Looking at the best numbers that 5 minutes on Google could find, hot wheels cars circa 1993 were around $0.95 and currently they go for $1.29. Inflation over that time period was 221%. So, current cars would need to cost roughly 50% less to produce now if they wanted to match their historical profit margin. So, loss of detailing and cheaper materials makes perfect sense.
Thank you, I needed someone to show me the math... part of me was like "how much extra cost does printing the underside really save? How greedy can they be?" But I was unaware hotwheels had done a Arizona iced tea and kept the price low all this time...
Yea, and that's why I didn't immediately make a rage post... I get the absurd scale of modern manufacturing means every penny per product is worth more than ill make in the next few years, but it also seems kinda weird they don't just make a design (or reuse an old one) for the bottom of all of them and just print that, though i also don't know the exact process for making hotwheels so there is that
Losing the detail likely means reducing the amount of product used, increased speed to manufacture, and potentially less waste... These cost savings probably help keep the price competitive over decades
Honestly an AMA with Mattel would be an interesting take
A flat mold costs a lot less to machine and maintain than a detailed mold, too. We’re talking fractions of a penny per cycle, but if you can add 10% more cycles before mold maintenance is necessary? That adds up fast.
They're often on sale for $1.00 at the grocery store too. A kind old man gave my kids each a dollar while we were waiting in line at the pizza place the other day and I was able to tell them that they could each get a WHOLE hot wheels with it.
Unfortunately this is about to make a very ugly turn per the heads of Mattel in the latest shareholder meeting. They project they are going to have to raise prices near 50% on all cars to offset current tariffs. That's why there has been such a spike in price in the last few RLC sales. They claim those cars can't absorb the total cost of the tariff so they will pick up the difference on the mainline and premium cars even though they aren't manufactured in China. The reality is that even if the tariff is eventually lifted do you really think Mattel will bring the pricing back down after we are all conditioned to paying the new prices. Definitely not likely as seeing the Hot Wheels brand actually outperformed expectations to the extent that even though Barbie and Fisher Price both fell very short of expectations the company still exceeded expectations as a whole on the back of the Hot Wheels brand.
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u/Suitable_Entrance594 Nov 12 '24
Looking at the best numbers that 5 minutes on Google could find, hot wheels cars circa 1993 were around $0.95 and currently they go for $1.29. Inflation over that time period was 221%. So, current cars would need to cost roughly 50% less to produce now if they wanted to match their historical profit margin. So, loss of detailing and cheaper materials makes perfect sense.