Hot Wheels Convention
Los Angeles - April 1998

It is much easier to write about the 30^th Anniversary of Hot Wheels / 12^th Annual Hot Wheels Newsletter collectors convention starting from the end.  In the past, Sunday has always been the day to pack up and go home.  Usually everyone is tired and ready to leave by 10:30am.  This year was different, there were many events on Sunday.  The main event was a toy show in the hotel ballroom.  Many of the convention attendees had a table at the show to display Hot Wheels for sale.  The rest of the people lined up early to get into the show.  Mattel had their official store open with every type of Hot Wheel and related items available for sale.  There were several tables available due to last minute cancellations and my friend Mark Winkleman from Dallas set up his Redline Hot Wheels for sale.   I waited in line about 45 minutes to get into the show with several hundred other collectors.  I checked with Mark right after the opening and he had already found a great original Hot Wheels in blister pack from 1969 and  several nice loose Hot Wheels.  I quickly scanned the show for good prices on Redlines and found a fellow who was offering a partial 1968 Hot Wheels dealer display and 16 cars with it.  This item became my key find at the entire convention.  I had missed the same item when it was auctioned last year and now the owner was ready to part with it.  I was very happy to be going home with this display and cars.  I would like to have new copies of this display made so if you know anything about hard paper construction please let me know. 

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge

After that great find I went back to check on Mark and he was very busy.  He was offering some very reasonable prices on Redlines and the collectors were happy to get them.  Actually I have never been to a toy show where the buying was so busy.  All of the collectors and dealers were having a good day too. Tony Hernandez from Oregon was selling limited edition Hot Wheels at very fair prices, the cars were flying off of his table.  Rich Adkins Collectibles was showing off pictures of the new Mattel produced collectors cars for later this year and into 1999 models.  His booth featured two very nice looking young ladies smiling and greeting current and future customers.

Did I mention that Mattel decorated the Hotel and convention rooms?  Yes there were giant banners, signs, displays, posters, artwork, and a huge staff of Mattel people wearing 30^th anniversary shirts, hats and jackets. The staffs throughout the entire event were friendly and helpful.  Many collectors mentioned to me how they felt that Mattel treated the collectors very well at this 30th Anniversary event.

Saturday night featured a giant charity auction for the Ronald McDonald charity.  There were many Mattel Hot Wheels prototypes available including 4 incredible giant models, which sold for $3,500 up to $9,500.  The smaller prototypes were very neat and could have been had for as little as $350.

My opinion of the Hotel? Fabulous, wonderful, spectacular!   The lobby was beautiful, there were several stores, bars, restaurants, etc. for all your needs.  The food could not have been better, so fresh and plentiful.   Naturally it was not cheap, but considering the quality and the cost of leaving the hotel to find something else it was a very good deal.  I stayed away from the breakfast buffet so as not to over eat the waffles, bacon, eggs, pancakes and choose an early lunch with all the salad, soup, and dessert I could eat. For those needing room service the price was not that much more.  You could easily stay in your room all day and not miss any sales or meals.  Downstairs there was a sandwich shop with ice cream and coffees and the Marriott across the street had a Pizza Hut take out including beer and wine.

Most of the Friday events focused on registration and limited edition sales.  Many complained about Mattel turning the convention into a sell-a-thon but by the size of the lines it was obvious that everyone loved it!.  I don’t even collect new Hot Wheels but I waited in line 2 hours to get a shot at all the goodies too.  I picked up one of each limited produced for the show.  These limited editions are some of the best that Mattel has ever done if not the best.  Kudos to Mattel for pulling out all the stops and making the 30th Anniversary cars and convention the best ever.  The convention official car was the Tail Dragger in neon yellow and red, very cool.  I also purchased a real cool wall plaque with pins featuring 1968 to 1970 Redline cars and a special 30^th pin in the middle.  I looked through the stack and found one with 68 in the series numbering just to add a special touch to the plaque.  Later in the evening on Friday there was a big barbecue style dinner for all the convention participants.  Nicely set up in a giant courtyard area with torches lighting the tables and live music to set the mood.  Plenty of eats there too, chicken, burgers, hot dogs and more were available.  My favorite was the dessert table with so much pie, cake and cookies!  Oh, I should not have eaten so much.

While at the annual Newsletter convention you can also participate in many special events.  Featured this year were custom car shows and advice sessions, Sizzler races, and a way cool down hill race.  The racetrack even had a photo finish camera which displayed on a huge projector screen.  I heard that in some of the races if you lost you had to forfeit your car, racing for pink slips they called it.  I could here the sounds of many young and old children happily participating in the racing events.

When should you come to a Hot Wheels Convention?  As soon as possible I always say, there are so many reasons to go.  No matter what years you collect you will find them there.  You will see old friends and meet new ones.   You and your family will have a good time no matter what city the convention is in.  And if you don’t go you will have to listen to your friends tell you what you missed!  You can spend a few days there or a week, collectors begin to roll in Monday and Tuesday.  Oh, and don’t forget this is not the only show, there is the Mid-West Rally in the St. Louis area next June, and a Collectors show in Arkansas in late October.  Are there any good promoters out there? It would be great to get another show in the Mid-West like say Minneapolis, Minnesota or Cincinnati, Ohio.  I will be there where ever the Hot Wheels are and I would like to see you there too.