Wisconsin Toy and Novelty Company

The Wisconsin Toy Company was a father and son business selling overstock toys from the 60's through the 80's. They would purchase overstock toys from various manufacturers and sell them in their retail stores. By 1980 Wisconsin Toy operated upwards of 200 retail stores under various names.

While the above is true and verifiable, the story of how redline Hot Wheels enter the picture is limited to generally accepted conventional wisdom. I would love to see any actual documentation to corroborate any of this story.

The story is as follows. In 1975 Hot Wheels had entered into an agreement for a new promotion. The promotion would include 5 existing Hot Wheels models -- Buzz Off, Custom Volkswagen, Dune Daddy, Swingin' Wing, and Warpath. These would be modified versions of existing 1974 and 1975 castings, some with a unique tampo design and each made with black plastic base. The 1975 promotion date seems reasonable given the Warpath name was introduced in Mattel's own casting lineup that year. The base of each casting is marked © 1969 (Custom Volkswagen © 1967) which is interesting, but not helpful in pinning down the promotion date.

The story continues that the promotion fell through and Mattel was left with production runs of these castings. For some unknown reason they were not sold as part of Mattel's regular production stock. This is where Wisconsin Toy enters the picture, purchasing the promotion stock from Mattel, and selling them with their own packaging under license from Mattel.

One additional wrinkle is that the Buzz Off casting had not been produced in the same quanties as the other promotion castings. Instead of being sold to Wisconsin Toy, they were sent to Japan and sold as part of Mattel Hot Wheels official retail offerings.

So yes, these are real, actual redlines produced by Mattel, but sold by Wisconsin Toy Co which was an overstock liquidator.

Reference: https://www.themazelcompany.com/wisconsin-toy/