• Creator of Hot Wheels, Elliot Handler, dead at 95
    74 replies, posted
[img]http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/drive-on/2011/07/24/hotx-wide-community.jpg[/img] [quote]Sure, there was Barbie. But what may turn out to be the true lasting legacy of Mattel co-founder Elliot Handler was the creation of Hot Wheels. Handler died Thursday of heart failure at 95, a veteran of the toy industry since the end of World War II. The Los Angeles resident didn't think Barbie would be a success when wife Ruth came up the idea in 1959. It became of one of the two products that would define Mattel. The other was Hot Wheels. Handler was looking for a toy that would hold as much appeal for boys as Barbie did the girls. Die-cast toy cars had been around forever, but Handler figured out how to give them a new spin -- literally. The secret was the wheels, which were the result of a special manufacturing process that made them spin fast, the New York Times reported. Besides knocking off miniature versions of the existing cars, Hot Wheels incorporated designs from the stylists it hired away from big automakers. The cars were given names like the Beatnik Bandit and King Kuda. Their metalflake paint jobs made them irresistible and with 10,000 designs over the years, Hot Wheels attracted kids and collectors alike. Handler is dead, but Hot Wheels will live on as long as kids remain passionate about cars.[/quote] [url]http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/07/mattel-elliot-handler-hot-wheels-barbie/1[/url] What a terrible week. :smith:
god daaaaamnit i loved those ): [editline]24th July 2011[/editline] r.i.p
this makes me much sadder than amy winehouses death
it feels like my childood was punched in the stomach
Oh God, I owe half of my childhood to that man. RIP
Well, at least he lived a full, good life, unlike someone else that recently kicked the bucket.
I still have all of my hot wheels and matchbox cars, RIP.
Never had Hot Wheels but the adverts on Cartoon Network always looked pretty ~extreme~
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Hot Wheels WERE my childhood. R.I.P. Mr.Handler.
I remember when my brother and I would play destruction derby with our hot wheels. We still have all of them. Also those things were well made. Only a few of them got a bent out tire and none of them lost parts.
I have bought roughly 300 Hot Wheels cars, I still have most of them.
Wow, 95, lived a long life. <3
Atleast he lived a long, happy, full life.
I loved hot wheels. I still have one of those tracks where the car goes so fast it shoots off the track :(
God this week is just TERRIBLE. Oslo, Amy Winehouse, and now the creator of Hot Wheels.
It sucks that the man who created something that's a majority of not just mine, but a lot of other people's childhood, is dead. R.I.P.
Why do deaths of well known people always have to happen around a similar time frame? Nonetheless, this guy was awesome. I remember getting Hot Wheels as a kid. D:
I'm gonna bust out my collection in his memory. Rest in Peace.
I had a huge huge huge bucket shaped like two tires stacked on top of each other. I got it for my birthday because I loved hot wheels, and between me then and my brother now it's filled to the top with hotwheels cars. If it was empty, I could still fit in it.
Holy shit I loved my Hot Wheels toys as a little kid. I had a big blue box with slots to put the cars in. I can remember making roads and obstacle courses out of blocks and stuff. Gave all my cars to charity, though. Hopefully the next person that gets them has a lot of fun with them. This guy is a legend in my eyes.
At first I got confused with the title and thought it was something about happy wheels, shit still sucks though. :(
I remember having this Hotwheels set that ate the cars, this set was the shit. It talked and everything [url=http://uppix.net/1/e/4/e7ead4fd5c1158f7650aae5f8c2b4.html][img]http://uppix.net/1/e/4/e7ead4fd5c1158f7650aae5f8c2b4.jpg[/img][/url]
I used to put those Hot Wheels tracks on the sofa and connect them to other ones on the floor, and at the end I would put a loop Hell, I must have at lease 150 HW cars by now. RIP :(
I got rid of most of my Hot Wheels a while back, but I kept a lot of my favorites. RIP, you will be missed.
I had the huge cyborg set where he ripped the track off and ate the car
[QUOTE=BANNED USER;31307983]I still have all of my hot wheels and matchbox cars, RIP.[/QUOTE] I had like every track set, and I've got a big blue hot-wheels tub in the basement full if track pieces. I also have 2 small green rubbermaid bins with at least 150 matchbox cars in one and around 200 hotwheels cars in the other. I took a picture of them all spread out on my floor but I can't find it.
fuck
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWMUzY9NhWc[/media]
[QUOTE=Mr. N;31307821]it feels like my childood was punched in the stomach[/QUOTE] Exactly what I was thinking
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.