To the untrained eye it looks like a drug deal. At the back of a store, in the loading dock, one man hands over a box in exchange for cash.
Except it’s not a box of illegal substances, it’s full of Hot Wheels. The tiny toy cars that have entertained kids for generations. But as the shady dealings at the back of a toy store demonstrate, which is based on an eyewitness account, Hot Wheels are no longer just child’s play.
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Mattel, owners of Hot Wheels, made over A$2.5 billion (US$1.75 billion) in gross sales of the 1:64 scale cars in 2025, as approximately 500 million of them roll off the production line each year. This was, by far, its biggest product of last year, as sales of other products declined.
And the reason why Hot Wheels is so popular and profitable is because the brand has embraced the grown-up, collector audience as much as children. It’s part of a wider trend known as ‘kidulting’, which is seeing adults re-engaging with their childhood favourites.
“ I think that’s true for the whole toy industry,” says Craig Callum, Senior Design Manager for Hot Wheels.
“I think we’re a generation of people that have a love for toys that still exist. If you think back, you don’t have to go too far back, and the toys that our parents or grandparents played with they stopped producing them or they developed, whereas, we still see those toys. So we can really jump into that nostalgia and buy them now. It’s great.”
Whether it’s Lego, Labubus or something else, adults playing with what are meant to be kids toys has become a multi-billion dollar market. And Hot Wheels is one of the most popular toys for adults for a variety of reasons.
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Whether it’s the cost (Hot Wheels start as low as $2), the variety (new cars are released several times a year) or just the love of cars, the success of Hot Wheels is no longer just down to children. Which is why the company has expanded beyond its $2 ‘mainline’ cars to include more expensive ($5-$8) ‘semi-premium’ and then more expensive (up to $980) premium vehicles, which are specifically designed to entice collectors.
”What we’ve seen is the collectors have always been there since the beginning of Hot Wheels,” explains Paul Faulkner, Managing Director for Mattel Australia.
Adding “I think what’s changed is the visibility of that audience for us. We’re seeing that audience, that started playing with Hot Wheels as kids, are now generating into collecting Hot Wheels as part of their passion for cars and they’re collecting.”
What’s clear from looking at the current array of Hot Wheels designs available in Australia, there is a clear split between the audiences Mattel is targeting. On the one hand, there’s the bright, colourful and downright wacky cars. But then there’s the likes of the 1985 Lancia Delta S4 and 2000 Subaru Impreza WRX, cars which are designed to appeal to the over 40 crowd.
“ Those are collectors rather than kids that are buying those, and so we can adjust the line-up of how mainline cars versus our premium cars to make sure we cater to that,” Callum says. “And it is a little bit easier because obviously, for the premium cars, the car fans and collectors are a little bit more vocal than kids. So we don’t necessarily hear from the kids as to which cars they’re really loving at the moment.”
The problem with Hot Wheels collectors, like any type of collector in this day-and-age, is the market has spiralled out of control in places. Some collectors have become used car salesmen, snapping up Hot Wheels in bulk. Hence the story we began this article with, where some enterprising collectors are doing deals with shop workers to ensure they never reach the shelf and instead end up on Facebook Marketplace, eBay or other reselling website, typically at a significant mark-up.
Find the right ‘mainline’ $2 Hot Wheels and you can sell them for $10 or more online, which is a healthy profit margin for a relatively small investment. Which is why some sellers will claim to have 30 or 40 examples of particular in-demand models.
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Just like the real-world, Ferrari has proven to be one of the most desirable cars for collectors. Having only renewed its licensing agreement with Mattel at the start of 2025, a new generation of Ferrari cars hit the market last year and were immediately scooped up by collectors and sold on the second-hand market for big margins.
“You won’t find a single Ferrari in any store in Sydney,” one collector told me.
The obvious problem with this behaviour is these adult collectors are making it hard for children to enjoy the simple pleasure of playing with a toy car.
“We’re not concerned by it,” says Faulkner. “I think what we want to do is try and make sure we learn from every release to try and get that balance right for the next time.”