Bruce Pascal poses with orange Ferrari P917 Hot Wheels and prototype Hot Wheel molds

Pascal is legendary as the chap who, in 2000, paid big bucks for a Rear Loading Beach Bomb—an RLBB in Hot Wheels vernacular—that had surfaced from a former Mattel employee’s collection. Both the find and the purchase price—undisclosed, but the asking price was $72,000—sent shock waves through the die-cast collecting community because this wasn’t just any Hot Wheels car: It was a rare prototype, never mass-produced because it was too narrow to work with a popular accessory, the Super-Charger, and had to be reconfigured in a wider design.

And not only was it a holy relic from Hot Wheels’ formative years, it was pink, which for collectors is like manna from heaven. Plus, it looked bran-span-new, with nary a ding betraying the rigors of testing it undoubtedly endured.

Pascal spoke to WorthPoint from his home in Potomac, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C., about his abiding passion for Hot Wheels.

How long have you collected Hot Wheels?
For 40 years, with a big gap in the middle. First from 1968 to about 1972, then from around 1999 till today.

Was it the intrigue over the pink Rear Loading Beach Bomb that rekindled your interest?

Yes. Every hobby has its king, and the RLBB had established itself as the ultimate Hot Wheels. And with very few trading hands, it was clearly on my list. When a pink one was for sale—and, at that time, the only one known in that color, then bingo, I felt it was the car for me to get.

The legendary pink Rear Loading Beach Bomb prototype

The obvious question: It’s just a toy car. Why pay so much for it?
Let me tell you the whole story. In late 1999, I read in article about a pink RLBB that been sold by Chris Marshall of Ohio for the record sum of $72,000. Understanding $72,000 was a lot of money, I thought to myself that if you compare that amount to other record-selling collectibles, then maybe it wasn’t such a high number after all. For example, the 1804 silver dollar, just a coin, sold for over two million. The Honus Wagner baseball card, an original penny item, sold for over one million. And look at all the paintings and sports cars selling in the millions. Hmm, maybe not so bad. But too late for me—it had been reported sold by the paper.

One month later, reading a different newspaper, I saw the same article, but with a different ending. That article said the deal should close soon. I knew something was fishy. I then tried to locate Chris Marshall, with no luck. So I tracked down the newspaper author, and he hooked me up with him. Wouldn’t you guess, the buyer had second thoughts, and after putting a deposit down, he still had not come up with the funds.

Chris and I negotiated a deal over the next few months. I was able to apply the down payment the other person had put down and negotiate a price that I was comfortable with. It was clearly a new record for a toy like this, but I had confidence the die-cast hobby for Hot Wheels would grow, and years later, I would look back to this purchase as a smart move.

Chris flew in from Ohio and gave me the car, and I gave him the check. He had a great sense of humor, too. I unwrapped the car and noticed he put a fake car in the tube. After my small heart attack, he handed me the real deal, and I have owned it since then.

Preproduction prototype Red Baron

Preproduction prototype Twin Mill (photos courtesy Bruce Pascal)

You’re never going to say how much you paid for it, are you?
Well, the seller and I signed a confidentiality agreement. He bought a Viper for cash afterwards back in 2000, though, so that gives you a clue!

The car’s had some pretty good exposure, hasn’t it?
A few years ago, I loaned it to the Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A. As one of the best automotive museums in the United States, I felt safe with it there, and it was seen by hundreds of thousands of people. The display was amazing. I have also shown it at automobile shows and Hot Wheels conventions. When not shown, it is kept in a locked vault at a hidden location. If asked and I am comfortable with security, I will take it to shows and allow people to photograph it with them holding it in a clear case.

You were lucky enough to find another rare pink RLBB, too.
Yes. A few years after I got the first RLBB, I was doing an interview with a former Mattel employee who said he thought he still had one of those models somewhere in his house. I called him four months in a row, and he never found the car. The fifth month, his wife answered, and she said she knew where it was. Bingo! And it was pink! I got it and sold it two years later for $55,000.

How many Hot Wheels total are in your collection?
Today, the collection includes about 5,000 cars. First are my favorites: about 120 Redline prototype cars. Then about 80 Japan boxed cars—the complete series, which took years to finish. Next, slightly over 1,000 additional Redlines and about 3,800 Blackwall-era cars.

Do you have any personal favorites?
My favorite cars are the design and development prototypes. Included in this category was a test car to see if a gasoline engine could be made small enough to put in a Hot Wheels car, a prototype of a car that makes noise as it rolls down a track. Or the cars with actual steering mechanisms added. Another favorite is production-testing cars with the entire chassis and base in clear plastic. They are exceedingly rare and hard to find.

Gasoline-powered Hot Wheels prototype (courtesy Bruce Pascal)

You have a lot of behind-the-scenes production items, as well.
Right. I have over 40 pieces of original early items that directly relate to the making of an actual Hot Wheels, such as the mock-up model used to show [Mattel co-founder] Elliot Handler the Custom Fleetside in 1968. Also, I have about 2,000 sheets of paper directly related to Hot Wheels production. These include original sketches from Hot Wheel designers Larry Wood, Harry Bradley, Paul Tam and others. Also the plans used for engineers to create the molds used in production.

Besides cars, what other paraphernalia is in your Hot Wheels collection?
Well, I’ve got perhaps 200-plus pieces of Hot Wheels memorabilia, from Jack in the Box restaurant cups, to watches, to Halloween costumes. Other paraphernalia includes original posters and gas-station banners promoting Hot Wheels giveaways, original proof-production labels for Hot Wheels products designed by [Mattel illustrator] Otto Kuhni from the late ’60s and early ’70s, along with original artwork by him. Also, some display stands. This category is the most fun to collect and harder to find than most Hot Wheels.

Hot Wheels Halloween costumes (courtesy Bruce Pascal)

Have you come across any rare Hot Wheels finds in 2008?

My best find included a clear interior Hot Wheels Redline Whip Creamer that had no side vents on the car. That means it was one of the earliest versions made before the mold was changed to add a new feature. I love getting a car that is different from all the others.

Your grandfather, Leo Pascal, was a legendary transportation historian at the National Archives from 1937-1962, and your parents are curators of the automobilia collection he started. How did this influence your mania for collecting?

No question, growing up in a house of automobilia collectors influenced me greatly. My father would show me toy cars made in Germany from 1918, plastic toys made in America in the 1950s and ’60s, and seeing hundreds of other car- related items made me see the value in being a collector. It is not just about having the items on your shelf. It is also the friends you make in the hobby, the places you traveled to buy an item and the history you learn about a piece. Collecting can be a great total experience.

See more of Bruce Pascal’s Hot Wheels collection at Redlineprotos.com.

Kevin Cook, a WorthPoint contributor, is still kicking himself for blowing up and setting fire to his first Hot Wheels cars.

Other stories by Kevin Cook:
Monster Mash discs: Graveyard Smash

The Truth Is Out There: X-Files Collectibles

Hot Wheels—Still Blazing at 40

Collecting Calendars: Fun New Year After New Year

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

According to Mattel’s Web site, more than 15 million boys in the 5-15 demographic are die-hard Hot Wheels collectors, and the average enthusiast owns at least 41 cars. Originally priced at around 59 cents in 1968, Hot Wheels are still among the most allowance-friendly collectibles, selling for about a buck apiece.

The brand began developing by fits and starts in 1966 when Mattel co-founder Elliot Handler decided to go bumper to bumper with Britain’s Lesney Products and Co. Ltd., whose Matchbox cars had long dominated the die-cast toy-car market. Handler lured Harry Bentley Bradley away from his job building real cars at General Motors to head his design team, and a collectibles legend was off and running.

With Mattel research-and-development whiz Jack Ryan heading up a creative team of 80 artists, designers and engineers, the brainstorming began.

At Handler’s urging, head designer Bradley drew on his own customized El Camino for inspiration, imbuing his early sketches with muscle-car features—red-striped slicks with mag wheels, exposed engines, pipes, power bulges and other nuances that reflected California car culture and styling—that would become the brand’s hallmarks. The Spectraflame finish—a custom paint blend that gave the little hot rods their candy-colored panache—was also a by-product of Bradley’s Detroit background.

Early production sketch of Custom Fleetside by Harry Bradley (Image courtesy of Bruce Pascal)

Next, the team addressed the all-important playability factor, employing a bent-axle, torsion-bar suspension that let the 1/64-scale cars bounce like their full-size counterparts and wheels that turned independently on their axles, thanks to inner-wheel bearings. The nylon wheels themselves were slightly conical, with a thin ridge on the inner edge designed to reduce friction. As a finishing touch, red stripes emblazoned on the tires signified some, well, really hot wheels that would zoom 200 miles per hour—scale, of course—on the orange plastic track designed to showcase the cars’ speed and acrobatic prowess.

Numerous anecdotal accounts cloud the origin of the name Hot Wheels, but there is nothing muddy about the nascent brand’s classic flame logo, designed by Mattel graphic artist Rick Irons in 1967, and the pulse-quickening packaging, illustrated by freelancer Otto Kuhni.

Otto Kuhni’s original art for Hot Wheels Super Charger accessory (Image courtesy of Bruce Pascal)

Ira Gilford, another Detroit refugee who would become the brand’s genius bellwether, arrived in 1968 to replace the departed Bradley (who was reportedly skeptical over Hot Wheels’ chances for success) and oversee the remaining inaugural 16 car designs in time for their retail debut. With Kmart and Sears placing advance orders for millions of Hot Wheels, production in the U.S. was stepped up with factories in Hong Kong taking up the slack.

Hot Wheels store display, 1968 (Image courtesy of Bruce Pascal)

When the cars hit the shelves in the summer of 1968, it was clear that Hot Wheels definitely weren’t your daddy’s die-cast cars. Tucked inside plastic bubbles that allowed the cars to be viewed in all their souped-up, candy-colored glory, the “California custom miniatures” screamed “Play with me!” from their colorful blister cards, which also contained a matching collector’s button in the shape of, what else, a tire. Smitten boys plunked their money down for millions of what collectors would come to call the Sweet 16. The fabled Redlines era (1968-1977) of Hot Wheels had begun, and the toy world would never be the same.

Hot Wheels Sweet 16 - 1968

To commemorate the brand’s 40th anniversary and the production of the four billionth Hot Wheels car, Mattel commissioned a one-of-a-kind car—based on the so-called lost Hot Wheels car designed by Otto Kuhni for use on early packaging but never actually produced—laden with 2,703 multicolored diamonds and rubies. Housed in a custom-made case complete with mirrored bottom and rotating base—not to mention 40 more commemorative diamonds—the car, valued at $140,000, sold at auction in October for $60,000, with the proceeds going to charity.

Hot Wheels 40th anniversary jewel-studded car

“Hot Wheels: 40 Years,” a lavish coffee-table book with text by Hot Wheels collector Angelo Van Bogart and mouth-watering photography by automotive historian Doug Mitchel, also celebrates the anniversary. And of course, there are the cars. The Hot Wheels 40th Anniversary 40 Car Set gathers one iconic car from 1968-2008. The anniversary cars are also being sold separately.

40th Annivesary 40 Car Set

The world of Hot Wheels collecting has few rivals in terms of intensity and enthusiasm. One of the most joyously outspoken devotees is Bruce Pascal, a Washington, DC-area ubër-collector renowned in collectors’ circles for his cherry-picked collection of rare production and prototype cars, including a pink, ultrarare Rear Loading Beach Bomb prototype that inspires buffs to drop to their knees and chant hosannas on those infrequent occasions when he shows it off. He paid a hush-rush price for it in 2000 that is believed to be a record.

“In 1968, I had just turned seven when Hot Wheels came out, and I still remember the cars and the orange track like it was yesterday,” says Pascal, 46, a commercial real-estate agent who owns about 5,000 cars. “I think Hot Wheels are so enduring because they represent the automobile culture of our youth. What little boy did not like looking at cool cars growing up? For us youngsters then, Hot Wheels were like having the cars our dads or maybe our big brothers drove.”

Wife-friendly collectibles

As for the reason why grown men of a certain age still buy Hot Wheels, old and new, Pascal has a theory. “Buying one today reconnects us with our youth. And they are still small enough to have many in your house without taking up too much room—I call that wife friendly—they’re still affordable, and they’re remembered fondly by almost everyone.”

Pascal advises collectors to look for four important factors: condition, color, interior color and variations. “Always buy the best condition car you can find is the most important advice,” he says. “A perfect common car can be more valuable than a beat-up rare car. Always research the rarity, too. A pink Camaro is certainly 100 times more rare than a blue Camaro. And educate yourself on subtle variations. For instance, a dark interior Red Baron is far less valuable than a white interior Red Baron.”

Hot Wheels 67 Camaro

Pascal also warns collectors to bone up on their ability to spot fakes. “Fakes are getting better and better, and sometimes even the most educated collectors need advice from others.”

From the slew of Hot Wheels price guides available, Pascal recommends two. “Jack Clark’s ‘The Ultimate Redline Guide’ is considered by many collectors to be the best guide overall. For later years, Mike Strauss’ ‘Tomart’s Price Guide to Hot Wheels’ is the best.”

Not surprisingly, early Camaros—which Pascal confirms were the first mass-produced Hot Wheels— are very desirable. “A common blue car with a black top in mint condition can be found for $150 loose, a little over $400 in a nice package,” says Pascal. “But the same car in pink would be over $1,000 loose and in the thousands of dollars, easily, in a package.”

Pascal is also partial to Beach Bombs—blue-mint examples go for around $100 loose and $225 or more in the package. Rear Loading Beach Bombs are another excellent investment.

Rear Loading Beach Bomb

“But with less than 40 known, they rarely trade hands,” says Pascal, who ought to know. In addition to the fabled pink RLBB that he mostly keeps under wraps, he was lucky enough to find a second pink RLBB, which he sold several years ago for—are you sitting down?—$55,000. That same vehicle changed hands last November for—don’t get up yet—$70,000.

Kevin Cook is a popular-culture junkie and writer living in McDonough, Ga.

Other stories by Kevin Cook:
Monster Mash discs: Graveyard Smash
The Truth Is Out There: X-Files Collectibles

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques and Collectibles