#HW REDLINE CLUB SERIES#

Series 4 NEO Classics with the lone Real Rider I have loose. Between them, there were a total of a bit under 45k made (this was also the rise of the “Blue Real Riders Club” nickname, but that’s another story). RLC sElections was interesting that year, as there was a tie in one of the votes and we ended up with 5 vehicles.

Basically rinse and repeat for 2007 and Series 6: 22k memberships with the VW Drag Truck and 11k for series cars. Memberships were again 22k with the Beach Bomb Too and the Series cars stayed at 11k each, and sElections shy of 34k. RLC sElections ordering went up to over 38k for the 4 vehicles (and the W-Oozie of this set was the single highest production of sElections at over 12k for quite a while). 22k memberships with the Olds 442, Series 4 cars at 11k each for 12 cars. The following year was more or less the same. Between the 4 cars, and members only being allowed to order 4 of each car per membership (remained this way for years, until the Texas Drive ‘Em in 2016), total ordered was up to a bit over 28k. This was also the first year of RLC sElections, where the 4 chosen cars based on a voting process are made-to-order. Series 3 was changed to just NEO Classics and Real Riders, 6 cars each at 10500 production each. Membership cars went to 20k total with three versions of the Custom Barracuda (based off of the King Kuda retool from 1999). Series 3, a mix of NEO Classics and Real Riders.Ī similar trend continued into 2004 and Series 3. Note the metallic paint on the GTO rather than spectraflame, due to the tooling for the car being quite old and the raw casting was too rough to correctly polish. Series 3, all four NEO Classics and 2 of the Super Chromes. They couldn’t rely on old tools and they had to go in a direction of creating new tools of still-in-use designs to get the super clean look they were going for with HWC cars. This was also when those in charge realized how important tooling was to the end product (the ’67 GTO from this set ended up being done in metallic paint due to not getting clean enough raw castings to plate and polish for spectraflame). The bases of the cars started getting polished this year, starting with the Super Chromes releases. This was the first year with the separate Series cars, this one with NEO Classics, Super Chromes and Flying Customs segments (4 cars each at 12500 production each). For 2003, with a better idea of how things were going, Red Line Club memberships went to 18k pieces with three versions of the Custom Mustang. Now, this was well before I joined the site, but I’ll say by 2009 not a single one of these was still in the shop. The majority of the cars that year had a production run of 10k pieces. That first year, the RLC Membership car was the ’67 Camaro in 2 versions: chrome with red stripes at 5k production and chrome with blue stripes at 10k production (there was a third, chrome with black stripes at 10k production, but I’m not totally sure it was a membership car). The NEO Classics wheel took a page from Hot Wheels of old, being on bearings and designed to look like an old school “Mag” wheel. The cars weren’t separated into NEO Classics or Real Riders yet, just all mixed into one line. In 2002, the first “series” of cars were released.

The Red Line Club started with one primary mission, to make Hot Wheels in a similar way that they used to be made. Say what you will but the Mutt is awesome.

Series 1 spoilers, ’67 Charger and Mutt Mobile. This will be a long article to bear with me I will be leaving out a few items in my description of what has happened but overall those products followed the trend of everything else from HWC/RLC those same years. But this should still give a good idea on how production amounts changed over the years. Now, fore warning, a lot of this is based on my memory and some recollections from members on the HWC/RLC message boards, so some things may not be exactly right as far as timing. While I have my own personal opinions on the matter, I feel it would be good to go over some of the history of the club, the drop off of production and seemingly meteoric rise in recent years. The recent increase in Red Line Club release quantities has brought up more debate as to what is too much.

Hw redline club