uncommon to find cars with a mixed set of bearing and capped wheels, but they are nonetheless out there for sharp eyed collectors to find.

See the 1973 Wheels section for a discussion of open-hub wheels.

Axle With Cap

Capped Wheel Reverse

Casting Names and Part Numbers

This seems to be a pretty run of the mill sequence of numbers. Starting at 6200 may have made sense for a company with a large number of different products; OK Hot Wheels you start at 6200. One could imagine that 6200 through 6204 were prototype or development numbers.