Looking through the partial list of cars for Hot Wheels’ 2023 Mainline, I have a mixed level of excitement about the cars so far. The list on the Hot Wheels Fandom Wiki’s 2023 Mainline page is incomplete, with only 172 of 250 cars listed. Mattel has also released its list of 2023 Mainlines. I’ve decided to focus my collection on specific makes and models as opposed to just buying cars I like. That said, there are a several series I’m excited to go on the hunt for.
Over the last few years, I’ve amassed a pretty sizable collection of gassers. I’ve been focusing building up that part of my collection in order to make some custom gassers. For most of my gassers, I have three or four extras I’ve picked up that I’ll use for customizing.
So, I’m looking forward to hunting for the 2023 HW Gassers Mini-Collection. The collection includes the ’55 Chevy Bel Air Gasser, the ’64 Chevy Nova Wagon Gasser, the ’62 Corvette Gasser, the ’65 Mercury Comet Cyclone and the Pass’n Gasser. The Mercury Comet is a new casting for 2023 as well as a Super Treasure Hunt. The ’62 Vette was introduced to the mainline in 2022, so it’s a relatively new casting as well.
Another mini-collection that looks very good is the The ’80s. The series has Kroger Exclusive in the ’87 Ford Sierra Cosworth and a Dollar General Exclusive ’80 El Camino. The ’88 Jeep Wagoner is new in the Mainline and the ’82 Toyota Supra is a new casting as well as a Super Treasure Hunt. A notable car in the mini-collection is the ’81 Delorian DMC-12, which was used in all three Back to the Future movies. I’m planning to do a custom on this car and found some initial reference photos on the Petersen Automotive Museum website.
A finial mini-collection I’m interested in is the 2023 Surf’s Up series. The series has a VW Kool Kombi with with Moon Eyes logo with yellow and black variations. A third variant of the Kool Kombi is a Walmart Zamac exclusive. One of the five cars, the Surf Crate, is a Treasure Hunt only with no other variants. If you’re looking to complete this mini-collection, you’ll have to get lucky to find the TH in the wild.
I haven’t seen anything for 2023 with a Gulf Livery, which is my favorite special livery. I also like picking up cars from the Hot Wheels race team (I collect the blue). There’s a HW 55 Race Team Mini-Collection that features the HW 55th Anniversary logo, a Hot Wheels livery Mod Rod Treasure Hunt and a new 2023 casting, the HW-4-Trac.
One other casting I’m interested in is the Ford GT40 MkIV, which has been around since 2021. This year, the casting is only available in the Motor Show 5-Pack. I found one of these 5-Packs earlier this year. There are some great cars in the 5-Pack, but only the MkIV caught my interest.
Boondock Bight 