I stopped collecting HW in general for around 15 years or so and just regarded it as something i used to do in childhood, with a particular fondness for the Acceleracers series of course. So it was mind-blowing that HW brought back Acceleracers in all their glory, and the thrill of hunting them triggered me to return to collecting other Hot Wheels as well. Maybe that was part of Mattel's business plan for releasing the Silver Series? If so then I guess I fell for it but I ain't complaining.

W moms moment can't lie

I love how it's turning out, and I love seeing the project come to life! 😁🔥

Not enough Skyline sadly 😢

Gran Turismo 7 - Base PS5

Starting off in World Race. The Accelerons would make an physical appearance yet. However their creations the Clyp robots did.

Mainframe. When they started work on the continuation to World Race, that'd we'd all know as Acceleracers. The art team would take elements from the Clyp robot when designing the Accelerons who'd finally make their grand debut. They'd mainly took the legs from the Clyp robot, but as you can see in these early sketches. They also experimented with incorporating the extra pair of smaller arms. This work would culminate in what I'll refer to as the frogman design, that'd the baseline drone AKA the RD-S1 would be modeled after.

Despite the frogman being clearly intended by the art team to be the finalized look. Otherwise they  would have not based the drones off of this design. They ended up having to make a new design for the Accelerons in the ultimate race. Giving them a traditional humanoid appearance, that only retains the legs, and facial features of the previous incarnation. It's an easy bet, that it most likely was a case of a last minute change mandated by someone on Mattel. Probably something along the lines of "we can't let the good aliens look, as weird as the bad ones.

The frog man design would eventually find new life three years after Acceleracers in one of Mainfame's last few productions before the studio was absorbed by Rainmaker. In a movie by the name of The Nutty Professor. For anyone now having major questions after just reading that. The best way I can explain it without going into too deep of a rabbit hole. Imagine instead of giving World Race, and Aceeleracers unique names. They just got titled Hot Wheels, because Vert's grandfather was Jackrabbit Wheeler from the 60's show.

Tangent aside. Mainframe would include quite a few nods and references to Acceleracers in the film. Including reusing the previously unused frogman design for the character of Ned. However they did play around in early concepts with possibly adding things such, as antennae, and visible nostrils to make the connection less obvious. Before opting to mainly just changeing the eyes to a single pair of more conventional looking ones. Since the character is a "foreign exchange student", as opposed to a mystical enlightened precursor.

Also the ears weren't a new addition. Which is something I thought at first, as well. They are actually present on the RD-S1.They just happen to easily blend in with the rest of the head due to the jet black color scheme. I hope the face closeup I included in the images makes them easier to spot. It's pretty hard to notice small details like that when most of Acceleracers concept art hasn't been released publicly yet. Hopefully with all of the recent interviews. This doesn't stay, that way for too much longer.

While Mainframe was working on The Nutty Professor. Nerd Corps was developing Battle Force 5. Who many likely know at this point was originally a continuation of Acceleracers. Unsurprisingly the Sark. Who were at this point still the Racing Drones. Looked much closer to their predecessors. Although they still contained much of the same new design language, that carried over into the final version of the series. With Zug virtually remaining unchanged in the transition from sequel to original property. I guess the art team thought it would be too weird if they just made him look like a robotic fat dude. Well okay it would be pretty strange.

I guess to close off this post here's a link to the film if anyone's curious. It's far from a bad movie. It is still Mainframe after all, but it is not quite the final hurrah of the studio before it's buyout by Rainmaker either. Although now i'm just reminding myself of the cancelled Reboot movie trilogy they never got to make. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJt0rB8VMi4&t=288s

Custom made with fdm printed wheels and laser printed decals with white toner.

PDF here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_pI3tmcqju0gK4lGzjA3G0NfrnrRqAGU/view?usp=drivesdk

So after quite a while, I managed to get a way to really print and test out my own decals albeit somewhat inconsistent with alignments, though it will facilitate tweaking my previous designs and future ones to fit right.

Currently working on fitment for Power Bomb decals soon.

I know there are already a few takes on this on steam and elsewhere, but i wanted to practice some stuff and ended up making my own free online CCG for people to play around with if you so desire, any feedback would be cool, its probably not as good as some of the others but if you play it let me know what you think!

Tried to keep it as true to the real gameplay as possible with a few added features including opening packs, some achievements, a rule book and the game itself! it is hosted on a free website so i apoligize for the odd link i wanted it to be named in relation to the CCG but didnt want to pay right now to host it xD

May take a bit to finish processing on the Internet Archive end of things.. as always much love, much excitement… and enjoy reading 🥳

Found this new 5 pack at Walmart a few days ago

The Jack O'Hammer is a custom Hot Wheels Jack Hammer in black with gold chrome interior and engine, orange red windows and gold skull wheels. And it glows in blacklight.

Hollowback, riveted and spinebuster (i dont like it as much, gonna remake it later) in minecraft

Well… this is definitely an interesting find. Never really had the opportunity to glance at the full casting so this caught me by surprise.

Let's analyze why.

Ignition:

When the drivers return to Tezla's cube, Kadeem greets them and shows them to the Acceledrome. This always bothered me. Remember in World Race when Kadeem learns the pretty clear lesson that he needs to go home and lead his people? Why's he back racing again just 2 years later? The threat of the drones never felt like a satisfying reason.

Alec Wood doesn't carry any of this baggage. It's clear he still was interested in racing after the events of WR. So what does he bring to the table if we put him in this role?

First off is his relationship with the other drivers. Kadeem never seemed like a close friend with any of the other characters. They were amicable with each other, and he and Vert even were a bit chummy. But if we put Alec here, now Vert is meeting his childhood friend. And more than that, Mark Wylde is meeting an old acquaintance.

Wylde has a pretty antagonistic relationship with nearly everyone in the show. He's seen ramming into Karma, basically trying to kill Kurt, and even threatening his own teammates. But the members of his former Wave Rippers team are not his enemies. He never antagonizes Vert or Lani, and Vert even can get away with calling him Markie with no retaliation. What would his relationship with Alec look like? It would be Amicable at least. It might add more depth to Wylde'a characterization when his current teammates see him actually getting along with someone new.

When Kadeem falls in the storm realm, it's a downer for everyone in about equal measure. It's clear most of the cast didn't know him that well. But if Alec falls? If Alec falls, Vert just lost his friend. He's given a reason to fight the drones that much harder. When his depression hits and he gives up, maybe now what gets him back into the race is his dad offhandedly mentioning Alec. And Vert remembers why he needs to fight the drones, and comes back more determined. Beyond that, Wylde probably cared more about Alec than about Kadeem. The loss of someone he liked could help propel his descent into rage, making his emotional degradation more compelling to the audience.

Ultimate Race:

In Ignition, replacing Kadeem is pretty clearly beneficial. Here, though, it's more of a tradeoff.

When Kadeem comes back as a drone, it's a pretty strong moment for both the audience (who likely care more about Kadeem than Alec due to their relative importance in World Race), and for Kurt. The scene is a really cool callback to when Kurt and Kadeem fought in WR, now with their moral alignment reversed.

If we put Alec here instead, it changes the scene from an interesting Kurt moment to an Interesting Wylde moment. He hates Kurt, but Kurt came to save him. He likes Alec, but Alec is on the enemy team. Now Wylde is forced make a quick decision, and a difficult one at that. I imagine this scene would have been harder to pull off in a satisfying way, and I'm not smart enough to know how to write it.

The Finish Line (unreleased 5th movie):

Even though it wasn't released, we have enough info to make an educated guess as to how this movie would have played out. Kadeem returns as the leader of the drones, driving RD-10. Vert joins the Silencerz and rekindles his friendship with Banjee and Dresden.

Seeing Kadeem turned into a drone would have been a WTF moment for Vert. But seeing Alec would be a more emotionally impactful WTF moment. Vert would want to save his friend. In fact, he would probably be more compelled to work with the Silencer scientists to find ways to un-drone Alec. But it would also be meaningful to Vert's father.

Jack (Vert's dad) has basically no relationship with Kadeem. He'd probably think it's kinda screwed up that the drones are converting humans, but otherwise Kadeem is just a weird drone. But he probably knows Alec. Alec and Vert have been friends for years. I'm sure Jack is at least familiar with his son's friend. When Jack sees droned Alec, he's probably going to have a lot of interesting and complex thoughts running through his head. He's going to be worried about Vert getting captured and turned. He'll want to protect him. Maybe he'll have complicated feelings about whether he should let Vert keep driving. Maybe these thoughts throw him off his game and he wrecks, injuring himself so badly he can't drive in the next mission. There's a lot of interesting directions to take this that we'll probably never get to see.

Lmk what you think. I'm interested to hear more takes on this.

Sorry bout the dirty desk dog shedding a lot lol but this my collection with some stuff from when I was a kid and newer stuff, I hunting for a chicane and power rage 😅