Hot Wheels
celebrated its 40th Anniversary in 2008. One part of their celebration was to introduce a series of Larry Wood designed Custom Ottos throughout the year. The Hot Wheels Collector Red Line Club offered a Blue 40th Anniversary Edition. My wife and I, being avid collectors, definitely wanted this car. So we put our order in and waited for it to arrive. When my wife received the package and started looking at it, she was confused to see that it was pink. She called me at work and asked whether it should have been blue. I told her I wasn't sure and we hit the internet and Hot Wheels to find out. Sure enough, our order stated it was a blue Custom Otto. Then the boards started buzzing about customers getting pink as opposed to blue Custom Ottos. Now things started getting interesting as the rumors started on the boards. There was speculation that Hot Wheels started filtering a pink car out randomly to customers. Everyone started thinking this was a chase car and which most likely resulted in more orders for Mattel in hopes of receiving a pink one. We made a second order, and were happy to get the original blue one. Now we have a complete set of two.
As it turns out, this Pink Custom Otto was meant to be the employee Christmas car that Mattel planned to give out that year. Once Hot Wheels figured out the car was out, they managed to stop the shipments of the pink car, with only 100 or less. Hot Wheels then stated that the Pink Custom Otto remained the same for the employees.
Recent research has revealed there is indeed a difference between the employee car and the mistake car. The mistake car has the same packaging as the Blue Custom Otto. In addition, it is all pink. The employee car has a different package and the car has a black top.
Now the question is, what would be the value of a this 100 or less mistake car, designed by none other than Larry Wood, especially for Hot Wheels 40th Anniversary.
Check out this news link from Hot Wheels Collector (read more).
Hot Wheels is a trademark of Mattel.
