ok, lets take this on parts. Again, we have to remember that we are talking about your money's worth in here. Also, long post.
Quite often, I see cars from other brands that are more expensive, yet don't have the finish that HW can give their cars - take the finish on the Cool Classics for instance. And the wheels on the upper lines are quite comparable to more expensive models from other makers.
Where do they fail? The interior. This is where it comes off shoddy when we look at the seats and dishplate steering wheel.
The finishes in HW's various line-ups are questionable at best. The Cool Classics can indeed be cool... or can be a complete disaster, but in the end they come out as mere toys because, well, they're not real. Yet they are a full 3 bucks, with plastic tires. The other finishes in the other line-ups come with tampos and stuff and are really average. I mean, tampo placement on a "premium" HW can be as good as in a Greenlight, the only problem is that in the HW the tampo is Bugs Bunny, and in the Greenlight is about something that actually makes sense. About the interiors, yeah, they are laughable because they are meant for a toy car that was once used in a $1 basic line-up and that has been spruced up a bit, so you can't expect anything more, really.
JLs were invented to compete with HW - in fact they wanted to beat the speed of HW cars which were taken worldwide as the fastest cars in the world. They are still recognised as the fastest cars in the world, though JL did give them a good run for the money.
Yes, but these were the times when both were toy cars for the kids, not collectibles like we are discussing now. They have become collectible because old and rarity and heritage, but they were never designed to be such a thing, unlike later on when JL cars were indeed designed with collectibility in mind, which was when we saw some incredible JL castings with great detailing. Alas, this makes no sense in this discussion since JL is dead and thus does not compete with HW for your money in the pegs now.
They carry over a certain amount of 'better' quality towards their MBX line. The MBX interiors are also better and the wheel quality is better, too. Inevitably when the MBX line is shut down (making MBX a real collectible, and not just models off a continuing production run) they may give these lines over to HW and we should see some better quality in the $1.00 cars.
We're not discussing $1 cars here, we're discussing $5-10 cars as you stated in your previous post.
Overall, all those $5.00 - $10.00 brands in the HW range compete quite well with the $5.00 - $10.00 brands from makers who pride themselves as model-makers and not 'toy-makers.' When we go into 1:64s that are over $10.00 then it's hard to find HW making anything in that area, so they are caught at a disadvantage.
Yes, except they already did. I didn't mention the 100% line-up just because. Those were grade-A, incredibly well-crafted and detailed marvels that included some (not all) cars that I would compare to even Kyosho, which for my taste is the best brand for 1:64 scale model cars along with AutoArt and maybe Minichamps.
what I'm trying to say is that Hot Wheels
already did that. They have all they need to make them. They have proved they can make them happen. Hell they even proved they could market them cheaply when they released several 100%-quality castings in the Preferred line, in blistercards instead of clear cases, so it's not a matter of cost either.
Or rather, it is. Here comes the saaaaad part of it all, and my main point: HW has found out that it doesn't really need to make quality cars any more to
a- catter to collectors
b- make cash grow out of trees
All they need is grab their basic line cars, spruce them up with rubber tires, add some appeal in the form of, I don't know, TV cars series or Tampoed series or something, and then SELLSELLSELLSELLSELL. And sell them for freaking inflated prices.
I mean come on, @
a6m5 paid
how much for a freaking basic-line Silverado pick up that has three parts in the whole car, that was, as I said, spruced up with paint and wheels and given a fancy RLC blistercard? And then we have the 100% Hot Wheels Ed Roth set -which Im using as an example because it is one of the most sough-after of the 100% sets and thus one of the more expensive, and not based on car-style or taste, just the money it fetches- which usually goes for 60-70 bucks, even less of what a6 paid for the freaking basic-spruced Chevy truck, and gives you 4, count them,
four incredibly high quality replicas of legendary Roth-built hot rods, each with easily 15 separated pieces, highly detailed and finished... hell
you can see trough the spokes of the wire wheels. Dont wanna spend 70 bucks on a set of 4 cars? Plenty more options. I just yesterday was screwing around with the 100% Hard Rock Cafe Cadillac set I bought off Jason some months ago and the quality of those is astounding. I paid $15 for it.
That those aren't in the market anymore and thus can't compete for your money in the pegs? THAT is precisely the point. Hot Wheels have already made a truly premium lineup. It happened. And they even managed to sell them at a reasonable price back in the day, which means they would be able to do the same now. Yet they don't, they use their many-times horrible basic-line castings and sell them for premium prices.
If you are telling me that the HW range is suffering from quality control, then yes, yes, yes. Yes.
They are the only company that churns out so many production errors, that we might be able to actually officially list the continuing mess-ups as collectible official variations. I bought a five pack of Ferraris and the one I wanted most from it came without the glass and lights. I wasn't thrilled.
And not only speaking about errors. You can take off the chrome of the wheels with your fingers. The clear palstic used in the windows will go dull if you manipulate it too much. They're cutting costs on everything, from the aforementioned premium lines composed of basic cars, to materials, to paint. The problem is that the materials and paint they use in the $1 cars are also used in the $5-$10 cars.
No doubt Kyoshos, JLs, etc, look good at first glance, (though they may not compare with Corgi or Husky) but that is because HW messes up their scaling, neglects their interiors, and treats their lines as toys more than models.
Yes. Yet they use them, instead of using their existing 100% castings or producing new cars with this quality, in their premium line-ups, and then sell them for model-car prices.
The older lines (Made in Mexico
) had very high quality, and the quality
is suffering - that I will most definitely agree to.
Negative. Made-in-Mexico Hot Wheels cars are probably the absolute bottom end of HW quality in the entire history of the brand. Poorly mixed zamac alloy that cracked or flat broke if the car fell off your hands, horrible paint, low-quality plastic casting, dreadful rivets, chrome that goes green over time, tampos you can remove with your fingers. Seen and suffered it all in mexican cars. They suck. All of that combines to make some of them really, really rare.
However after checking out the Tomica and Tamiya 1:64s and the prices in comparison, I'm going to take a much harder look at HWs upper lines, without comparing the competitions upper lines to HW's $1.00 cars.
Edit: Yes, and what Andy said, too!
*support me guys; I can't fight the Generale alone.
This is, after all of the above,
precisely what I'm saying.
I'll use a personal example: Wal Mart has started to sell M2s here in Mexico, and also surprisingly introduced Hw's Retro Entretainment series. So the other day I get to a Wal Mart and find myself face to face with this dillemma: The HW Herbie, an unacurate casting for the portrayed car (as Herbie is a mid-60s Bug with a ragtop and the casting used in the Retro series is the eternal Oval window Bug with a solid top) with rubber tires on steelies (which are also wrong for the model but oh well) and the iconic livery... and not much else, really, for roughly $7. OR! Amongst all the variety, a M2 1967 Mustang with opening hood and doors -that include the window vent and full interior door panels, mind you- with aproximately 30 separate pieces, a cool Thunderbolt-style hood with real, see-trough scoops and a Coyote engine swap under it, rubber tires on big & little wheels, and a plastic base for displaying it... for roughly $8.
One buck difference.
I laughed, literaly dropped the HW on the stand again, and walked away with an awesome new car for my collection.
Now, as Andy says, you might not have readily available Greenlight or M2 cars in there, but by the sound of your new store, you will have plenty of other choices. I hope all of the above will make you reconsider in what you will spend those $5-%10 bucks next time. You're graced with having a local retail store carrying them, I've been having to pay shipping from Japan in order to grab about 30 or so Kyoshos in the last few months, with 8 more coming today, yet I haven't looked back, even with the added cost.
- I was over-hyping them a bit. As you know, I have put them down in the past, many times. But it is time to give credit where it is due. 
