Stock #85611
Collector #021

CB's Die Cast Review:  October 14, 2002

HotWheelsCollectors.com - Convention Series
`70 Chevelle® SS

The latest Spectraflame car to be released by Mattel through its hotweelscollectors.com site was produced for the 16th Annual Hot Wheels Convention in Irvine, California.  The `70 Chevelle SS is the second "basic line" casting to appear in the famous finish this year, following the two VW Drag Bus releases from the 2nd Annual Hot Wheels Nationals Convention in Reston, Virginia.  This is the best this casting has felt in hand since it debuted as a First Edition in 1999, with an all-metal body and chassis.

Contrary to varying published reports, the car IS painted light rose and not red.  HWC reported that the car would be rose when it was announced, but all reports since then have not.  As with the previous HWC Spectraflame cars, the `70 Chevelle SS sports a mirror finish with zinc plated parts and utilizes most of the graphics from the First Edition’s version tamped in black – and thankfully no flame logo to be found anywhere on the body.  The car also features silver "SS" markings on the front fenders, and California vanity plate "HWCTONI" tamped in the appropriate location on the rear panel.

The interior is black plastic and the glass is clear plastic.  Since the car is part of the Convention Series segment and not the Series One segment, it does not have the retro RSW wheels.  Instead, it rides on the new style Real Rider wheels and tires that recently started appearing on cars in the 100%HW Preferred product line.  These new wheels are a vast improvement over the 1980s-era Real Riders wheels.  You can see through the spokes of the chrome plastic mag wheel, and the tire treads are more finely detailed.  Amazingly, these new wheels roll very well, although their performance never will be confused with that of RSWs – from any era.

Areas of the chassis are detailed, such as the taillights, rear panel and front grill.  Very nicely done.  Interestingly, instead of pulling the original chassis tool off the shelf, the current chassis tool with the shorter rear axle was modified for diecast parts - strange since the chassis did not have to be modified to accept the retro wheels.  The car was manufactured in China.

This version of the `70 Chevelle SS is sweet looking.  The only drawback is that there are no RSWs on the car, although it does look good with the new Real Riders.  The car was sold in two venues – 4,000 pieces at the Irvine convention and 6,000 pieces online through the HWC website – thus insuring that most collectors who wanted the Chevelle had the opportunity to acquire it.