Hot Wheels: Rift Rally brings your Hot Wheels collection to life.

Mixed reality experiences are becoming more popular and accessible. It is an exciting time where fandom, collecting, and technology are coming together in ways never before possible. Velan Studios and Mattel have joined forces to bring one of those experiences to life with our beloved Hot Wheels collection with Hot Wheels: Rift Rally. With this mixed reality experience, players/collectors are able to bring just about their entire Hot Wheels car collection to life in the real world through the aptly named “Chameleon” remote-controlled car.

Players choose their car and the Chameleon adapts its properties stats and even its look via augmented reality.

There are 3 key components to the experience. The car, the Chameleon, the track, and the actual game itself, Hot Wheels: Rift Rally. The way I did it, is I set up my track, via the pylons provided, then loaded up the game, connected the Chameleon, then loaded up a car, and drove through the pylons to program the track into the game. Now For all levels and game modes, the track is set. So all levels and game modes will be programmed to that track and setup until you decide you want to change it up. It sounds complicated, but the setup guide is very intuitive and after the first attempt it becomes second nature.

Hot Wheels: Rift Rally’s Chameleon

I’ve had a few remote control cars in my day. The Tantrum and Sidewinder are particular favorites, something about a car that can’t be flipped over. But the Chameleon outclasses those cars in every way. It’s faster, the battery lasts way longer, and it is far more intuitive to operate. It’s great when you have a turbo button at actually makes the car go

Open a newspaper, and you read about teens that have become sneaker millionaires. Google some random stuff, and you read about eye-popping prices for retro video games. Talk to collectors and you’ll find out that some baseball cards are worth a fortune these days. Without a doubt, everywhere you look, collectors enjoy big paydays for their old toys. Baseball cards and the latest trendy sneakers are gaining momentum. And old toys are also in high demand right now. A collection of Hot Wheels cars from your childhood can turn into an excellent investment. It is not unexpected that collectors would have an interest in owning these Mattel items, given the fact that some Hot Wheels automobiles have skyrocketed in price and demand.

Updated March 2023: Whether you’re a gearhead wannabe with ideas of owning a hot ride or just a big kid at heart, Hot Wheels will have played a big part in your childhood. Famous recreations of the best road cars aside, Hot Wheels is more popular for its wacky custom designs and paint jobs. Whichever way you look at the toy car brand, Hot Wheels are not just toys.

Consider the Hot Wheels Chevy Camaro built by Mattel in 1968, which originally sold for 59 cents and now costs a staggering $100,000. How about the only pink rear-loading Volkswagen Beach Bomb ever created? A collector paid $72,000 and it is now worth $150,000. These toy cars have the same valuation as real luxury vehicles. So, what makes a Hot Wheels car valuable?

RELATED: This Is The World’s Most Expensive Hot Wheels Car

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Out of billions of mass-produced Hot Wheels vehicles, there are a select few which are worth more than imaginable. Some of these collectors’ gold mines look amazing while others could be just another car in one’s collection.

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Depending on the year, designer, prototypes that snuck out of the factory, or simply based on iconic cars — the most valuable Hot Wheels cars are not necessarily what you would expect. Some are based on movies, shows, or something in real life, while others were among the first ever created and sold. Here, you can check out some of the most expensive Hot Wheels on the market.

Updated April 3, 2023 by Jacqueline Zalace: No matter how much time passes, Hot Wheels maintain its immense popularity. We’ve added even more valuable cars to our list to make your jaw drop. We would also like to remind you that these cars don’t have set prices; many of these cars will fluctuate in price, which is natural for collector’s items.

13 Hot Wheels 1995 Collector Number 271

Officially known among Hot Wheels heads as the Hot Wheels Collector Number 271 with a blue card, there are only 12 of these in existence. Released in 1995, the Collector Number 271 is likely the rarest model Hot Wheels car from the 90s.

The Collector Number 271 is worth around $3,500. The only catch is that if you don’t have the packaging, it can’t be verified as authentic. There are also some fake packaging versions too, so don’t get click-happy if you happen to see one on eBay. As of 2016, only around seven have been officially authenticated, leaving five Hot Wheels Collector Number 271 cars out there that might be collecting

A few years ago, Nintendo’s real-life-meets-video-game Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit turned my pandemic home into a theme park racecourse for my kids. Now, Mattel and Hot Wheels have created a new mixed-reality game for remote-controlled cars with Mario Kart Live developer Velan. 

Hot Wheels Rift Rally, arriving March 14 for $130, is an RC car video game that races around on your real-world floor.

And just like Mario Kart Live, it’s a lot of fun.

You need a Nintendo Switch to play Mario Kart Live, but Hot Wheels Rift Rally works with iPhones, iPads and the PlayStation 4 and 5. It can cross-play between them, either locally or with others online.

Hot Wheels Rift Rally is an RC car video game with a camera built in to stream racing to your phone or TV, with mixed-reality effects.

Scott Stein/CNET

I played with the Rift Rally for about an hour in New York. The concept is similar to Mario Kart Live: A camera-enabled RC car streams its point of view to your TV or Apple device. From there, you drive the car and see the real world augmented with all sorts of video game special effects and a glowing race track.

The twist with Rift Rally is that the car itself, a sort of futuristic compact race car called the “Chameleon Car,” can transform in-game into 140 different Hot Wheels cars. It works weirdly well. Even though the physical car drives around your home the same way, in-game you see a different car appear, along with different driving physics and speeds.

Rift Rally works on iOS with or without a controller: We played with an iPhone that had a Backbone snapped on.

Scott Stein/CNET

Much like Mario Kart Live, the camera-equipped car works along with four included gates that form

Buying a car in 2023 is hard, but that seems to be the way it’s going for just about everything these days — even toy cars. And supply-chain disruptions alone don’t explain it. Just like concert tickets, sneakers, game consoles and luxury watches, the Hot Wheels market has been overrun by resellers who snap up the most desirable new die-cast releases from Mattel and flip them for a profit. As with all those other products, the problem has only grown since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It shows no sign of stopping.

In case you missed it:

About a year ago, I wrote about how Target and Walmart seemed perpetually low on stocks of Hot Wheels die-casts, along with possible explanations for that phenomenon. At the time, Mattel’s pre-pandemic staffing cuts, the pandemic itself, and physical bottlenecks like the Ever Given debacle and last year’s border-crossing blockades were believed to play a role. But there’s another issue affecting the Hot Wheels market, the same one you know all too well if you ever attempted to get your hands on a PS5 over the past 24 months — scalpers.

Hot Wheels “mainlines” — the cheapest, blue-blister-pack cars you see in supermarkets and drug stores — cost $1.29 a pop. It’s frankly an astonishing price, barely 40 cents more than what Mattel charged in 1982, even though inflation means they should really cost around $2.88. Positioned above the mainlines are premium, “adult-targeted” collections like Car Culture and Team Transport, which will set you back about $7 or $15, respectively, if you’re buying them in a store.

On the whole, then, Hot Wheels are pretty cheap. However, new casts drop in waves, cycling in and out of stores very quickly. Retailers get shipments every few weeks, and

American toy maker, Mattel, introduced us to the fascinating world of Hot Wheels in 1968, bringing to us a range of model cars. Since Hot Wheels came on the scene, many carmakers have had scale models of their cars made under license. As they are scale models, they get made using original designs from carmakers to ensure as much accuracy as possible. Although Hot Wheels were originally intended to be for children and young adults, they have become popular with adult collectors, for whom limited edition models are available.

Updated February 2023: Hot Wheels cars are a constantly evolving and the popularity of certain models fluctuates with the various trends. As such, this list changes to keep up to date with the most popular of toy cars. Hopefully this awesome collectible will continue to be popular among fans – even after the automotive world has gone electric.

Most people see Hot Wheels cars as toys found for a buck at any local store. However, now and then, a toy meant for kids ends up becoming a highly collectible item. It’s usually because of how rare they are, as Hot Wheels has had a few models produced in minimal numbers, making them hard to find. A few were also one-of-a-kind collector items that shine nicely. Original packaging really helps increase the value of these collectibles.

There have been scores of such Hot Wheels that are now worth thousands of dollars. And others are easily hitting five figures among serious collectors. A few even crack six numbers at major auctions and collector’s items. These are the top 10 Hot Wheels scale model cars that cost more than some actual cars.

RELATED: Check Out This 1963 Ford Anglia That Is Now A Hot Wheels Diecast Model

Bruce Pascal is an avid Hot Wheels collector who boasts a collection of more than 4,000 cars.

Bruce Pascal

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Bruce Pascal

Bruce Pascal is an avid Hot Wheels collector who boasts a collection of more than 4,000 cars.

Bruce Pascal

Inflation, the curse of our pocketbooks and the Federal Reserve, has hit almost every good in the U.S. But the price of a beloved toy has managed to hover around $1 — for more than 50 years.

Hot Wheels are a retail oddity. They remain one of the most affordable toys in the country at a time when inflation is chipping away at savings accounts and compounding credit card debt for many Americans, experts like James Zahn told NPR.

Zahn is the editor-in-chief of The Toy Book, a trade publication that has covered the toy industry in North America since 1984. Inflation and other supply chain-related factors have boosted prices this year in a few toy categories, most notably action figures, dolls and electronic toys, Zahn said.

A look at one of the many display cases Bruce Pascal uses to showcase his Hot Wheels collection.

Bruce Pascal

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Bruce Pascal

A look at one of the many display cases Bruce Pascal uses to showcase his Hot Wheels collection.

Bruce Pascal

On average, The Toy Book has recorded a 15% jump in manufacturers’ suggested prices for a lot of toys this season; many products that would’ve been $19.99 a year or two ago are coming in at $22.99 to $24.99, he added.

“It is exceptionally rare to find a toy that maintains its price for a few years, let alone more than five decades,” Zahn said. “Hot Wheels are an anomaly in that the continued sales volume and razor-sharp production pipeline manage to keep

Mattel’s Hot Wheels has been, and continues to be a successful toy franchise of cars and accessories that most little boys enjoy playing with. But to attain the status of the “big boy” toy, or one of the ‘best rc toys’, Hot Wheels has to offer even more…as in being able to actually MAKE the Hot Wheels car. They have to compete with the best RC cars for kids after all. So say hello to running your own assembly line with the Hot Wheels Car Maker Play-set.

The Car Maker Playset is over a foot tall, designed to resemble a futuristic 2 story “garage” and its handle at the top reminiscent of the legendary Vac-U-Form. However, unlike that device, the Car Maker Playset is safe to the touch, even when the electric powered “oven” is melting the stick of wax that becomes the body of a car. And since everything is digital now, there’s no surprise that light and sound effects and even voice prompts accompany the entire process, making it not only safe but near impossible to do wrong. For preschoolers, one of the most engaging toys that provides games that revolve around an education subject is the one described in the Fisher price code n learn kinderbot robot toy review.

So having unpacked the Car Maker, I stood it on a table and plugged it into a wall outlet.  A disc on the front immediately lit up, the front-mounted door popped open and a digital male voice told me to insert a mold. Not ready to do all that, I searched in vain for an “Off” button and had to settle with