CB's Die Cast Review:  November 18, 2002

2002 First Editions™
The Year in Review

The 2002 model year again saw a proliferation of new Hot Wheels castings, continuing the trend started in 1998.  Forty-two castings debuted under the First Editions banner, the largest amount of new models ever.  While this year’s series was an improvement over the 2001 group, it wasn’t the bounce-back year I had hoped for.

As is the current practice, Mattel began releasing the 2002 First Editions toward the end of the 2001 summer.  Unlike last year, the series did not open with one of the better castings when Nomadder What began to appear in September assortments.  The Tantrum surfaced next, followed by the all-metal Midnight Otto and Altered State.  After a brief respite, new castings appeared regularly over the next eleven months, with Sling Shot closing out the series.  All of the models are four-wheel vehicles this year, and almost all will work with the majority of the track sets.

	The `57 Caddy and Ferrari P4 (front) headline the group of top castings, which also includes (rear, l-r) Sling Shot, Pony Up, Open Road-Ster and Altered State.

The `57 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham and Ferrari P4 head the list of the best castings, with the models being extremely faithful to the full-sized cars.  Even the use of a chromed plastic base on the Brougham can be forgiven here, as the model was designed to simulate the chromed metal rocker panels of the real Caddy. The P4 has excellent detail as well.  Also among the best are Altered State, nicely based on a fuel/altered dragster, and the all-metal concept cars Pony Up, Open Road-ster, Sling Shot and I Candy.  The next tier includes Backdraft, `40 Ford Coupe, Custom `69 Chevy Truck and Corvette SR2 - all a metal base-or-body short of greatness.

Nomadder What (2nd from left) heads the list of disappointments, which also includes (l-r) Jester, Hyperliner and Custom Cougar.

There always are a handful of castings every year that I don’t care for, and this year is no exception.  The incredibly poor production value of the Hyperliner does nothing to enhance a so-so design.  Jester looks like a relative of Nomadder What and looks just as ugly.  And the Custom Cougar (tuner) is a mishmash of colors, metal and plastic, with the purple chrome wheels just another feature to clash with the translucent orange windshield and hood.  In addition, the plastic chassis and innards of Hyperliner and Volkswagen New Beetle Cup when the bodies are removed have the feel of a toy from a cereal box.  When the Mini Cooper from the 2000 line appeared with this feature, it had a metal chassis and multi-colored plastic parts, and didn’t look cheap.  The two aformentioned cars from this year are nowhere close to that standard.

The totally off-the-wall casting this year is I Candy in a landslide.  This bug-eyed concept car could have been a disaster if made with a plastic body or chassis.  But with only the fenders and glass made of plastic, and featuring metal chassis, body and engine – along with some nifty satin-finish pseudo antifreeze paint – this is one cool casting.

	The `64 Riviera and `68 Cougar didn't match the anticipation of their releases, but the `59 Custom Caddy is a looker (l-r).

Unfortunately the "lowrider" look has been perpetuated with the models based on cars from the mid 20th century. `40 Ford Coupe and Super Smooth are well proportioned, but sit low to the ground.  The `64 Riviera looks cartoonish in its dimensions.  The `68 Cougar stands taller but resembles the old disproportioned Aurora ThunderJet version instead of the real XR7.  Only the Custom `59 Cadillac looks right as a "lowrider" with its all around chopped appearance.

The number of all-metal cars reached an all-time low this year with only 11 models.

Another distressing issue is the dwindling amount of all-metal cars with each passing year.  Only 11 of this year’s First Editions are made in the original tradition – an anemic 26% - an all-time low for the series.  If it wasn’t for the Series One releases through HWC, it would be an incredibly bad year overall regarding all-metal releases.  The nice thing about the cars that are all-metal is that there are a number of concepts included.  Open Road-ster, Pony Up and Sling Shot are beautifully executed models, and would not be among the best of the group if they had plastic bases.  Pony Up already is a favorite of customizers.

	I Candy and Moto-Crossed (not pictured) had production changes, while VW Beetle Cup and Lancia Stratos had tampo changes.

Fortunately, the one thing that has been kept to a minimum is the number of manufacturing variations.  Tampo modifications were made to Volkswagen New Beetle Cup and Lancia Stratos.  Production modification have included removing the orange window tint from I Candy and changing the plastic interior color from yellow to black on Moto-Crossed.  As always, wheel variations changed with the weather.

The 2002 First Editions series was an improvement over the previous year, but still did not consistently knock my socks off.  This could be because, with the large amount of castings released in rapid fashion throughout the year, it was hard to get excited about all of them.  The advance pictures of the 2003 line, and the models that already have been released, suggest that the 35th anniversary year will be a strong one.  We will see.