Arthur's Hot Wheels Sizzler Page

Hu Family Sizzlers - Cuda and Camaro

Cover shot of the real Mongoose and Snake funny cars, "Hot Wheels Club Collector's Edition 50 c"

Mongoose and Snake Page

I FINALLY GOT MY FAT TRACK!

The only known pictures of Sizzlers available on the web or elsewhere.. they're NOT in the Tomart book _OR_ the other books either

*1-'69 Firebird Trans-Am *2- Angeleno M70 (TM) (Mattel Can Am) 3- Ford Mark IV Famous LeMans race car 4- Revvn' Heaven (TM) Mid-engine Show and Go special 5- Hot Head(TM) California customized competition car 6- 1970 Mustang Boss 302 Two Trans Am championships (and the most prized and valuable of all collectible real pony cars) I sold one in good shape, but no stripes for $25 shipped. I know where you can get more.

What is a Sizzler?

As Mattel Hot Wheels reached their zenith, they came up with their answer to HO Slot cars. They used plastic bodies and chassis for light weight, an HO-style power which was directly mounted on the axle for the back wheels. The front wheels were mounted on a spring bar suspension, while the middle of the car had a half-aa-sized ni-cad battery. It was charged by two Carbon or Alkaline batteries in series by a two-cell "Goosepump", an orange thing with a clip, or a 4-cell "Juice Machine" which resembled a gas pump, or the AC powered Power Pit, which featured an automatic timer which told how long to keep the silly thing plugged in instead of having to manually count down the 60 seconds or whatever it took.

Both fed a cable with a mini-phono plug which looked like gassing up a real car. My 2 and 4 yr olds figured out that motion real fast. These guys _were_ pretty fast. Values for these cars seems to run from $5 from a blown up chassis up to $75 for a mint in box Boss 302. These are the only Hot Wheels of muscle cars at their 1970 zenith, with the 70 Cuda, Boss 302, and 1970 Camaro, most of the die-cast pony cars, are from 65-68 or after 1980. (The other 71 pony cars are Matchbox Superfast with the Javelin, Challenger, and '71 Mustang that I bet nobody knows about) I believe these were $3 to $5 new, and they came in a cool clear box with a pyramid-shaped sides.

The pages from the 1970 catalog are from the first year of the Sizzlers. By 1971, they had expanded to the Fat Track. This was a pretty amazing innovation, a big fat black track with no lanes, the cars simply wizzed about in whatever lane they randomly found themselves in just like a real NASCAR track. Then they came out vehicles which did not even fit on standard orange 1-lane track. The Chopcycles were 3-wheeled jobs with a plastic guide fitted to the front, not to be confused with non-powered RRRumblers motorcycles.

MiniCycles guy see pictures of RRRumblers

Hot Line Train

There was also the Hot Line, a train which featured a wedge-front BART-style engine and some odd freight cars and corner tracks. It has a larger geared engine with a drive shaft, big drive wheels with rubber tread, and switch that goes forward and reverse

The Earthshakers were construction machines, with Bulldozers, and such that moved slowly. Hot Wheels died out about the same time as the real muscle cars did when the Energy Crisis came around, and the Sizzlers were among the first casualties. Vertibird They even had a helicopter named the Vertibird. Toycopter: Grown up Vertibird-like adult copter

Today, most Hot Wheels fans don't even remember the sizzlers. None of the collector books I've seen even mention them. At the most recent Seattle Toy Show, nobody had them except the lone Hot Line train I found, asking $30, got it for $20. (One guy saw one for $75 with no track) But those of us who grew up from them know they were the coolest Hot Wheels ever made. There was a guy who claims that Playing Mantis not only got rights to Sky Show, but also to the Sizzlers and will produce some next ones (COOOL!) Man, it's just not a complete Hot Wheels experience without Sizzlers.

One guy reports having a working Hot Line train (slowly) and somebody says in the midwest a bunch of guys broke out a fat track and ran their cars and had a blast. I haven't seen a working one myself, which isn't surprising since most of the nicad batteries have long since died. When we were kids, we used to play around with shorting them out with a car battery, which sometimes restored them. Now check out where to get new batteries, at least the short fat ones. Manning explains how to open a Hot Line engine without wrecking it Use pliers to pull out two metal pins without screw heads that are holding it shut with heat to soften plastic.

Not to be confused with Hot Line are the Hot Wheels Train sets, about 1983-4. I Don't know much about them, but I've seen them in the Seattle area, a set for $40, and engines / cars for about $4 each. They're about N-size, but they run on Hot Wheels tracks, and are based on real engines. I have an FP45 Amtrack and GP38 type Chessie engine, Amtrack mail car and BN log tipper. I've also seen a Santa Fe FP45 engine. (FP's are the car-type front passenger engines, the GP are the narrow freight guys with cabs) Unlike N-scale trains, they look like real trains and won't get destroyed the minute your kids touch them. Anybody know more about these guys? Volk is buying | Aric Peery has some too:

Sizzlers for Sale

Mike Grove THE SIZZLER GUY

Sizzler Stories

The Hot Wheels Line as of 1970:>

See page 1 of line up cars

See page 2

Some trivia

The Demon, Jack Rabbit Special, and the Sand Crab were featured on the Hot Wheels cartoon show (there was also a similar Sky Hawks show based on airplanes, but with no merchandise) Subsequent re-issues have changed names.

The Red Baron was actually a Monogram design (the companies have since merged), was re-issued and commonly available still, as was featured as the car that Buzz Lightyear stepped and looped on in Toy Story

Most of the cars here can be had for $10 or so, however, the high value cars are the Olds 442 (up to $400) the Classic Cord (over $100) Custom Charger ($50) Custom Corvette ($50) Mighty Maveric ($75) Mongoose and Snake ($75 each in top shape)

By this year, some of the cars had already been discontinued, such as the Custom Mustang, Fleetside, and Volkswagen, replaced by hairier and more customized versions of the cars. Thanks to Matt Foskett Matt.Foskett@fmr.com for loaning me his copy of this magazine to post on the WWB, and apologies to Mattel until I figure out how to get official permission, but they're getting free publicity, and this isn't making any money. Contact me if you're interested in borrowing or buying extra copies of the catalog at $40 + shipping (hey, that's what it cost me) I've also scanned them onto floppy disk (it takes 8 disks for all 30 pages) Nobody seems to be willing to sell theirs at the moment.

The Hu Family Sizzlers - 1970 Camaro, 1970 Cuda, 1969 Firebird, Ford Mark IV

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