Collector's Guide to Hot Wheels Errors

Is this an error?

This is one of the most frequently-asked questions in Hot Wheels collecting. It's not always a bad one to ask, as there are a lot of things that look like errors that aren't.

The key to errors is that they are unintentional. Most errors are what we call "production line errors", which means that the error was caused by a mistake in the final stages of manufacturing. These are the most interesting and diverse errors. There are also errors in pre-production, which results in an "error" that is produced in large quantities.

But, there are also a lot of things that simply aren't errors that can confuse people.

Variations


Variations have become quite common in Hot Wheels, especially in the past 10 years since the Collector # series started. In mid-1999, Wayne Pritchett sent me a list of over 2300 variations that existed in the Collector # series up to early 1999. That's an average of well over 2 variations per number, and some have 10 or more.

There are all kinds of variations. The most common are the wheel variations, but there are variations in paint, tampos, windshields, bases, and other things. Some cars come in more than one kind of variation, such as this GT Racer, which is shown with two different types of wheels and with and without tampos:

A very interesting set of variations are the "grey plastic" variations of several cars issued in 1997. The 1996 First Edition #5 Rail Rodder was issued with both chromed plastic and grey plastic, as shown below:

There are also very rare variations that get mistakenly classified as errors by people who aren't familiar with them. For example, the Race Team Dragster with 7-spoke wheels is not listed in most guides, but several collectors are known to have this car.

So, when you see something you haven't seen before, be aware that it may simply be a new variation. However, note that some people will try to push an error as a variation. See the section on "Values" for more on this.

Transition pieces


The term "transition piece" refers to a variation that exists because of a change in variation taking place in steps. For example, the GT Racer shown above comes with 5-spoke wheels with and without tampos, but the lace wheel variety only comes with tampos, so we would call the 5-spoke variety with tampos a transition piece.

A famous item that may or may not be a transition piece is the Roarin Rods Mini Truck with orange base shown here:

Too many of these exist for it to be a real error, but it also seems a bit too obvious for the item to be a real transition piece.

There are cases where items are incorrectly called transition pieces. The most well-known case of this is the #594 GM Ultralite shown below:

This car was originally released in the Demolition Man set in 1993 with the SAPD logo tampo on the side. In 1997, it was released in the #594 blister pack with the tampo, and then subsequently released without the tampo. Some people called this a transition piece and claimed that the cars with tampos were leftovers from the original run.

The problem with this theory is in the wheels. The Demolition Man version came with Ultra-Hot wheels, while the #594 with tampos came with 7-spoke wheels, which were first used in 1995 - two years after the Demolition Man cars were made. Why would Mattel hold a bunch of painted car bodies without wheels in storage like this?

Non-errors


Sometimes, people look at an item and consider it to be an error just because something changed. A good example of this is the 1997 First Edition #6, pictured below, which can be found in packages proclaiming it as the BMW Z3 Roadster and as the BMW M Roadster. Both are valid - a change doesn't mean an error.

A truly insidious non-error is the 97 First Edition #9 Scorchin Scooter that is laying down in the blister as shown here:

This item has been sold for as much as $30, yet it isn't that special at all. I have 3 of these, but only one came that way, and the sender claims it wasn't that way when it was shipped. Another came partially flipped and I was able to finish the job just by dropping it on the floor from 3 inches. The third one I flipped myself - it took about 10 minutes of work to get it flipped enough that I could finish the job like I did with the previous one.

In any case, there are plenty of real errors, so don't be fooled by people out to make a buck on people who don't know any better.

Next - Pre-Production Errors