SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Hot Wheels Work

Summary

Stuff You Should Know: 12 Days of Christmas – How Hot Wheels Work

Podcast: Stuff You Should Know
Hosts: Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant
Release Date: December 12, 2025

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Overview

This festive “12 Days of Christmas: Toys” installment explores the classic toy car brand Hot Wheels. Josh and Chuck dive into the origins, evolution, design innovations, and cultural impact of Hot Wheels, while contrasting them with their main competitor, Matchbox. The episode is a lively, nostalgia-filled ride through Hot Wheels history and collector culture, peppered with fun personal stories and trademark banter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Childhood Memories & Collector’s Value

• Both hosts fondly recall Hot Wheels from their youth and discuss the mysterious fates of their own collections.
• Collectors value Hot Wheels anywhere from mint to "beater" condition, with old models sometimes repurposed for parts—“Some people apparently harvest them for parts to rebuild, like a, you know, a new Frankenstein model.” – Josh (04:08)
• The range in collector interest: from play value to investment.

Hot Wheels: The Biggest Car Manufacturer (06:33)

• Josh stuns Chuck with a fact: “Did you know that the number one vehicle manufacturer on the planet is, in fact, Hot Wheels?”
• Over 4 billion Hot Wheels have been made since 1968—more than Detroit’s "big four" carmakers combined.

Hot Wheels Origins & The Matchbox Rivalry (07:52)

• Hot Wheels was Mattel's answer to Matchbox, which dominated the die-cast car market.
• Co-creator Elliot Handler (husband of Barbie-creator Ruth Handler) wanted better cars after seeing his grandchildren play.
• First designer: Harry Bradley, an ex-GM car designer with a hot rod of his own.
• The name Hot Wheels possibly came from Elliot admiring Bradley’s hot rod: “Man, those are some Hot Wheels you got there.” (09:04)

The Original 16 & Early Features (09:56)

• 1968: First release with 16 models, initially called "California Customs Miniatures."

• Innovations:

  • Working suspensions with bushings and springs
  • Redline racing slicks for wheels
  • Spectraflame shiny paint
  • The first released: Chevy Camaro; also a Chevy Corvette released before GM’s real model (industrial espionage legend).

  “They went all out on those ... there are bushings to the suspension ... like shocks ... you could press them down and it would bounce back.” – Josh (11:51)

Hot Wheels vs. Matchbox: Design & Performance (12:29)

• Hot Wheels prioritized speed, flashy design, and racing ability.
• Head-to-head, Hot Wheels reliably outraced Matchbox on gravity track tests.
  “In the head to head race ... the Hot Wheels will destroy it. Every time.” – Josh (12:59)
• Spectraflame paint and redline tires lasted until production moved from California to Hong Kong in the 1970s for cost reasons.

Market Domination, Cartoons, and Branding (14:50)

• Rapid success: By 1970, Hot Wheels had its own Saturday morning cartoon.
• Hot Wheels design rooted in Southern California hot rod and racing culture.
• Emphasis on performance and style, e.g., wide axles, larger wheels for maximum coolness.

Brands, Licensing, and Fantasy Cars (20:39)

• Hot Wheels is known for extensive branding with media and consumer brands (Ghostbusters, Skittles, NASCAR, Marvel/DC, Fast and the Furious).
• Hot Wheels makes both replicas of real cars and designs original “fantasy cars”—a sharp contrast to Matchbox’s realism (only real vehicles).
• "[Hot Wheels] are called the fantasy cars. Like they're just the designer's imagination come to life." – Josh (33:56)

Design and Manufacturing Evolution (32:36)

• Early design required hands-on measurements and blueprint interpretation; today, designers use Photoshop and 3D printing for rapid prototyping.
• Manufacturing is die-cast (injecting molten metal into a mold).
• Mainline Hot Wheels cars are still priced around a dollar due to streamlined production and material cost reductions.

Collector Culture & Valuable Models (37:48)

• Most valuable: The 1968 "Beach Bomb" VW van in hot pink with surfboards ($75,000+ at auction).
  “They made even fewer of those because apparently a lot of boys were like, I'm not playing with some pink van.” – Josh (38:33)
• Scarcity and early design quirks (like the "Cheetah" stamped Pythons) drive up collector value.
• 40th-anniversary diamond-studded Hot Wheel made headlines ($140,000+ in costs), but is generally considered more gaudy than significant by the hosts.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You need to find them. Yeah, they could be...” – Josh urging Chuck to locate his old Hot Wheels (03:55)
• “For me though, the coup de grâce of car design is the AMC Pacer. Yeah, it's like the Formica kitchen of cars.” – Josh (16:17)
• On Happy Meal tie-ins:
  “Now that I look back through my adult eyes... they were giving you a bunch of crappy ones because you wanted to keep coming back to get the cool one.” – Chuck (25:21)
• On design philosophy:
  “You can't just shrink [a car] and have it in the same proportion and have it look normal.” – Chuck (21:49)
• “Is that why you keep going to the bread truck?” – Josh, ribbing Chuck for repeatedly mentioning Matchbox’s bread trucks (34:29)
• On Hot Wheels conventions:
  “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…was held.” – Josh (44:02)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Time | Topic | |----------|-----------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:19 | Chuck intros the Hot Wheels episode | | 06:33 | Hot Wheels: World’s largest carmaker | | 07:52 | The origin story: Mattel, Elliot Handler, Harry Bradley | | 09:56 | The “original 16” Hot Wheels | | 12:29 | Hot Wheels vs. Matchbox: racing, design differences | | 14:50 | Hot Wheels' immediate success and cultural impact | | 20:39 | Branding/licensing: Ghostbusters, Fast & Furious, candy brands | | 21:49 | Scaling down cars: design adjustments for looks and speed | | 24:24 | Fast food promotions (Jack in the Box, McDonald's Happy Meal) | | 27:23 | ‘Treasure Hunt’ collectible series debuts | | 29:57 | Mattel acquires Tyco and Matchbox—rivals become siblings | | 32:36 | Changes in design: from tape measure to 3D printer prototypes | | 37:48 | The world’s most valuable Hot Wheels: the Pink Beach Bomb | | 41:13 | Diamond-studded luxury Hot Wheel for the 40th anniversary | | 44:02 | The first Hot Wheels collectors convention (Toledo, 1987) |

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Collecting Hot Wheels: Tips and Curiosities

• Rareness equals value: Look for early models, production variants, and misprints.
• Some “duds” (like the Chevy Citation from McDonald’s) can become cool collector’s items.
• Fantasy cars and store exclusives have their own followings.
• The culture of restoration: Some use beaters for custom projects.

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Tone & Style

Josh and Chuck bring their trademark mix of playful debate, dry wit, and deep-dive research. The episode is peppered with tangents—from bread trucks to muscle cars to cartoons—anchored by genuine nostalgia and a sense of fun.

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For Listeners in a Hurry

• Hot Wheels began in 1968 as Mattel’s upmarket alternative to Matchbox, prioritizing speed, style, and pop culture tie-ins.
• Early features were often high-quality, but as production shifted overseas, collectibility of originals soared.
• Hot Wheels outsell all other carmakers combined—over 4 billion made.
• They have become cornerstone collectibles, with rare models fetching up to six figures.
• Hot Wheels and Matchbox are now both owned by Mattel, but maintain distinct styles (fantasy/action vs. realism/utility).
• “Beach Bomb” (pink VW van) stands as the gold standard for collectors.

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Final Thought

Hot Wheels endures as both a beloved toy and a serious collectible, thanks to relentless innovation, smart branding, and pure fun. Whether you’re a nostalgic adult or a new fan, there’s a story—and possibly a small fortune—in every tiny car.

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For more details, pop culture commentary, and several great laughs about childhood, restoration, and collecting, listen to the full episode!

Transcript

[Announcer]

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[Chuck Bryant]

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[Chuck Bryant]

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 loved me some Hot Wheels. And so this is that episode, How Hot Wheels work. Pretty interesting story. Hope you guys enjoy it.

[Josh Clark]

Welcome to Stuff youf should know from howstuffworks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry.

[Chuck Bryant]

You know what that just sounded like?

[Josh Clark]

What?

[Chuck Bryant]

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 go, hey.

[Josh Clark]

Welcome to the podcast.

[Chuck Bryant]

And then she slaps you across the face real hard.

[Josh Clark]

That's true.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

That is what that sound is like.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's what it sounded like.

[Josh Clark]

It's pretty accurate. I don't know what got into me.

[Chuck Bryant]

You were just supercharged about this topic.

[Josh Clark]

That's terrible.

[Chuck Bryant]

What?

[Josh Clark]

Supercharged?

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't get it.

[Josh Clark]

It's like a supercharged engine.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, I didn't even think about that.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, good. That makes me feel better.

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

Nice. Hot Wheels are pretty great. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

I had a quite a collection, and I don't know where they are today.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, really? No missing, huh?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I don't know if they were thrown out or if. 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 value.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, is that how they rank them?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Mine would be beaters because I played with them like crazy.

[Josh Clark]

That's good. I mean, that's what they're for. Sure. You know, and there's value for a beater, too. Like, some people apparently harvest them for parts to rebuild, like a, you know, a new Frankenstein model.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, really?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's pretty neat.

[Josh Clark]

There's a lot of stuff you can do with them.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And we should thank the fifth grader who wrote this article, too.

[Josh Clark]

Sad face.

[Chuck Bryant]

I complained about that out loud to Holly. I was like, this article actually says sad face, like, as a sentence.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I know that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Issues.

[Josh Clark]

I'm glad you said something. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

What if it was a fifth grader? Your feelings are all hurt.

[Josh Clark]

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. I appreciated Hot Wheels.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I had G.I. joe, too.

[Josh Clark]

We should do a G.I. joe episode sometime.

[Chuck Bryant]

I had the older ones, though.

[Josh Clark]

You probably had the huge ones. Yeah, yeah. Now I had the real ones.

[Announcer]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, yeah. I don't. That's fighting words, man.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

I think you just said it all. Fuzzy hair says it right there. I don't really mean that, Chuck. I don't have a dog in that fight. Like, if you like the big GI Joes, that's cool. I got no problem.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. As a quick side note, I have to tell this story.

[Josh Clark]

Okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

When you know how I used to do book reports and you would have to have a visual aid.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

I might have told this before. If I do, I apologize.

[Josh Clark]

I don't recognize it.

[Chuck Bryant]

I did a report on Franco Harris. Went elementary school because he was a football player. Yeah. I don't know why I did on Franco Harris.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

But I got my mom to make me a little Pittsburgh Steelers uniform for my GI Joe because he looked like Franco Harris.

[Josh Clark]

Nice. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And that was my visual aid.

[Josh Clark]

Do you still have it?

[Chuck Bryant]

No, of course not. We had the GI Joes, but I think the Steelers uniform has gone.

[Sponsor Voice]

Bye.

[Chuck Bryant]

Bye.

[Josh Clark]

That's sad. Yeah. You know, I'm sure your mom put a lot of work into that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Now I feel guilty.

[Josh Clark]

So, Chuck, I have a question for you.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes.

[Josh Clark]

Did you know that the number one vehicle manufacturer on the planet is, in fact, Hot Wheels?

[Chuck Bryant]

I did.

[Josh Clark]

It's astounding until you stop and think about it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

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 to build a Hot Wheels than it does a normal car.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Plus, also, it's not like you're gonna go, I want this Buick Cutlass supreme in every color it comes in.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

You know, with the Hot Wheels, you can do that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. What's the Lego? Stat is they're the biggest manufacturer of tires.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

I wonder, though, do these not count as tires because they're plastic? They count as wheels.

[Josh Clark]

I don't know, man.

[Chuck Bryant]

Because 4 billion times 4. That's 16 billion tires.

[Josh Clark]

That's a really great question.

[Chuck Bryant]

I might have to challenge Lego or maybe just look up how many tires they manufacture.

[Josh Clark]

Ol? Kirk Christiansen is not gonna be happy about this.

[Chuck Bryant]

Who was that?

[Josh Clark]

The founder of lego.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, remember?

[Josh Clark]

Ol?

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, yeah, that's right. I thought you were saying old.

[Josh Clark]

No. Yeah. 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™ podcast will recognize the name Elliot Handler. That's Ruth Handler, the inventor of Barbie Trademark's husband.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Called Matchbox cars.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

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 a second, called Harry Bradley.

[Josh Clark]

Sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

And apparently, if you go look at the old original commercials for Hot Wheels.

[Chuck Bryant]

Did they say that?

[Josh Clark]

Well, that's how they pronounce it. Hot Wheels.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, instead of Hot Wheels.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. The emphasis is on the hot. It sounds awkward. They're like, race your Hot Wheels.

[Chuck Bryant]

But it makes sense.

[Josh Clark]

You can race them. Just go buy some Hot Wheels. That's what they. That's how they say it. Collect all your Hot Wheels.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, but that makes more sense in the context of a sentence.

[Josh Clark]

It does. But having been raised.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right, right.

[Josh Clark]

You know, post.

[Chuck Bryant]

The infatuated Hot Wheels is wrong.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Hot Wheels. Hot Wheels.

[Chuck Bryant]

Now I'm trying to picture the guy in the parking lot saying, those are some Hot Wheels you got on your. There. You'd say, Hot Wheels you got there. You know?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, boy. We can sure waste some time.

[Josh Clark]

We sure can.

[Chuck Bryant]

But the first 1968 is like you said, when the first line came out of 16 Hot Wheels, they were sold initially for 59 cent apiece.

[Josh Clark]

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 Miniatures. Was that first original 16 group of Hot Wheels that were released in 1968, so. And 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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, the 69 Corvette, that is.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, 69.

[Josh Clark]

Thank you.

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

But that's called industrial espionage.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, that sounds like a story. Like just lore. Okay, but maybe. So maybe he committed industrial espionage.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, you're doing okay.

[Announcer]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

You got some money that you're sitting on?

[Josh Clark]

Because, I mean, like, they went all out on those, that original line.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Like there are bushings to the suspension. Yeah. I mean, the chassis, it had suspension, like shocks. Like you could press them down and it would bounce back.

[Chuck Bryant]

I had some of those. I don't think they were from 68, but when did they quit making those?

[Josh Clark]

It said up until 77 was when they stopped making the.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, no, 70 is when the suspension got an overhaul.

[Josh Clark]

Okay. So for the first couple years, they were really putting a lot into these things. The tires were redline racing slicks.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

And 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.

[Chuck Bryant]

We saw on the Internet, a guy did that, of course, he took two Volkswagens and two Audi eights, I think, and one Matchbox and one Hot Wheel, and he said they won by at least a car length every time he tried.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

And this was no loop de loop or anything. It was just the Straight race. Right. They painted them originally in Spectraflame, which was very shiny and sparkly and expensive. And I don't think we said that all Hot Wheels are built at 1.64scale.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, that's a big point.

[Chuck Bryant]

But not necessarily all Matchbox cars. They kind of vary here and there. Right. But like you said that Spectraflame and the Redline tires didn't only last until 77, and the suspension only lasted till 1970. And they. Sadly, a lot of that had to do with the fact that they moved them from Hawthorne, California to Hong Kong.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

Well, not only that, it's. The Spectraflame Pain is pretty expensive. It's awesome. It looks great, but it's pretty expensive. So with any collector's item, as they started to downgrade the components and the parts and the manufacturing and ultimately the final product, all that did was make the original stuff all the more valuable today.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

They had fewer and fewer of them as the years go on, proportionately speaking.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. They had actual axles. Like, you know, it was like a real. They were designed by car designers, and they were made, apparently to reach 200 scale miles per hour.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's way cool.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Remember, like, in the cockroach episode, we talked about how they're the fastest animal on the planet, relatively speaking? Pretty neat stuff.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

So Chuck right out of the gate. Mattel had a hit on his hands.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, yes.

[Josh Clark]

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. Hanna Barbera. Dune Buggy or Speed Buggy? Speed Buggy, Yeah. Remember Speed Buggy? Yeah. It was like a dune buggy that could talk. It was basically Wonderbug. No, it's Speed Buggy. Okay. There's Wonder Bug, too. If you took Shaggy and put some, like, racing goggles on him.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

And then turned Scooby Doo into a speed. A dune buggy.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

That's Speed Buggy.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, is that a cartoon?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. They went around solving mysteries and stuff like that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Wonderbug was. I think that was live action.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, this is a cartoon.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sid Marty Croft.

[Josh Clark]

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 good guys.

[Chuck Bryant]

And do you know what this proves? What is the 1970s, the dune buggy was a very popular thing. Remember seeing those on the road? Like, I used to see them all the time. Not all the time, but in the 70s it was a common thing.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

You don't see them anymore very rarely. Nope. No gremlins, no Yugos. No wonder Bugs.

[Josh Clark]

You know, I like gremlins. Do you?

[Chuck Bryant]

They're okay.

[Josh Clark]

For me though, the coup de grace of car design is the AMC Pacer. Yeah, it's like the Formica kitchen of cars. Yeah, it's beautiful in all the weirdest ways.

[Chuck Bryant]

So much window.

[Josh Clark]

That would be my sought after Hot Wheels. If I had a Hot Wheels. That. If I just could have one Hot Wheel. Yeah, it would. I don't know if that would be it, but I'd be happy with that one.

[Chuck Bryant]

Now, do they have that as a Hot Wheel?

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay.

[Josh Clark]

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 Indy car gremlins and stuff like that. Yeah, because. And that raises a pretty good point. Hot Wheels has always been about 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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And one of the differences, that is one of the main differences between the Matchbox and the Hot Wheel is they were just much more interested in being sportier. 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 all were about looking realistic and not necessarily performance. And hey, if you want a bread truck, you can get a bread truck.

[Josh Clark]

Right? Exactly.

[Chuck Bryant]

But you can't get a bread truck. Hot Wheel.

[Josh Clark]

We'll talk more about all of this jam right after this.

[Sponsor Voice]

Support for the show comes from public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI, it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures tired.

[Announcer]

Of juggling sales tools or spending hours on prospecting just to book a few meetings? Meet Apollo, the go to market platform for finding leads, connecting with buyers, and closing deals all in one place. Apollo gives you access to over 210 million contacts and AI that handles all your busy work finding leads, drafting emails, and even prioritizing your day. So stop paying for five different sales tools when one does it all. Visit Apollo I.O. and sign up free today.

[Josh Clark]

Hey everybody, we're hitting the road again starting in January 2026. Picking up again in April 2026. And eventually Canada will tell you year dates too.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. We're going to do at least three legs and the first leg is starting out in Denver, Colorado at the Paramount Theater on January 27th. We're going to go back to our beloved Seattle at the Paramount Theater there on the 28th, and then finally back at SketchFest on the 29th at the Sidney Goldstein Theater.

[Josh Clark]

Yep. And then April 16th, 17th and 18th, we're going to be in Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois and Akron, Ohio. And if you're not keeping up with all this or taking notes, don't worry, you can get all the info you need and buy [e-mail], click on the tour button and thank us later. That's right.

[Chuck Bryant]

We can't wait to see everybody again out there on the road. You want to go ahead and talk about some of the other differences between Matchbox and Hot Wheel?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

Since we're at it, Matchbox or I'm sorry, Hot Wheel is the one that is more likely to have branded versions.

[Josh Clark]

Oh man.

[Chuck Bryant]

And do they ever like the Ghostbusters Ectomobile, right?

[Josh Clark]

Or even more than that, like they have a deal with eminem Mars for 2015.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, they do.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Fast and the Furious. I know they had a line.

[Josh Clark]

Yep. So they're really big time into branded. And a lot of times they'll have like a store will just have exclusives access to an exclusive line of Skittles cars or something like that that you can only get at KB Toys.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I think they have a NASCAR deal, too, if I'm not mistaken.

[Josh Clark]

I would not be surprised.

[Chuck Bryant]

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?

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

You might as well go ahead and bring that up.

[Josh Clark]

Okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

It looks weird. You can't just shrink it and have it in the same proportion and have it look normal.

[Josh Clark]

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 off a little bit. Like. So what they do to make a Hot Wheels raceable is they expand the wheel well a little more.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

They break it out a little bit.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Which is why the wheels stick out some on a Hot Wheels, but not on a Matchbox.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

Because matchboxes are all about realism. To heck with how it looks as long as it's real.

[Chuck Bryant]

One of my favorite ones, and I had one of these that they mentioned, this article was the Red Baron. The person who wrote this said it was an inexplicable and inexplicably cool helmet over the cockpit. I don't know about inexplicable. It was just the roof of the car was a helmet.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

But I looked it up again today, and I was like, oh, yeah, I had that thing. But it was. It wasn't a Nazi helmet per se, but it was that shape of the helmet.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

Like the US Soldiers have that shape now, you know, where it's cut lower around the ears. Right. Instead of just a straight, you know, like the World War II helmet.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

But the Nazis use those first, you know, because it's a better design for war. And it also had a black iron cross on the side of it.

[Josh Clark]

Well, hence the Red Baron. Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. But it was. It's easy now as an adult to look and say, that looks like a little Nazi hot rod.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. But the Red Baron was World War I. He was pre Nazi Germany. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And it was Also, I think at the time just, like, looked like the biker gang.

[Josh Clark]

Sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

Would wear, like those helmet with the iron cross.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And all of it was Southern California hot rod culture. Yeah, exactly. Is what gave rise to Hot Wheels. So it makes sense.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I don't. I don't think there was any, like, surreptitious intent.

[Josh Clark]

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. The second release, they had, I think 22 new cars.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. 33 total.

[Josh Clark]

And then the third year, they. They had another. They released 33 after that. Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. 33 by 1970.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

In 1970, the first hot Wheels came out as a toy at Jack in the Boxes.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, really?

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Dinner, the Happy Meal, to get a.

[Josh Clark]

Hot Wheel, which is what they called them at the time, could get one of 14 Hot Wheels in 1983. And they had some cool ones. They had a Chevy Citation.

[Chuck Bryant]

Did they really?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, they had one that was one of my favorites, actually. It was a Toyota Mini Trek, which is a, 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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Know what they were doing now that I look back through my adult eyes?

[Josh Clark]

Like, snorting pot.

[Chuck Bryant]

No, they were giving you a bunch of crappy ones because you wanted to keep coming back to get the cool one.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, probably.

[Chuck Bryant]

You're like, ah, I got a citation. Like, can I go back because I want to get the hot rod.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's exactly what they were doing.

[Josh Clark]

Sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

Man, I feel so, like, manipulated.

[Josh Clark]

What did you think they were doing with Happy Meals?

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, I mean, I know it was all manipulation to get you to try and own all of them.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

But they should have been all cool ones. But you can't do that because the regular kid might be like, nah, I got the cool and 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 rods. Yeah, it's. My eyes are wide open, my friend.

[Josh Clark]

Well, that's why our friends down under in Australia have like, outlawed marketing directly to children, which I think is a fantastic.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, really? Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

That's so unfair. To market directly to children. It's just almost literally is like taking candy from a baby.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

The trapper keeper.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

What do they make, a law?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Really?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it's a big one. Very progressive law. I think all countries should adopt.

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, the Citation, man. One of the most disappointing Happy Meal toys you could possibly get.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Because it reminded you of your dad who drove a Citation, right?

[Josh Clark]

Who was always mad.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Oh, dear.

[Josh Clark]

So, chuckers.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes.

[Josh Clark]

After 1983, not a lot happened. Hot Wheels just kept going on, expanding more and more and more. 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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And one of the cooler ones for me was the Oldsmobile 442.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, that thing is neat.

[Chuck Bryant]

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 years, 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 in so and so. And he went. And you know what, dude? I went, no, you went. He still got it.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah. Why would you get rid of it?

[Chuck Bryant]

He still has the car. I 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 200ft of drag. He would lay like power braking and you would get like four sets of tires a year.

[Josh Clark]

He'd be in the passenger seat going, save me, Jesus.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I was very scared because I was, you know, I didn't flirt with the wild side back then.

[Josh Clark]

No, the Oldsmobile 442 is as close as you got.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yep. It was exhilarating.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

So they're all owned by Mattel at this point?

[Josh Clark]

Yes.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, we'll get to the design and collecting right after this.

[Sponsor Voice]

Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI, it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member finra, SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures tired.

[Announcer]

Of juggling sales tools or spending hours on prospecting just to book a few meetings. Meet Apollo, the go to market platform for finding leads, connecting with buyers, and closing deals all in one place. Apollo gives you access to over 210 million contacts and AI that handles all your busy work, finding leads, drafting emails, and even prioritizing your day. So stop paying for five different sales tools when one does it all. Visit Apollo I.O. and sign up free today.

[Josh Clark]

Hey, everybody, we're hitting the road again starting in January 2026, picking up again in April 2026. And eventually Canada will tell you year dates too.

[Announcer]

That's right.

[Chuck Bryant]

We're going to do at least three legs, and the first leg is starting out in Denver, Colorado at the paramount theater on January 27th. We're going to go back to our beloved Seattle at the Paramount Theater there on the 28th, and then finally back at SketchFest on the 29th at the Sidney Goldstein Theater.

[Josh Clark]

Yep. And then April 16th, 17th and 18th, we're going to be in Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois and Akron, Ohio. And if you're not keeping up with all this or taking notes, don't worry. You can get all the info you need and buy [e-mail], click on the tour button and thank us later.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. We can't wait to see everybody again out there on the road. So back then, if you wanted to do 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.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And just take some measurements and then, you know, be good at math.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

Basically.

[Josh Clark]

And like, 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.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's the Mount Rushmore of Hot Wheels, pretty much.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Josh Clark]

They, they are called the fantasy cars. Like they're just the designers imagination come to life.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. Whereas Matchbox only, I believe, has bred trucks.

[Josh Clark]

Exactly.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, they only have cars that are based on real cars.

[Josh Clark]

Right, right. Hot Wheels has a whole fantasy line.

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

Is that why you keep going to the bread truck?

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

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 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.

[Chuck Bryant]

I didn't have a lot of Tonka stuff. One of my favorite Hot Wheels, though, was the little red express truck.

[Josh Clark]

I don't remember that.

[Chuck Bryant]

If you saw it, it might ring a bell. It was basically. 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.

[Josh Clark]

I think I know what you're talking about. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it's really cool. And if you go to the Petersen Automotive Museum in la.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

Like, whoa, did you just die from nostalgia?

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

Do they have the 442?

[Chuck Bryant]

Don't know if they have the 442, but I'm very.

[Josh Clark]

They will when your friend dies. But it's in his will.

[Chuck Bryant]

It'll go straight to the museum. Yeah, I'm gonna go to this thing, though, at some point. I don't know on this next LA trip or not, but it's right there near the La Brea Tar Pits, I think.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

So I want to go check it out.

[Josh Clark]

I've been there. Yeah, it's neat.

[Chuck Bryant]

It is neat. But back to the design. These days, you're not gonna need a tape measure and stuff like that. You're gonna Photoshop designs and you're gonna even get a 3D printer to do your prototype.

[Josh Clark]

That had to have helped them tremendously.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Because, you know, with. 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 what it's going to look like.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

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

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And I think they're made with less metal than they used to be. But they still have metal components, right?

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

I haven't seen a new one in a while.

[Josh Clark]

I haven't either. But I'm almost positive they do. And apparently they're still about like, a dollar.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, really?

[Josh Clark]

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 mainline. Yeah, the ones that they make en masse.

[Chuck Bryant]

The Citation.

[Josh Clark]

Exactly. I'll bet if you got your hands on that 1983 citation, it'd be worth a few bucks.

[Chuck Bryant]

You're right.

[Josh Clark]

But they kept referring to the mainline stuff about a dollar.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, they just kept making their manufacturing cheaper and cheaper. So they've maintained that cost, I guess.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

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 in hot pink that had real surfboards sticking out of the back of it.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Originally 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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

So they only made just a few of these things. The Beach Bomb, that was the highest selling Hot Wheels ever was a pink one. They made even fewer of those because apparently a lot of boys were like, I'm not playing with some pink van. Even if it does have cool surfboards. 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 like LA magazine for like 125,000.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it's a lot of money for a tiny little car.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it is. And that's the highest one ever, apparently. By a long shot too.

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

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 is something that. Where they adjusted the design. Like, for example, the Python was originally called the Cheetah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

And then they found out that a real life executive with real life lawyers at GM owned the name Cheetah. Yeah. Because apparently GM executives just own names for cars that could potentially be used.

[Chuck Bryant]

Like every fast animal name.

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

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 like, oh, but you want that one because the Boba Fett's rocket really shot out before kids started choking on them.

[Josh Clark]

Right. Or catching on fire.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And that's the one you want? Yeah, but like you said, it's all about scarcity and supply and demand.

[Josh Clark]

Dude, this whole thing is reminded me of a really great gallery I put together about hilarious knockoff toys.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, that's a good one.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, go to 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 this skirt trademark law maybe or something. Or else they just fully don't understand the toy and what its allure is, so they just make it in this weird interpretation. It's pretty hilarious stuff.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it's a good one. We'll post that again.

[Josh Clark]

Okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

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 bras was worth, you know.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah, I forgot.

[Chuck Bryant]

A million bucks. I just always think it's kind of dumb. But they did make a 40th anniversary edition in 19. I'm sorry, in 2008. With 2,700 little diamonds and rubies for tail lights and black diamonds for the tires and all that stuff. 18 karat white gold body. But it's worth a hundred and forty. Or it cost $140,000 to put together, I'm sure.

[Josh Clark]

Gaudy. It's a gaudy Hot Wheels. Yeah. The car is cool. It looks like Mad Max's car.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, you get. Is that a picture of it? Yeah, I don't think I saw that.

[Josh Clark]

Can you identify that car?

[Chuck Bryant]

What is that? Looks familiar.

[Josh Clark]

It does look familiar to me.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sort of like a DeLorean, but I don't think it is.

[Josh Clark]

I don't think so either.

[Chuck Bryant]

No. Man, that new Mad Max looks good, though.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, they're remaking Mad Max.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, there's a new reboot, I guess is what they call it these days.

[Josh Clark]

Cool. Who's in it?

[Chuck Bryant]

What's his face that played Bane? Oh, yeah, Tom. Tom what's his face?

[Josh Clark]

Huddleston?

[Chuck Bryant]

No, not Tom Huddleston. But it looks. It's the same director.

[Josh Clark]

Tom Hardy.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, Tom Hardy. But it's the same director from all the Mad Max series. So it's.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, really?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Wow.

[Chuck Bryant]

And it just looks the whole. It's supposed to be just like one long, intense chase battle.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Sounds a lot like a Mad Max movie.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yep.

[Josh Clark]

Have you ever seen Vanishing Point?

[Chuck Bryant]

I think so. What is that?

[Josh Clark]

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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I remember that.

[Josh Clark]

That's a good one. From the seventies.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Two lane blacktop Challenger. That's another classic movie.

[Josh Clark]

The Car. Yeah, I haven't seen that one.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, that's a good one. That one weirdly had James Taylor in it when he was young and, like on drugs and cool.

[Josh Clark]

Were they apologizing to France?

[Chuck Bryant]

No. I don't know what the deal was.

[Josh Clark]

Did you hear about that? No. So that whole Charlie Hebdo, like, solidarity march, the US sent like, Yeah, 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.

[Chuck Bryant]

Shut up.

[Josh Clark]

For the French government. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Just talk about it. I know, isn't it Send Guns n Roses or something at least. Well, not send Guns n Roses from 1988.

[Josh Clark]

That would be a gift. Guns N Roses, man. 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, Collectors convention was held. I really wish I would have gone to that because I was there at the time.

[Chuck Bryant]

What year was it?

[Josh Clark]

87. Oh yeah, yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

I can't believe we sent James Taylor. I'm still just like, yeah, I can't focus on anything.

[Josh Clark]

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 [e-mail] and since I said search bar, it's time for listener mail.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm gonna call this Minimum wage argument not Argument Proposal. All right, listen 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 the cost of renting a two bedroom apartment, you'd have to work something like 87 per hours. 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 was 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 should 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, skills and 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 interesting. I look forward to seeing the rebuttal emails.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, love that kind of stuff. Stuff. Yeah. It's a great proposal. I mean, I think that is what it's based on.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

But as far as I know, the cost of living calculations are really out of date.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

And take a lot of stuff into account that doesn't really apply any longer.

[Chuck Bryant]

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.

[Josh Clark]

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 is not what we're trying to achieve.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

At the very least, you get everybody talking.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Because should some teenager at his first job make like 14 bucks an hour?

[Josh Clark]

I don't know.

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't know if that's sending the right message either.

[Josh Clark]

I don't know.

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't know.

[Josh Clark]

We'll leave it up to you guys. Our dear listeners.

[Chuck Bryant]

When I started working, it was like three bucks an hour or something. It was ridiculously low.

[Josh Clark]

That is ridiculously low. If you want to let us know how you feel about Joe's proposal. Was it Joe?

[Chuck Bryant]

I believe it was Joe Reno.

[Josh Clark]

Joe Reno. Joe, you can tweet to us@syskpodcast. You can post it on facebook.com stuff you should know. You can put it in an [e-mail] 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 howstuffworks.com.

[Chuck Bryant]

Hey friends, just want to let you know, our friends at Squarespace have partnered with the dude Jeff Bridges in a really cool thing called www.dreamingwithjeff.com. and this is something Jeff Bridges actually came up with. It's a project where he has his friends in various locations around LA 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.dreamingwithjeff.com and see what the dude in Squarespace has going on.

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[Josh Clark]

Hey everybody, we're hitting the road again starting in January 2026, picking up again in April 2026 and eventually Canada will tell you year dates too.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. We're going to do at least three legs and the first leg is starting out in Denver, Colorado at the Paramount Theater on January 27th. We're going to go back to our beloved Seattle at the Paramount Theater there on the 28th, and then finally back at SketchFest on the 29th at the Sidney Goldstein Theater.

[Josh Clark]

Yep. And then April 16th, 17th and 18th, we're going to be in Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois and Akron, Ohio. And if you're not keeping up with all this or taking notes. Don't worry, you can get all the info you need and buy tickets@stuffyou should know.com. click on the tour button and thank us later.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. We can't wait to see everybody again out there on the road.

[Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Chuck Bryant]

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