Stuff You Should Know - SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Hot Wheels Work

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

If you're an American who had a childhood, you probably have some nostalgia for Hot Wheels. Get your engines revved for this trip down memory lane as we discuss these fun and iconic toys.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, Harry Potter fans. Huge news. Harry Potter, the full cast audio editions, are all being released on Audible, on a monthly basis, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

is already out. You have never experienced the wizarding world like this before. They've taken it to another level. The cast is perfect. Hugh Lorry is Dumbledore, Matthew McFaddy and is Baltimore, Riz Ahmed is Snape,

and Cush Jumbo as the narrator. And there are too many others to name. There's even a brand new musical score, and the sound design, you'll feel like you're right there. Footsteps echoing down the halls of Hogwarts, a golden snitch flying past your ear. The Hogwarts Express rumbling out of platform 9 and 3 quarters, and it's all in Dolby Atmos, which makes the wizardry even more magical. Plus, these are the unabridged versions, even more awesomeness. As I mentioned, the first book is out, and the next installments in the series will be released every month

until all seven are out. Go to audible.ca slash HP1 and start listening now. Your time and energy are precious. And the people you date should honor that. That's why everyone loves Bumble, today's sponsor. It's built for intentional dating, helping you connect with people who genuinely respect your boundaries and your heart. And because so many of us want to feel safer when meeting someone new,

Bumbo gives you peace of mind with options like photo and ID verification. So you know the person you're talking to is who they say they are. If you've been thinking about dating again, take this as your sign. Start your love story on Bumble. I know he has a reputation, but it's going to catch up to him. Gabe Ortiz is a cop. His brother Larry, a mystery Gabe didn't want to solve until it was too late. He was the head of this gang.

You're going to push that line for the cause. Took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it. When Larry's killed, Gabe must untangle the dangerous past, one that could destroy everything he thought he knew. Listen to the Brothers Ortiz on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everybody, Chuck here for another one of our Christmas-centric episodes with our 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist. And today I'm very pleased to introduce to you an episode that I liked quite a bit because when I was a kid, I love me some Hot Wheels. And so this is that episode, How Hot Wheels Were. Pretty interesting story.

Hope you guys enjoy it. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from How StuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W., Chuck Bryant, and Jerry. You know that just sounded like that's what happens. Like, you're having a nightmare, and Yumi wakes you up in the middle of the night, and you just goes, hey, welcome to the podcast. And then she slaps you across the face real hard. That's true. Yeah. That is what that sounded like.

That's what it sounded like. It was pretty accurate. I don't know what got into me. You were just supercharged about this topic. That's terrible. What? Supercharged? I don't get it.

It's like a supercharged engine? Oh, I didn't even think about that. Oh, good. That makes me feel a little better. Yeah. You know, Jerry, by the way, before when I told her what we were doing, said, oh my gosh, that was my favorite toy when I was a kid. Nice.

Hot Wheels are pretty great. Yeah, I had quite a cool. collection and I don't know where they are today. Oh really? They're missing, huh? Yeah, I don't know if they were thrown out or if my brother has them or they're in my mom's attic or what, because I'm kind of curious if I have any valuable ones. Yeah, you need to find them. Yeah. They could be, apparently as far as Hot Wheels collectors go, it could be in mint condition all the way down to beater condition. Oh, is that how they rank them? Yeah. Mine would be beaters because I played with them like crazy. That's good. I mean, that's what they're for. Sure. You know?

And there's value for a beater, too. Some people apparently harvest them for parts to rebuild, like, a new Frankenstein model. Oh, really? Yeah. That's pretty neat. There's a lot of stuff you can do with them. Yeah, and we should thank the fifth grader

who wrote this article, too. Sad face. I complained about that out loud to Holly. I was like, this article actually says sad face. Like, as a sentence. Yeah. I know. That issues.

I'm glad you said something. Yeah, what if it was a fifth grader? Your feelings are all hurt. I think her feelings are hurt either way now. Sad face. So we're talking about Hot Wheels today. I had a couple. My favorite toy was G.I. Joe, but I appreciated Hot Wheels.

Yeah, I had G.I. Joe, too. We should do a G.I. Joe episode sometime. I had the older ones, though. You probably had the huge ones? Yeah. Yeah. Now, I had the real ones. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

I don't, that's fighting words. Man, the ones that I had were so awesome. They were like, there was a huge, vast collection of all of them. There was like, Cobra. Cobra didn't exist when you were collecting G.I. Joe's. No, but how could you say, like, oh, that one that's 10 inches tall and has real clothes and fuzzy hair and the Kung Fu grip is inferior to this little plastic thing? I think you just said it all.

Fuzzy hair says it right. I don't really mean that Chuck I don't have a dog in that fight like if you like the big GI Joe's that's cool I got a problem yeah it's a quick side note I have to tell this story okay when you know how I used to do book reports and you would have to have a visual aid yeah I might have told this before if I do I apologize well I don't recognize it I did a report on Franco Harris went in a lunchy school because he was a football player yeah I don't know why I did on I got my mom to make me a little Pittsburgh Steelers uniform for my G.I. Joe because he looked like

Franco Harris. Nice. Yeah, and that was my visual aid. Do you still have it? No, of course not. We had the G.I. Joe's, but I think the Steelers uniform is gone by-bye. That's sad. Yeah. You know, I'm sure your mom put a lot of work into that. Now I feel guilty. So, Chuck, I have a question for you. Yes. Did you know that the number one vehicle manufacturer on the planet is in fact, Hot Wheels? I did. It kind of, it's astounding until you stop and think about it. Sure.

Like, apparently, since 1968, when Hot Wheels were first introduced, more than 4 billion Hot Wheels have been produced. That's more than the big four Detroit automakers combined. You're like, wow. And then you think, oh, yeah, it costs a minute fraction of the cost. Sure. To build a Hot Wheels and it does a normal car. Yeah.

Plus also, it's not like you're going to go, I want this Buick Cutlass Supreme in every color it comes in. Right. You know, with the hot wheels, you can do that. Yeah, the Lego stat is they're the biggest manufacturer of tires? Yeah, yeah. I wonder, though, do these not count as tires

because they're plastic? They count as wheels? I don't know, man. Because $4 billion times four, that's $16 billion tires. That's a really great question. I might have to challenge Lego or maybe just look up how many tires they manufacture. Old Kurt Christensen is not going to be happy about this.

Who was that? The founder of Lego. Oh. Remember old? Oh yeah, that's right. I thought you were saying old. No, old. Yeah, remember old.

So let's talk about the history of this stuff, huh? Okay. So Hot Wheels, like I said, have been around since 1968, and anybody who's heard the Barbie trademark podcast will recognize the name. named Elliot Handler. That's Ruth Handler, the inventor of Barbie Trademarks, husband, sure.

And Elliot apparently saw a real chance to muscle in on an already extant market by a company called Tyco that had a line of miniature metal cars, die-cast cars is what they're called, called Matchbox cars. By the time Hot Wheels came around, Matchbox was already there

and had established a market, and Mattel said, let's get in on that. Yeah, and the rumor is that he saw his grandchildren playing with them and said, they kind of stink, I can make these better, cooler. And he had a, as the story goes, had a designer, which we'll talk about in the second called Harry Bradley.

And he had a hot rod, and Elliot was in the parking lot one day, and said, man, those are some hot wheels you got there. And apparently, if you go, Look at the old original commercials for Hot Wheels. Did they say that? Well, that's how they pronounce it, hot wheels. Oh, instead of Hot Wheels? Yeah, the emphasis is on the hot.

It sounds awkward. They're like, race your hot wheels. But it makes sense though. You can race them, just go buy some hot wheels. That's how they say it. Collect all your hot wheels. Yeah, but that makes more sense in the context of a sentence. It does, but having been raised.

Right, right. You know, post-hot wheels is wrong. Yeah. Hot wheels. Because now I'm trying to picture the guy in the parking lot saying those are some hot wheels you got on there. You'd say hot wheels you got there. You know? Yeah.

Oh, boy. We can sure waste some time. We sure can. But the first, in 1968 is, like you said, when the first line came out of 16 hot wheels. and they were sold initially for 59 cent apiece. Yeah, and like you said, the guy whose car originally inspired the name Hot Wheels was Harry Bradley,

and he was the designer of that first 16 cars. They were also called California Customs Minatures was that first original 16 group of Hot Wheels that were released in 1968. So Harry Bradley designed them all, including apparently he got his hands on the first one, by the way, that came out was a Chevy Camaro. Of course. The second one that came out was the Chevy Corvette.

Of course. And apparently the Chevy Corvette came out before the actual Corvette came out. Yeah, the 69 Corvette, that is. So Harry Bradley was an old hand in not just miniature car design, but car design in general. He was an old GM designer, and I guess he had connections still at GM, and probably under the table in a possibly illegal way, got his hands on the blueprints for the Corvette that

hadn't been released yet, and Hot Wheels beat GM to the punch in releasing the 1968 Corvette. Yeah, 69. Thank you. That's all right. As the lore goes, he supposedly knew that the cafeteria door was unlocked, so he snuck in

through the cafeteria door. That's called industrial espionage. Yeah, that sounds like a story, like just lore. Okay. But maybe so. Maybe he'd committed industrial espionage. So like you said, those were the two of the first 16 in that original lineup, that original

collection, which if you have any of those, you get some good, yeah, you got some money that you're sitting on. Because, I mean, like, they went all out on those, that original line. Oh, yeah. Like, there were bushings to the suspension. Yeah. I mean the chassis. It had suspension, like shocks.

You could press them down and it would bounce back. I had some of those. I don't think they were from 68, but when did they quit making those? It said up until... 77 was when they stopped making the... Oh, no, 70 is when the suspension got an overhaul. Okay.

So for the first couple years, like they were really putting a lot into these things. The tires were redline racing slicks. And the things, the whole reason they went to so much trouble is because they really wanted to destroy their competitor matchbox. And one of the ways they did that was by making these things far more functional than the matchboxes were, the matchbox cars were. So they really could race.

And if you put a matchbox car up against a comparable hot wheels, say the same model car, the hot wheels will destroy it every time in the head-to-head race. As we saw on the internet. Yeah. A guy did that, of course. He took two Volkswagen and two Audi-8s, I think, and one matchbox and one Hot Wheel,

and he said they won by at least a car length every time he tried. Right. And this was no loop-de-loop or anything. It was just the straight race. Right. They painted them originally in Spectra Flame, which was very shiny and sparkly and expensive.

And I don't think we said that all hot wheels are built at one-sixth. 64th scale. Yeah, that's a big point. But not necessarily all match-buck cars. They kind of vary here and there. Right. But like you said, that spectra flame and the red line tires didn't only lasted until 77.

And the suspension only lasted until 1970. And they, sadly, a lot of that had to do with the fact that they moved them from Hawthorne, California to Hong Kong. Yeah. And like any product, you're like, hey, you can make it for half as much. if you make it in China. So let's move, let's ship the operations overseas. Well, not only that,

it's the spectra flame pane is pretty expensive. It's awesome. It looks great. Yeah. But it's pretty expensive. So with any collector's item, as they started to downgrade

the components and the parts and the manufacturing. Yeah. And ultimately the final product, all that did was make the original stuff all the more valuable today. Yeah, because there's fewer and fewer of them

as the years go on. proportionately speaking. Yeah, they had actual axles. Right. It was like a real, they were designed by car designers, and they were made apparently to reach 200 scale miles per hour.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's way cool. Yeah, remember, like, in the cockroach episode, we talked about how they're the fastest animal on the planet, relatively speaking. Uh-huh. Pretty neat stuff.

Yeah. So, Chuck, right out of the gate, Mattel had a hit on its hands. Oh, yes. They released them in 1968. By 1970, Hot Wheels was a Saturday morning cartoon in the vein of, like, Dune Buggy and Scooby-Doo and all those guys, Hannah-Barbera.

Dune-Buggy? Or Speed-Buggy. Speed buggy? Yeah. Remember Speed Buggy? Uh-oh. Yeah, it was like a Dune Buggy that could talk, and it was basically... Wonderbug? No, it's Speed Buggy. Oh, okay. Because there was Wonderbug, too. If you took Shaggy and put some, like, racing goggles on them... Yeah.

And then turned Scooby-Doo into a... speed, a doom buggy? Yeah. That's speed buggy. Oh, was that a cartoon? Yeah, they went around solving mysteries and stuff like that. Yeah, Wonderbug was,

I think that was live action. Oh, this was a cartoon. Sid Marty Croft. This is exactly like Scooby-Doo by the people who did Scooby-Doo using the same people who did the voices for Scooby-Doo. It just vaguely changed the characters.

Hot Wheels was virtually the same thing, except it was about racing clubs. There were the bad guys and the good guys. Do you know what this proves? What? Is the 1970s, the dune buggy was a very popular thing. Remember seeing those on the road? Mm-hmm.

Like, I used to see them all the time. Not all the time, but in the 70s, it was a common thing. Yeah. You don't see them anymore. Very rarely. Nope. No gremlins, no Ugoes. No wonderbugs.

You know, I like gremlins. Do you? They're okay. For me, though, the cude-graw of car design is the AMC pacer. Yeah. It's like the form mica kitchen of cars. Yeah. It's beautiful in all the weirdest ways.

So much window. That would be my sought after hot wheels. If I had a hot wheels, if I just could have one hot wheel, it would, I don't know if that would be it, I'd be happy with that one. Now, do they have that as a hot wheel? Oh, yeah. Okay. I looked it up.

And if you look up AMC Gremlin Hot Wheels, they went to town on those. They had some with like the intakes like sticking out of the hood and just all sorts of, just awesome different variations like indie car gremlins and stuff like that yeah because and that raises a pretty good point hot wheels has always been about the the racing design like they've designed them to look like racing cars but they've also manufactured them to actually be able to win a race like we talked about with matchbox yeah and one of the differences uh that is one of the main differences between the matchbox and the hot wheel is they were just much more interested in being sporty or like you could get you could get a matchbox like a delivery truck right you know

they had that and but the matchboxes looked more real they they all were about looking realistic right and not necessarily performance yeah um and hey if you want a bread truck you can get a bread truck right exactly but you can't get a bread truck hot wheel right you know uh we'll talk more about all of this jam right after this no one can resist a rule of culture so here's one for the dating files rule of culture number 72 chemistry isn't just vibes it's values because what's the point of matching with someone if you can't talk about the shows you binge the books you dog year or all the hot takes you'll defend it brunch i mean you definitely have friends who have met

their partners on bumble and it makes sense it's not just about matching with someone it's about finding someone who gets your references, your obsessions, your whole vibe, with shared interests and prompts, you don't just see a profile. You get a glimpse of someone's personality, which makes it even easier to start conversations that actually lead somewhere. Plus, with photo and ID verification, you can trust that the person you're talking to is real. With that added peace of mind, it's so much easier to show up as your full self. So whether your rule of culture is, the best first state start with the shared hot take on Renaissance or compatibility as having the same hometown bodega order, download Bumble, and turn those connections into something

bigger. Download Bumble and start your love story. It's 5.23 p.m. One of your kids is asking for a snack, another is building a fort out of your clean laundry, and you're staring at a half-empty fridge and thinking, what are we even going to eat tonight? Or you could just hello fresh it. With over 80 recipes to choose from every week, including kid-friendly ones, even for picky eaters, you'll get fresh ingredients and easy step-by-step recipes delivered right to your door. No last-minute grocery runs. No, what do we even have fridge staring? And the best part, you're in total control. Skip a week, pause any time, pick what works for you. It's dinner on your terms. The kids can even help you cook. Yeah, it's going to be messy. But somehow, they tend to eat the vegetables

they made themselves. Try HelloFresh today and get 50% off the first box with free shipping. Go to Hellofresh.c.com and use promo code Dinner50. That's Hellofresh.ca promo code Dinner 50. HelloFresh, Canada's number one meal kit delivery service. Dad had the strong belief that the devil was attacking us. Two brothers, one devout household, two radically different paths. Gabe Ortiz became one of the highest-ranking law enforcement officers in Texas. 32 years, total law enforcement experience. But his brother Larry, he stayed behind and built an entirely different legacy.

He was the head of this gang, and nobody was going to tell him what to do. You're going to push that line for the cause. Took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it. When Larry is murdered, Gabe is forced to confront the past he tried to leave behind and uncover secrets he never saw coming. My dad had a whole other life that we never knew about. Like, my mom started screaming my dad's name, and I just heard one gunshot. The brothers Ortiz is a gripping true story about faith, family,

and how two lives can drift so far apart and collide in the most, devastating way. Listen to the Brothers Ortiz on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You want to go ahead and talk about some of the other differences between Matchbox and Hot Wheel? Yeah, sure. Since we're at it. Matchbox, or I'm sorry, Hot Wheel is the one that is more likely to have branded versions.

man, and do they ever? Like the Ghostbusters, Ectomobile. Right, or even more than that. Like, they have a deal with Eminem Mars for 2015. Oh, they do. So they have, like, a Twix trucks and a Skittles van and, like, all this stuff. They have licensing with DC and Marvel this year.

Fast and the Furious. I know they had a line. Yep. So they're really big time into branded. And a lot of times they'll have, like, a store will just have exclusives. like access to an exclusive line of Skittles cars or something like that.

That you can only get at KB Toys. Yeah, I think they have a NASCAR deal too, if I'm not mistaken. I would not be surprised. And the hot wheels usually have a little bit wider, a longer axle and wider wheels because it's just cooler if that wheel sticks out from the body a little bit, you know? Well, plus also supposedly, and we'll talk about this a little more, when you shrink a car down to scale, it looks a little weird.

Yeah, you might as well go ahead and bring that up. Okay. It looks weird. You can't just shrink it and have it in the same proportion and have it look normal. Right. Like it'll be as far as like shrinking a car down by scale. It will be in the exact same proportion, but it's just awful a little bit. So what they do to make a hot wheels raceable is they expand the wheel well a little more.

Yeah. They break it out a little bit. Yeah. Which is why the wheel stick out. some on a hot wheels but not on a matchbox that's right because matchboxes are all about realism to heck with how it looks as long as it's real the one of the my favorite ones and I had one of these that they mentioned this article was the Red Baron the the the person who wrote this said it was an inexplicable an inexplicably cool

helmet over the cockpit I don't know about inexplicable it was just the roof of the car was a helmet right but I looked it up again today and I was like oh yeah I had that thing, but it was a it wasn't a Nazi helmet per se, but it was that shape of the helmet right, like the U.S. elders have that shape now, you know, where it's cut lower around the ears

instead of just a straight like the World War II helmet. Right. But the Nazis use those first because it's a better design for war and it also had a black iron cross on the side of it. Well, hence the Red Baron, right? Yeah, but it was, it's

easy now as an adult to look and say, hmm, that looks like a little Nazi hot rod. Yeah, but the Red Baron was World War I. He was pre-Nazi Germany. Yeah, and it was also, I think at the time, just looked like the biker gang would wear like those helmet with the Iron Cross. Yeah, and all of it was Southern California

hot rod culture. Yeah, exactly. What gave rise to Hot Wheels. So it makes sense. Yeah, I don't think there was any, like, surreptitious intent. Yeah. So, like I said, right out of the gate,

Hot Wheels was a hit. They had a cartoon within a year or so of the first 16 being released. Sure. The second release, they had, I think, 22 new cars. Yeah, 33 total. And then the third year, they had another, they released 33 after that, right? Oh, no, yeah, I'm sorry, 33 by 1970. So they did 16, 24, and then 33, and all of them came in, like, different colors, right?

So like I said, if you had one, that didn't mean you had them all. You wanted to collect them all. Yeah. So kids were going crazy for it. And another way that Mattel very wisely targeted children was to get in with fast food. Yeah. In 1970, the first Hot Wheels came out as a toy at Jack in the Boxes.

Oh, really? Yeah. The big one, though, the one that, like, put them over the top, was in 1983 when kids who were lucky enough to be taken to McDonald's for dinner. Happy meal. to get a hot wheel which is what they called of at the time could get one of 14 hot wheels

in 1983 and they had some cool ones they had a Chevy citation did they really? Yeah they had one that was one of my favorites actually it was a Toyota mini trek which is like a station wagon camper and it even said painted on the side

good time camper that you could get in your happy meal which if I could have one hot wheel, it would probably be that. You know what they were doing now that I look back through my adult eyes? Like snorting pot? No, they were giving you

a bunch of crappy ones because you wanted to keep coming back to get the cool one. Yeah, probably. You're like, ah, I got a citation. I'm like, can I go back because I want to get the hot rod? Right.

That's exactly what they were doing. Sure. Man, I feel so, like, manipulated. What did you think they were doing with happy meals? Well, I mean, I know it was all manipulation to get you to try and own all of them. Right.

But they should have been all cool ones, but you can't do that because the regular kid might be like, no, I got the cool one, I'm fine. But if you get the citation, you feel jipped off and you really want to go back and get one of the hot rides. Yeah. It's, my eyes are wide open, my friend.

Well, that's why our friends down under in Australia have outlawed marketing directly to children, which I think is a fantastic move. Oh, really? Yeah, that's so unfair to market directly to children. It's just almost literally is like taking candy from a baby. Right. Like kids aren't sophisticated enough to psychologically defend themselves

from being like bombarded by adults to say, go tell your parents to buy you this. You can't function correctly without this trapper keeper. So go get it. The trapper keeper? Yeah. What, uh, did they make a law? Yeah.

Really? Yeah, it's a big one. Very progressive law. I think all countries should adopt. Well, in 1983, I agree wholeheartedly, by the way. In 1983 is when that Happy Meal thing happened, and also the same year they moved from Hong Kong to Malaysia. And it said that's when they added their economy cars,

so that must have coincided with the citation. Yeah, the citation, man. One of the most disappointing Happy Meal toys you can possibly get. Yeah, because... It reminded you of your dad who drove a citation. Right, who was always mad. Yeah. Oh, dear.

So, Chuckers. Yes. After 1983, not a lot happened. Hot Wheels just kept going on, expanding more and more and more. Sure. I think they had another Happy Meals joint in 91 or something like that. And in 1995, they said, we need to do something big. and they did.

They released something called Treasure Hunt series which is a purposefully limited release car series of cars. I think they did 12 models at 10,000 each originally

and hence the name Treasure Hunt. They were hard to find. Yeah, and one of the cooler ones for me was the Oldsmobile 442. Yeah, that thing is neat. A dude at my church had a 442 and it was just awesome, man.

He had like the only muscle car in the youth group. And like two years ago, my brother, I was talking about this dude, Jason Singleton. I was like, whatever happened to him? He's like, oh, he still lives and so-and-so, and he went, and you know what, dude? I went, no, he still got it. Oh, yeah, why would you get rid of it? He still has the car, went to his Facebook page, and it is like the center of his life. I'm sure.

It's his baby. I mean, he's had that thing since like 1986. And just, it's juiced up, and he used to scare the daylights out of me in that thing. But it was also exhilarating, you know, to be riding with him. And he, you know, like 200 feet of drag he would lay. Sure. Like power braking, and he would get like four sets of tires a year. He'd be in the passenger seat going, save me, Jesus.

Yeah, I was very scared because I was, you know, I didn't flirt with the wild side back then. No. The Oldsmobile 442 is as close as you. You got, huh? Yep, it was exhilarating. And then, so that was 1995. This treasure hunt thing kind of went. It didn't go exactly as planned.

Mattel was like, oh, we could make even more money if we put these into wider release. So the original 10,000 releases were redone again and again and again. So treasure hunt kind of became commonplace. Sure. But it was a good idea, and it tapped into this whole idea of collecting.

Like, Mattel was like, we know you're out there and we're going to design these just for you. And we'll talk more about collectors. But just to kind of button up the history of Hot Wheels, it all came full circle in 1996 when Mattel bought Tyco and hence Hot Wheels bought Matchbox. So they're all owned by Mattel at this point.

Yes. All right. We'll get to the design and collecting right after this. Okay, friends, real talk. You are worth the wait. We've all been there, giving our energy to connections that didn't honor ours, and watching friends do the same. And honestly, we all deserve better. That's why Bumble is built for intentional dating. Safety is such a big deal for us all, especially when meeting new people. And Bumble gives you the peace of mind with options like photo and ID verification. That little extra step means you know the person you're talking to is who they say they are, with their real photos, and they are ready to show up authentically. And once you feel safe, you can actually focus on what matters, finding someone who gets you. With shared interests, it's easy to see right away who vibes with your passions, whether that's true crime podcasts, yoga mornings, or weekend hikes. So take a pause, affirm your

worth, and protect your peace. Bumble helps you create safe, meaningful connections, the kind that truly respect your boundaries, your energy, and your time. Thinking about dating again, take this as your sign. Start your love story on Bumble. It's 5.23 p.m. One of your kids is asking for a snack. Another is building a fort out of your clean laundry, and you're staring at a half-empty fridge and thinking,

what are we even going to eat tonight? Or you could just hello-fresh it. With over 80 recipes to choose from every week, including kid-friendly ones, even for piggy-eater, you'll get fresh ingredients and easy step-by-step recipes delivered right to your door. No, last-minute grocery runs. No, what do we even have, fridge staring? And the best part, you're in total control.

Skip a week, pause any time, pick what works for you. It's dinner on your terms. The kids can even help you cook. Yeah, it's going to be messy. But somehow, they tend to eat the vegetables they made themselves. Try HelloFresh today and get 50% off the first box with free shipping. Go to Hellofresh.ca and use promo code Dinner 50. That's Hellofresh.ca promo code Dinner 50.

Hellofresh.com. Canada's number one meal kit delivery service. Dad had the strong belief that the devil was attacking us. Two brothers, one devout household, two radically different paths. Gabe Ortiz became one of the highest-ranking law enforcement officers in Texas. 32 years, total law enforcement experience. But his brother Larry, he stayed behind. and built an entirely different legacy.

He was the head of this gang, and nobody was going to tell him what to do. You're going to push that line for the calls. Took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it. When Larry is murdered, Gabe is forced to confront the past he tried to leave behind and uncover secrets he never saw coming. My dad had a whole other life that we never knew about. Like, my mom started screaming my dad's name, and I just heard one gunshot.

The Brothers Ortiz is a gripping true story about faith, family, and how two lives can drift so far apart and collide in the most devastating way. Listen to the Brothers Ortiz on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So back then, if you wanted to do a... a smaller version of a larger car and scale it down. You didn't have computer-aided design and stuff. Sometimes you might have had a blueprint, which helped. But sometimes you just had to get out there in the parking lot with the tape measure and just take some measurements and then, you know, be good at math.

Right. Basically. And like we said, Harry Bradley, who's the daddy of the Hot Wheels designs, who's the guy who did the first 16, he was a GM designer originally in his footsteps followed Howard Reese and then after that Larry Wood and those are some of like the legendary Hot Wheels designers That's the Mount Rushmore of Hot Wheels

Pretty much, yeah And yeah they would just literally go out and measure these things And that was one way that Hot Wheels were born Another way was that And this definitely differentiates Hot Wheels from Matchbox is that there are Hot Wheels that only exist in the Hot Wheels world.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They are called the fantasy cars. Like, they're just the designer's imagination come to life. Right, whereas Matchbox only, I believe, has red trucks. Exactly. Well, they only have cars that are based on real cars, right? Right. Hot Wheels has a whole fantasy line.

It's interesting that they're owned by the same company still, and they just have kept that distinction. Yeah. You know? I guess some people are matchbox kids and some kids are Hot Wheels kids I had both I think I had a bread truck

Is that why you keep going to the bread truck well? No I didn't have a bread truck But I do remember having a couple of like Weird utility type vehicles That I don't remember They were probably gifts or stocking stuffers or something I don't think I like sought it out I was always into Tonka trucks

I thought Tonka was great They were obviously much bigger But those were like construction vehicles like dump trucks and stuff like that. And still, today, that Volvo dump truck, the giant one. Yeah. With the huge wheels, I think, is one of the coolest vehicles ever created. Yeah.

I think I had one of those when I was a kid. I didn't have a lot of Tonka stuff. Yeah. One of my favorite hot wheels, though, was the Little Red Express truck. I don't remember that. If you saw it, it might ring a bell. It was basically, I can't remember what kind of truck it was. I think it was a Dodge.

but it was just a cool red stepside pickup truck and it had the two the two vertical mufflers on each side that went up above the truck I think I know what you're talking about, yeah. Yeah, it's really cool

and if you go to the Peterson Automotive Museum in L.A., they have a really cool exhibit there that I haven't been to in person but I was looking at it online permanent exhibit where they have the real-life versions

of the hot wheel cars and they have a little red express truck a full-size one. Yeah, and I saw it, and I was like, whoa! Did you just die from nostalgia? Eh, look, might have teared up a little bit at the desk. But they have, you know, the gussied-up corvettes with the big chrome engines coming out of the hood.

Do they have the 4-42? I don't know if they have the 4-42, but I'm going... They will when your friend dies. I bet it's in his will. It'll go straight to the museum. Yeah. I'm going to go to this thing, though, at some point. I don't know on this next L.A. trip or not.

It's right there near the La Brea Tarpitz, I think. Oh, yeah. So I want to go check it out. Been there. Yeah. It's neat. It is neat. But back to the design.

These days, you're not going to need a tape measure and stuff like that. You're going to Photoshop designs, and you're going to even get a 3D printer to your prototype. That had to have helped them tremendously. Oh, yeah. Because, you know, if you're designing real life cars and you have a 3D printer, that's pretty handy. But with Hot Wheels, like, you can print out pretty much exactly. exactly what it's gonna look like. Sure.

And once they have the prototype done, they'll make a mold out of it and then inject it with molten metal under tremendous pressure. And that's why it's called die cast. You create a dye that you cast all of the ensuing ones from. Yeah, and I think they're made with less metal

than they used to be, but they still have metal components, right? Oh yeah. I haven't seen a new one in a while. I haven't either, but I'm almost positive they do. And apparently they're still about like a dollar. Oh really? Yeah, I was on the Hot Wheels collector site today and like they kept making reference to about a dollar. So just what's called the main line. Yeah. The ones that they make on mass. The citation. Exactly. I'll bet if you got your hands on that 1983 citation, it'd be worth a few bucks. You're right. But they kept referring to

the mainline stuff so about a dollar. Well, they just kept making their manufacturing cheaper and cheaper so they've maintained that cost I guess yeah so as far as collecting goes the most valuable and that is not this crazy one made out of diamonds for the 40th anniversary which we'll talk about in a minute but the most valuable regular hot wheel is the 68 beach bomb which was a VW bus and hot pink that had real surfboards sticking out of the back of it yeah originally um They only released, I think, 25 of them like that. There were a couple of problems. It was difficult to manufacture them with the surfboards sticking out of the back,

even though it was more realistic. Sure. And it also was terrible on like a loop-de-loop track. Yeah. Because I guess the surfboards would either weigh them down or it would get stuck. Yeah. So they only made just a few of these things. The beach bomb that was the highest selling the Hot Wheels ever was a pink one.

They made even fewer of those because the Apparently a lot of boys were like, I'm not playing with some pink van, even if it does have cool surfboard sticking out of the back. So the thing sold for like, I think, $70 something, $75,000 in 2000. And it has since sold again. In 2011, I saw in LA Magazine for like $125,000.

Yeah, it's a lot of money for a tiny little car. Yeah, it is. And that's the highest one ever. Apparently by a long shot too. Yeah. I mean, I've seen others that were worth, like, 10 grand and stuff. Like, I think one of those 442 originals is like 10 grand. Yeah, I guess like 1970 mongoose or cobra are worth about 10 grand these days.

And a lot of them, just like with any collector's item, you'll see if there was just a few of them made. Obviously, they're going to be worth a lot more. If there was something where they adjusted the design, like, for example, the Python was, was originally called the Cheetah. And then they found out that a real-life executive with real-life lawyers at GM own the name Cheetah. Because apparently GM executives just own names for cars that could potentially be used.

Like every fast animal name. Right, exactly. So they changed it to the Python, but that was after they'd started manufacturing the Cheetah. So there's some out there that say Cheetah stamped on the bottom. And if you have one of those, it's worth 10 grand. Yeah, it's funny to think about, It's the same with Star Wars.

Like sometimes the mistake ones are the ones that are super valuable because, like, there was some recall, but they're like, oh, but you want that one because the Boba Fett's rocket really shot out before kids started choking on them. Right, or kicking on fire. Yeah, and that's the one you want.

Yeah. But like you said, it's all about scarcity and supply and demand. Dude, this whole thing has reminded me of a really great gallery I put together about hilarious knockoff toys. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, go to stuff.

Stuff You Should Know.com and look that up. It's pretty awesome. There's some really strange interpretations of beloved toys, including Star Wars toys, that people who make counterfeit toys come up with to try to skirt trademark law maybe or something, or else they just fully don't understand the toy and what it's allure is,

so they just make it in this weird interpretation. It's pretty hilarious stuff. Yeah, it's a good one. We'll post that again. Okay. and then I did mention the diamond studded one I always think these things are just ridiculous but like to take any like the diamond studded bra

it was worth you know oh yeah I forgot about it I just always think it's kind of dumb but they did make a 40th anniversary in addition in 19 I'm sorry in 2008 with 2,700 little diamonds and rubies for taillights and black diamonds for the tires and all that stuff, 18-karrot white-gold body,

but it's worth $140, or it costs $140,000 to put together. I'm sure, you know. It's gaudy, it's a gaudy hot wheels. Yeah. The car's cool. It looks like Mad Max's car. Oh, is that a picture of it?

Yeah. I don't think I saw that. Can you identify that car? What is that? It looks familiar. It does look familiar to me, too. It looks sort of like a DeLorean, but I don't think it is.

I don't think so either. No. Man, that new. Mad Max looks good though. Are they remaking Mad Max? Well, there's a new reboot, I guess, is what they call it these days. Cool.

Who's in it? What's his face that played Bain. Oh, yeah. Tom What's his face? Huddleston? No, not Tom Huddleston. But it looks, it's the same director. Tom Hardy?

Yeah, Tom Hardy, but it's the same director from all of the Mad Mac series. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. And it just looks, it's supposed to be just like, one long, intense chase battle. Yeah, sounds a lot like a Mad Max movie.

Yep, that's what you want. Have you ever seen Vanishing Point? I think so, what is that? It was like, man, I can't remember the car, but the car was basically the star. It was one long car chase from like, I think Colorado to California. Yeah, I remember that.

That's a good one, from the 70s. Yeah, two-lane blacktop too. Callenger? I think it was a Challenger, the car. Yeah. I haven't seen that one. Yeah, that's a good one. That one weirdly had James Taylor in it when he was young and on drugs and cool.

Were they apologizing to France? No, I don't know what the deal was. Did you hear about that? No. So that whole Charlie Hebdo, like, Solidarity March, the U.S. sent, like, I think the assistant deputy in charge of the USDA or something like that. So to apologize, John Kerry had James Taylor go to France to perform You've Got a Friend Shut up. For the French government.

Yeah. Just talk about making. I know, isn't it? Send guns and roses or something, at least. Well, send guns and roses from 1988. That would be a good gift. That would go for any guns and roses, man. Ooh.

One more thing about collecting. If you wanted to be the coolest collector of Hot Wheels on the planet, you would have to build a time machine and go back to 1987 to my hometown of Toledo, Ohio, which is where the first ever Hot Wheels Convention, collector's convention, was held. I really wish I would have gone to that. Because I was there at the time.

What year was it? 87. Oh, yeah. I can't believe we sent James Taylor. I'm still just like, I can't focus on anything. Well, if you want to know more about James Taylor or Hot Wheels or just about anything there is in the universe,

you can type it into the search bar at how stuff works.com. And since I said search bar, it's time for listener mail. I'm going to call this minimum wage argument. Not argument. Proposal. I listened to how homelessness works from quite a few years ago, and you guys commented that part of the problem was that low minimum wage in comparison

and the cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment, you'd have to work something like 87 hours per week to afford it, with the implication we need to raise minimum wage. After hearing this, a clear solution occurred to me. I think disagreements on raising minimum wage as a result with simple misunderstanding. On the raise side, people believe this wage should be set at a level that would allow someone to raise a few children and live a modest but reasonably comfortable level

or at least a safe level. On the don't raise it side, people believe minimum wage is just a starting point for working, like for teenagers at their summer job or after school. This side believes workers were never intended to and should not expect to be able to support a family that pays minimum wage. So here's my solution. Since we're a democracy here, let's just decide what it is supposed to accomplish and then set it at the appropriate level to do that. If we decide as a nation that someone should be able to raise a family, rent a two-bedroom apartment while earning a wage, minimum wage. Let's just figure out what that would cost and set the wage there, figure in rent, clothing, food, utilities, transportation, etc. Let's say it's 27 grand per year, then set it at that rate. On the other hand, if we as a nation decide that minimum wage is just a starting point and not meant to support a family, it's intended for people with no work history or experience and low to no marketable skills, and we need to set minimum wage at a relatively low level and let the market, the free market will ultimately.

determine the wage for entry-level workers, and workers historically have been able to increase compensation by gaining skills in good work history. With this settled, any argument about setting minimum wage at a living wage would be mistaken because we all just decided that people are not meant to live on minimum wage and certainly not meant to support a family. That is from Joe Prohaska in Reno, Nevada. And it's interesting. I look forward to seeing the rebuttal emails.

Yeah. I love that kind of stuff. Yeah. It's a great proposal. I mean, I think that is what it's based on. Sure. But as far as I know, the cost of living calculations are really out of date. Yeah. And take a lot of stuff into account that doesn't really apply any longer.

Plus, regardless of what you think it should or should not be, the fact is adults with two kids are still going to be working these jobs. It's not just going to be teenagers looking to advance. But it would be nice to put that issue to bed to say, like, this is what we're trying to achieve or this is not what we're trying to achieve. Right. At the very least, you get everybody talking. Yeah, because should some teenager at his first job make like $14 an hour? I don't know.

I don't know if that's sending the right message either. I don't know. I don't know. We'll leave it up to you guys, our dear listeners. When I started working, it was like $3 an hour or something. It was ridiculously low. That is ridiculously low. Yeah.

If you want to let us know how you feel about Joe's proposal, was it Joe? I believe it was Joe. Reno Joe? Reno Joe. You can tweet to us at SYSK Podcast. You can post it on Facebook.com slash Stuff You should know. You can put it in an email at Stuff Podcast at How StuffWorks.com. And just for kicks, you can hang around our home on the web, stuff you should know.com.

For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works.com. Hey, friends, just want to let you know our friends at Squarespace have partnered with the dude, Jeff Bridges, and a really cool thing called www.com. And this is something Jeff Bridges actually came up with. It's a project where he has his friends in various locations around L.A. With these cool, relaxing sounds and guided meditations and stories designed to lull you asleep. It's really neat. And he's also the face of no kid hungry. which is a great charity group you should look into.

So check out www. Dreamingwithgeff.com and see what the dude in Squarespace has going on. I know he has a reputation, but it's going to catch up to him. Gabe Ortiz is a cop. His brother Larry, a mystery Gabe didn't want to solve until it was too late. He was the head of this gang. You're going to push that line for the cause. Took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it.

When Larry's killed, Gabe must untangled a dangerous past, one that could destroy everything he thought he knew. Listen to the Brothers Ortiz on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everybody. As is our annual custom, we are raising money for our favorite charity, the Cooperative for Education, which helps break the cycle of poverty in Guatemala

by making sure that kids who otherwise wouldn't have an education get to school. That's right. And here is this year's call to action. You can join Co-Ed for $20 a month to collectively sponsor students in the Rise Youth Development Program, and if you set up that gift by December 19th, you can have a chance to win a virtual Zoom hangout with Josh and I. We do it every year, and it's a lot of fun.

That's right. You can go to cooperative foreducation.org slash sysk, set up your $20 a month sponsorship. You can also go make a one-time donation if you like, and we may see you for a virtual hangout this January. Thank you for giving. I'm Stefan Curry, and this, is Gentleman's Cut.

I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful finished product with every sip you get a little something different. Visit gentlemen's cut bourbon.com or your nearest Total Wines or Bevmo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older. Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky.

For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit gentlemen's cut bourbon.com. Please enjoy responsibly. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.