Re-Inventing Hotwheels 216
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."
I buy hotwheels cars practically every other day (Score:5, Interesting)
My youngest is a clutcher and takes a car with him to school every day.
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.
hopefully (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Why does everything need to be tech based? (Score:2, Interesting)
Like a corn husk doll and a chunk of wood. There's a kid in my neighborhood who always has some sort of stick in his hand when he walks by my house. The interesting thing is that it's always a different stick, but it's always a stick that in some way impresses me as being, well, cool.
I mean this kid doesn't just pick up any old stick and start waving it around. He's got himself a serious eye for just the right kind of stick. I actually find myself watching for him to see today's stick.
Batteries not included. Powered by the mind.
KFG
Changing times call for changing business model (Score:4, Interesting)
Lego is a great example of adapting to the changing world. For example, a few years back when they were all the rage, my son had upwards of 20 bionicle Lego sets. These are the kits that let you build robot-like guys with ball-and-socket joints and interchangeable arms/legs/heads/weapons.
These are a long ways from the red and blue square blocks that Lego made when I was a kid, yet the idea was the same: give a kid a kit that they can primarily build the picture on the box with, but the ability to adapt a few kits into something all together different. My son built everything from hover-crafts to star-wars droids to ultra-mega-bionicle-man.
Not to crack on Mattel, but the core hotwheels concept is die-cast metal cars that resemble the real things. The only "innovation" that I see them coming up with is the new H3 with pimp spinners, a lift kit, and gold trim. Unless they come up with something like Lego has with the shift away from their legacy product and into a new Internet age toy, Mattel will be doomed to a niche of kids who really dig cars (arguably a shrinking demographic...)
Re:Why does everything need to be tech based? (Score:3, Interesting)
These kids are not the target, if they are then the company should hire a new CEO.
My kid plays with these things all the time. He knows about vidio games and badly wants to play them but he is only 4 and just cant get it right. I dont doubt that in a year or two the hot wheels will be in the closet and the game boy will be the hot property.
I think hot wheels has a strong but limited and temporary audience, they should understand that and focus on it.
Re:Why does everything need to be tech based? (Score:2, Interesting)
I grew up with a Gameboy, a SNES, a Megadrive (Genesis for you yanks) and the cardboard boxes they came in.
As much as I love tech (as reading
Re:Why does everything need to be tech based? (Score:3, Interesting)
[Context: I was born in 1962. (Yes, people really are that old.)]
Context: I was born in 1959. ~;-)
I am not so sure about the hot wheels all being "tricked out" or "hot rodded" but I now have a 5 year old who just got a hot wheels pack with a 3 d figure 8 track with jumps and a launcher. These new deals might be cool if they worked consistently, but more often than not, the car does not make it around the track. It is a waste of time. Give me the clip on to the coffee table two tracks side by side for racing with a loop in the middle of each side. Gravity powered so pretty much nothing to break. Bring it back or tell me how to get it for my boy if it is still produced.
Now, as to the british stuff, matchbox was fine, but corgi cars were a bit bigger and they were top.
all the best,
drew
(da idea man)
Re:Changing times call for changing business model (Score:4, Interesting)
But most of Legos "innovation" now comes not from new products, but from licensing. I recently went to a Lego store for the first time (awesome! the only problem was I didn't have a kid with me, so it would have creeped people out if I stayed there too long...) and was amazed at what was available... for $60-$100. Star Wars, Batman, etc.
Lego's patent is expiring/has expired. The shift to Bionicle and Technik reflects the concern that basic Legos will be facing cheap competition in the very near future. The shift to licensed subjects for kits also addresses this issue. I'll be able to buy basic "legos" for next to nothing... but if I want that AT-ST Lego model, I'll be paying through the nose for it.
That said, does anyone recall what happened to Fischer-Technik? Those were the most amazing toys when I was growing up... expensive, but I got a solid foundation in mechanics from play.
Re:Why does everything need to be tech based? (Score:5, Interesting)
Now guess who said that?
Socrates, greek philosopher, 470-399 BC.
Very probably in his advanced years
Re:The only thing HotWheels needs... (Score:4, Interesting)
My daughter (2.5 y.o.) has one of these in plastic. In came in a box of Mini-Wheats. We took her to see the movie a couple of weeks after it came out, and immediately upon seeing the poster with that car on it she started yelling "MINI-WHEAT! MINI-WHEAT!!!!!" Seems she thought the truck's name was in fact "Mini-Wheat".
Back to Basics, Please! (Score:4, Interesting)
I searched high and low last Christmas, and couldn't find a basic set with some track, a few curves and maybe a loop, and some cars. (I ended up buying some bulk track, couldn't find any curves; and a few cars. Not as much fun as when I was a kid.) Please, HotWheels, get back to the basics, with some well built, simple, and fun, sets. I think you'd be surprised at how much appeal (and profits) it would find.
I see it a bit like Scrabble, one of my favorite games. There have been attempted variations of it, most of which sucked. But they have come out with deluxe versions of the old game (fancier tiles, rotatable board, electronic versions, etc.); that's useful and classy enhancement of a sure-fire formula. But changing the fundamentals usually blew the formula. Same thing with chintzy and expensive theme sets from HotWheels, IMO.