Hot Wheels Four-Car Team Transport
Our friend Mike Zarnock first showed us the Hot Wheels Car Culture Team Transports last year in Hot Wheels Highway. At the time, the series was comprised of 15 two-vehicle sets pairing a car with a transport truck in matching livery. Six sets were released in 2018, and another nine in 2019. The sets are part of the Hot Wheels Premium line, meaning they are equipped with Real Riders rubber tires and metal bases, among other features. Since Mike last discussed them Hot Wheels has added another 10 car/transport pairs for 2020, and seven have been announced so far for the series in 2021—bringing the numbered sets to 32. But that isn’t all—four exclusive vehicle sets have been released to Walmart which include three cars and a matching transporter in a diorama display box. Some of the cars and trucks in the Walmart sets have appeared (or will appear in 2021) in the standard two-vehicle pairs, but some are unique. I recently picked up the Black Hole Drag Racing Team set at my local Walmart, so we figured we’d review it as part of our Heavy Haulers and Race Rigs special issue.
The Black Hole livery first appeared in 2019 with Transport release number 7, which paired up the ’66 Super Nova with the “Retro Rig” transporter, and those are two of the vehicles which comprise the new Walmart set. To that Mattel adds a ‘65 Mercury Comet altered and a version of the muchbeloved ‘55 Bel Air Gasser, both painted to match the flat black/matte silver livery of the original pair. Neither of the new cars has appeared in the Team Transport two-vehicle sets, although the Comet is slated to do so later in
2021 (with different decoration). But if you want the ’55 Shoebox with a matching race hauler this set is the only way, at least for now.
Let’s start with the Retro Rig, which first appeared with the Snake & Mongoose funny car sets in 2018.
It’s not officially identified, but the Sweptline styling is a dead ringer for the 1965-73 Dodge D-series, which makes sense since Snake & Mongoose used ’67 Dodge D700 crew cab haulers. The Retro Rig is a standard cab and sits lower than a D700, and the grille pattern
looks more like a ’71 or ’72 but it still works. Rather than sit on dual rear tires like a stock big D-series, Retro Rig rolls on low-profile tires on chrome 5-spoke wheels. The lights and custom truck horns on the roof, and the cargo bins in the ramp body are picked out with matte silver paint, giving the truck a pretty sophisticated look overall.
The Super Nova carries the AA/GS class designation, meaning it runs in AA/Gas Supercharged—the top class for gassers in the 1960s. The Nova has skinnies on its leaf-sprung solid front axle and a big fat big block under that blower. The interior has a lone race seat and the tub is molded in dark gray with a chrome full roll cage surrounding it. It has a little fuel cell in the grille, although the metal Thailand base has a traditional fuel tank cast in the back that even has a set of fuel lines running from it! The rear valence has a single chute cast in, and the fat Goodyear slicks sit on a narrowed rear end and are mounted on black 5-spoke Torq-Thrust style wheels.
The ’55 Bel Air is more of an oldschool gasser, with no inner fenders to get in the way of the fender-well headers dumping out of what looks like a rowdy blown small block. The front wheels are full width and the interior (molded in chrome in a single piece with the engine) has a pair of ‘60s-style bucket seats and no visible roll cage, although the rear bench has been stripped out. The wheels have the same American Racing look as the Nova, but these ride on a full-width rear axle with a jumbo set of ladder bars and wear vintage “pie crust” cheater slicks.
That brings us to the Merc. The ‘65 Comet Cyclone is perhaps best known for ushering in the era of the funny car in the hands of racing legends like Dyno Don Nicholson, Arnie “The Farmer” Beswick, Hayden Proffitt, and Jack Chrisman. Before they were funny, Comets ran in the Altered Factory Experimental class—or A/FX, just like it says on the fender of this one. That Enderle “bug-catcher” poking through the hood tells us it’s got a blown and injected 427, so this could be nearly as quick as the gassers! It’s got fenderwell headers too, plus a narrowed rear end, traction bars, and wide slicks like the Nova. And inside is a pair of racing seats and a half-cage molded in black. The diorama packaging includes a backdrop of photo-realistic rural drag strip with a winning ET of 9.48 @ 164.60, which was right on the A/FX record in 1965!
FINAL THOUGHTS
These Walmart four-piece sets really add a new dimension to the Team Transport concept, which was already a popular one with collectors. But with three different race cars all thematically linked, sharing the team colors, and matched to the hauler, there is more depth and interest to the set. The packaging is a nice perk, but the window box is a little fragile to serve as a long-term home for this set. Besides, I’d rather have them out where I can mix and match them with the Retro Rig, or better yet, line them up for an intramural match-race between teammates!
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1975 Lamborghini Miura Jota SVR