Hot Wheels have been making toy cars for very long time and “Tooned” series has been here for some time now and its mostly targeted at kids. But this year we have seen shift in trend and more adult collector started showing interest in this series, thanks to the Fast & Furious cars making its way into series. I got excited to see these tooned cars since the Manga Tuner’s release in 2020.
Let’s get started with the one that started a new trend in tooned series Hot Wheels mainlines, the Manga Tuner (82/250) released in 2020. Till 2020 I would ignore the entire Tooned series and leave it for some kid to pick. Manga Tuner came in with significant update, with the above average upper part and tiny lower part making it unique and cute… we/I loved it too! So its natural for Mattel to exploit this trend shift and make an array of cars.
This year (2023) that excitement turned into obsession and I started loading my collection with this series cars like I would do with Factory Fresh, HW Exotics etc. First to show up in my door steps is the black Fast & Furious 70 Dodge Charger (153/250) that Dom drives in the tooned universe. Dom’s Dodge is a hot car already so it got so many series collectors even turned towards it, I got it after I saw the Nissan Supra online.. Weird but true!
The 94 Toyota Supra is the brightest and coolest tooned car in my collection and it could be true for many of you too! This Supra follows the same design language as the Manga Tuner and it looks cool. The bright color and sharp decal details makes this my top favourite. This gets chrome base and interiors, making it fancier than the rest.
Now I am too far into the Tooned universe, and there is no turning back! By now, local collectors community is catching up and these Tooned cars started flying off the shelves making it for more challenging. The Toon’d 83 Chevy Silverado (93/250) is off the pegs and finding this turned out to be a challenge but I got one after some effort. Frankly this is the one that put maximum effort as I missed it the first time it showed up in pegs. This is cool but the plain color that was released last was my hot favourite.
Porsche 911 Turbo in back is the most popular of the entire tooned universe and the most scalped one as well. This Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6 (964) (234/250) is super cool, comes with shiny paint finish great head lamps and beautiful rear lights! The glass area is a bit tinted giving it a more meaner look! This right away takes second place, right next to Supra… Maybe Supra got the advantage of color and a yellow Porsche would have blewed the Supra out of water I guess!
This series is one of the collection that will be closer to heart as this is not the one that brain remotely influenced! As of now I only have 5 cars and hopeing Hot Wheels will make more to grow my collection considerably… I am looking forward to getting some sleek JDM cars and movie cars as this theme is made for them! Do suggest more cars to be added to this collection… Till next time, Ciao.