Our friends over at HobbyDB.com have teamed up with legendary Hot Wheels designer Larry Wood to put together a great little trading card set. The Ones That Got Away features models that the Automotive Hall of Famer always wanted to design, but never got the chance to. Packaged in a nicely-designed slip case, this high-end, glossy 10-card collection – limited to 6,000 sets – presents never-before-seen artwork and the stories behind the designs.
I don’t want to give too much away, but I can’t resist showing just a few of my favorites.
The Ones That Got Away is a must-have for anyone who collects Hot Wheels and appreciates Larry Wood’s five-decades of contributions to this great brand. To order your own set, just click here.
The Hot Wheels Science Friction is a Larry Wood-designed unlicensed casting that was first released in the 1978 Classy Customs series and was produced in about 10 different variations up to the 1993 Tattoo Machines (renamed Lightning Storm). This example, from the 1982 Hot Wheels Hot Ones series, has bent guns and radar dish, broken exhaust pipes, worn paint, and is almost entirely missing the yellow, black and red Space Cop tampo.
Hot Wheels | 1982 Hot Ones | 2018 | Science Friction | white with missing “Space Cop” trim, chrome windows and engine, orange plastic radar, light and guns, unpainted metal base | Hong Kong | gold Hot Ones wheels
The Hot Wheels Spacer Racer – another Larry Wood-designed unlicensed casting – was first released in the 1979 Classy Customs series and was produced in about 6 different variations up to 1987. The perfect vehicle for all of your outer-space firefighting needs, this example of the Spacer Racer is from 1982 and is, unfortunately, missing the plastic hose nozzle which mounts on top.
Hot Wheels | 1982 | 2503 | Spacer Racer | metalflake red with yellow, white, black trim, chrome windows, yellow interior, missing ray gun, chrome plastic base | Malaysia | blackwalls
The Race Case 