Transportation design: Kiddie edition!

Toys are designed to do three things. Engage, educate, inspire. They don’t necessarily have to fulfill all three conditions. In fact most toys can get past the first, or the second. The Hot Wheels cars aren’t most toys. They are engaging through good design, they teach children principles of physics and design through their tracks, and they’ve been known to inspire kids into joining the automotive industry later in their lives.

The Hot Wheels Car Maker is just one of those jaw-dropping products for car enthusiasts both young and old. Using basic principles of injection molding, you get the opportunity to create your own die-cast hot-wheels cars and then decorate them with vinyls before racing against your friends.

The Maker comes with a completely child safe design that prevents children from touching hot components or materials. The design features a manual hand-cranked system that allows melted wax sticks to be injected into a plastic mold. The maker even comes with tools that let you pry the car’s exterior off and remove all wax-flares before mounting it onto the pre-made chassis. Cars can be molded in different colors using the wax sticks, and by the looks of it, the finish quality on each automobile is just stunning.

Designer: Hot Wheels (Mattel)

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Images courtesy Hot Wheels and EvanTube HD