[trebleshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingLouie731

Thanks so much for the clarification and I stand by my vote because Hot wheels were the best of both worlds: fantasy & reality cars

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazy Jetty

Thanks, Treb!

No problem. Happy to help.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazy Jetty

I still think Hotwheels is winning this strickly by name alone.
Kinda like TF vs Gobots, where some gobot haters have never even seen a picture of an actual gobot toy, let alone held one, but still calling them "cheap K-Mart Transformers."

I'm sure that brand recognition has a lot to do with it, especially for non-collectors. And your TF/Gobots analogy is spot-on, except Matchbox was at one time considered the more high-end of the two (at least by Matchbox collectors). And to be fair, Matchbox had been around for 15 years before Hot Wheels appeared. Transformers and Gobots were much closer in terms of their debuts.

So it makes a little sense for some fans to feel that Hot Wheels were a cheap copy, even though the quality for both brands was about the same. I think that Mattel won the "battle of the aisles" through their superior marketing, like Hasbro did with Transformers.

By the way, next year marks the 60th anniversary of Matchbox and 45th anniversary of Hot Wheels.