A new collaboration between artist Daniel Arsham and Hot Wheels presents “fictional archaeology” in a pocket-size form.
-Arsham’s eroded and crystallized car-based artworks have been featured by Porsche and at The Petersen automotive museum.
-the sets will be released in four waves, called Laps, and start with a classic Hot Wheels from 1973 and an iconic whale-tail Porsche 930.
Anyone who has ever stumbled across a battered and chipped old Hot Wheels car while cleaning out an attic or basement has felt that wave of childhood nostalgia. But what if the discovery was made by some archaeologist, uncounted millennia down the road? That’s the question posed by artist Daniel Arsham’s work, which reimagines pop culture icons like the DeLorean DMC-12 in a decayed, crystallized, fossilized state, as relics that might be dug up in the future. Now, in a collaboration with Mattel, Arsham has turned his creativity toward a pocket-size format.
For Sale as a Limited Series
Launched as a limited series aimed at the Hot Wheels collector market, eight 1:64 scale model cars will be released in four waves. The first, dubbed Lap One, launches on October 27 through the Mattel Creations site, and features eroded versions of the 1973 Hot Wheels Rodger Dodger and a Porsche 930.
The Rodger Dodger is a classic Hot Wheels creation, in the vein of models like the Twin-Mill and Bone Shaker. Originally designed by Hot Wheels O.G. Larry Woods, it’s a 1973 Dodge Charger with a supercharged V8 erupting from its hood – pure early 1970s tuned musclecar culture for plastic orange track racing. As a pop-culture future relic, it’s a perfect choice for Arsham’s treatment.
But perhaps more personal is the choice of a Porsche 930. Now 43, Arsham spent his childhood sketching sneakers, cameras, and whale-tail Porsches, and has previously applied his “fictional archaeological” style to a 992-series 911 for Porsche in 2019. His own personal 1986 930 project, completed in 2020, features elements plucked from Porsche’s racing heritage, including a reimagined Apple racing livery and RSR and Kremer K3 details.
More recently, Arsham had a trio of cars on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. The exhibit included two eroded and crystallized cars, an air-cooled 911 and a 1961 Ferrari GT intended as a nod to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The third is a Porsche 356, weathered and fitted with Japanese details, in a nod to the concept of wabi-sabi, the embrace of imperfection.
Scaling this ethos down to 1:64 Hot Wheels size clearly presented significant challenges, as the collaboration has taken two years to bear fruit. Mattel dug deep into its toy catalog and pulled out an Barbie construction material called Silkstone. Silkstone resembles porcelain but can be made using more modern methods, and it lends itself perfectly to Arsham’s partially eroded details.
Lap One also launches with an Arsham version of the Super Rally carrying case, the original of which dates all the way back to Hot Wheels’ debut in 1968. It has eight slots for the upcoming models that will roll out over Laps Two through Four. Obviously, this is pure, uncut catnip if you are a Hot Wheels collector.
But also, you don’t need to be a collector to appreciate the Arsham and Hot Wheels collaboration. These collectibles time-travel to a world where some archaeologist, using a futuristic tricorder scanner no doubt, digs their trowel into the ground and unearths a small toy that was some long-dead person’s childhood treasure. The kind of thing that belongs in a museum. Or, for now, in a place of pride on your display shelf.
Contributing Editor
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.
