Re-Inventing Hotwheels

garzpacho writes "BusinessWeek has an interview with Gary Swisher, Mattel's Vice-President of Wheel Design, who talks about the challenges of designing new toys for today's tech-savvy kids. In addition to discussing 'the challenge of stewarding an old-school brand like HotWheels in our tech-driven age, the emerging technologies that will affect the toy industry, and Mattel's Web strategy,' he also talks about the effect that video games have had on toy design, and argues that exciting the imagination is the most important role that a toy can fill."

pffft "reinvention" ... just bring back lead paint

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

Lead paint makes small die cast toys taste good and that will be good for business.

Technology has changed us

[Harmonious Botch]

Those uf us who have sampled the intellectual delights of high tech can no longer be fascina...oooh...SHINY..

Re:Why does everything need to be tech based?

[MrShaggy]

maybe its a specific stick because he is breaking into someones house?

Obligatory 'PROFIT!!' joke...

[X-treme-LLama]

Reinventing Hot Wheels(tm):

1: Buy a petrol company.
2: Invent Hot Wheels(tm) that run on tiny gasoline engines...
3: ....
4: PROFIT!!!

wait.. That one might actually work.. I guess it can't be a true 'PROFIT!!!' joke..

Re:Why does everything need to be tech based?

[Ohreally_factor]

You had sticks?

When we were kids, we had to attack each other with pieces of fruit! And tigers.

Crack Wheels

[billcopc]

Want to keep today's kids hooked on your retro toys ? Lace em with crack.

I think today's kids needs toys that slap them in the face with a wet noodle and yell "You're a stupid disrespectful worthless excuse for a human being. Cut your hair, go to school, get a job, pay your taxes, go get real friends, quit screwing up my goddamned Drive-thru order."

Back in my day, we had parents to do that. Where did humankind go wrong ? :P How hard can it be to put a Sausage McMuffin and two hash browns in a farking bag ? Kids these days.. The only reason they're still alive is because it's illegal to run them over with my car.

Re:Why does everything need to be tech based?

[Ohreally_factor]

You get off my lawn, Andrew Kismet! I know your mother! I'm going to call the police if you kids don't get off my lawn! =)

The only thing HotWheels needs...

[Nick Driver]

...to do to reel in some insane profits for the 2006 holiday season is to make these following models:

1) Red sports car that looks like kinda like a curvy blend of a Corvette, a GT-40, and a Viper.
2) Blue Porsche 911.
3) Blue Hudson Hornet.
4) Rusty old, hoodless 1955 Chevy tow truck.
5) Blue Roadrunner SuperBird.
6) Green Buick Regal.

And an assortment of other vehicles from you-know-what-movie.

Better put eyes on their windshields too.

Re:Why does everything need to be tech based?

[CaseyB]

I don't know where you're shopping. Over half my 3 year old's cars are "realistic"; he's actually recognizing more and more of them on the street every day. He got a box of all-realistic Maisto cars (noticeably lower quality than Hot Wheels, but still good) for Christmas, which has some really boring cars (Ford Explorer, Mercedes C-Class) mixed in with the Zondas and Vipers.

On the other hand, I don't see what there is to complain about in the pimped out / spacy realm either. The designers at Hot Wheels are frickin' AMAZING. You'll see more interesting ideas in 5 feet of shelf space at Toys R Us than in the last 30 years from Detroit.

For the product listing, try http://www.hotwheelscollectors.com [hotwheelscollectors.com] instead.

ahh...badger bones and buffalo do-doo...

[StressGuy]

You know, if you take the shoulder blade from a medium badger at attach it to his femur, it makes a heck of a device for flinging buffalo do-doo. We used to trap our own badgers, but sadly, the white-man killed almost all the buffalo so that's hard to find nowadays. I'm thinking about just getting my kids a large dog - for the do-doo that is, not the bones. Once you harvest the bones the animal is pretty much useless....kinda like harvesting apples by cutting down the tree if you know what I mean.

Re:I buy hotwheels cars practically every other da

[bitt3n]

Most days he doesn't come back with one, or if he does still have one, you can bet it wasn't the one he took.

that's going to become much less endearing in 10 years or so when he's driving your car.

Re:Why does everything need to be tech based?

[f0rtytw0]

What if I were to come at you with a banana?

Waxing Nastalgic

[qazwart]

Oh boy. You guys waxing nastalgic about the good ol' days back in 1972. Well, I was born back in the early pleolithic around 1958.

Even back then, old people were whining about the toys being so high tech (like requiring batteries), and how kids were no longer able to use their imaginations. Hot Wheels when they first came out were a perfect example of what was wrong with toys! You built a track, and raced them.

"When I was a kid", as people complained back then, "We had big toy trunks that you could actually play with! Not these little tiny cars. Back then, you *pretended* to race them, and that built imagination!" Then, they would go on with some story about walking 9 miles in the snow in uphill both directions every day to school, and having to work in some salt mine and how that built character. In the meantime, I went back playing with my hightech Hotwheels.

Somehow, despite all the high tech toys I played with, I have managed to somehow grow up, avoid becoming a delinquent, and make some contribution to society. However, I worry about my kids. They sit around all day and play with their dang hightech toys. Not like I did in my day. If I wanted a my toys to beep or buzz, I had to do it myself. These kids, they have no imagination.

And, TV only had four channels, and one of those was PBS. And, when we wanted to change channels, we had to get up off the couch, walk all the way to the TV set, and turn a dang knob.

And, we liked it!

Can we bobble the MBAs?

[Quiet_Desperation]

the challenge of stewarding an old-school brand like HotWheels in our tech-driven age, the emerging technologies that will affect the toy industry, and Mattel's Web strategy,' he also talks about the effect that video games have had on toy design, and argues that exciting the imagination is the most important role that a toy can fill."

Damn! If he just says "synergy" I have buzzword bingo.

Re:Why does everything need to be tech based?

[operagost]

Hopefully this was a while ago-- he'd better learn how to read before entering school at five because (unless he goes to private) he sure won't learn there.