Hello, I am a Hot Wheels collector, and I am mainly on the Hot Wheels die-cast forums.

If you Rail-Road "people" didn't already know, Hot Wheels has come out with a 1/87th scale car that is selling at some Wal-Marts. They are $1.50 each and would look great in some of your layouts. Sorry if this has been discussed, I am not a train guy. :thumbsup:


Thanks, Matt

there are HW, fresh cherries, and malibu brand 1/87 cars

Or you could add a HO slotcar set and use the Thundetjet cars from Aurora or Auto World since they're marketed as 1/87 scale. :devil: rr

I have seen the HW 1/87s and bought a few but they do not stand up to the Malibu or Fresh Cherries in looks or cost but they ave two hot rods for my lay out.

IMo Malibu owns on the small cars

The HW cars lack detail :( I bought some but plan to stick to to Malibu, and the Fresh Cherries, though I whish my local Wally World would carry the 1/87 Cherries I got mine at a rail road show. :thumbsup:

Another company makes great 1:87 scale cars availeable at walmart. Can't remember the name off the top of my head but they have VW', luxury cars/suv's big rigs, a unimog snowplow, and several vintage vehicles as well. I got a nive chevy pickup from their movie collection. some vehicles come in a 5 pack. I'll try to remember to look up the name when I get home...

isn't that malibu? :confused:

Another company makes great 1:87 scale cars availeable at walmart. Can't remember the name off the top of my head but they have VW', luxury cars/suv's big rigs, a unimog snowplow, and several vintage vehicles as well. I got a nive chevy pickup from their movie collection. some vehicles come in a 5 pack. I'll try to remember to look up the name when I get home...

Sounds like Mailbu International.

Yep...They had a black lambo I liked a while ago in a 5 pack

Or you could add a HO slotcar set and use the Thundetjet cars from Aurora or Auto World since they're marketed as 1/87 scale. :devil: rr

I agree completely!! To be exact, the older T jets are 1/72 vs, 1/87 for true HO scale. The tycos, and the AFX cars are about 1/64th. I would personally rather have the slots vs cars sitting around doing nothing. Thinking back the 30 something years ago with my first train table, it was a hot wheels/ matchbox haven!! Honestly, to me the 1/87 cars look too small and always have since way back then. And if you think about it, as a model railroader, aren't we always looking to get as much stuff automated and mechanized on the table as possible? We've come a long way in this hobby only to have it squashed because the big box stores only cater to the big sales numbers. I can remember as a kid saving up my allowance and doing odd jobs just to go to Bradlees or Caldor dept stores to buy trees, grass, extra freight cars, an extra diesel or a house or two. My local hobby store doesn't carry much anything nowadays:( Now we have automated stop lights, automated carnival rides, even a mini 1/87th go cart track!! The faller road system is impressive and I plan on doing it as soon as I hit the mega millions!! oops, went to put my two cents in and blew a buck... sorry:eek:

OK..since I woke up 7 hours too early...a little history(as fractured as it is) on the life of a slot car...In the late 50's, model railroading was huge! Every kid wanted one, every kid who got one wanted more, and the hobby flourished. Out yonder, across the big pond, this wonderful english chap came up with this cute invention he called the vibrator chassis. A quick track plan and a couple of bodies later, the slot car was born!!:woohoo: These were marketed to run on a TRAIN TABLE :freak: A company in Hempstead, NY saw them and bought the company. Aurora started manufacturing the vibe cars and soon followed with the thunder jet. An incredible invention, to say the least, very reliable (still a ton of them in use today).And all was great!! A wide assortment of track was offered, including 1/4 and 1/8 curves in 4 different radii, 4 different length straights, an assortment of specialty tracks like the squeeze, the cross-overs, cobblestone, junction turnoff, service road turnoff, a cool 4 way intersection track(available with an optional functioning stop light, and a railroad crossing track....I am stopping here with the Tjets intentionally, because beyond this point, slots cars had become a hobby of their own. Everything from the AFX on is too fast(even for a speed demon like me) for a train table. Cars flying up Main St at 1200 scale MPH is a bit too much. The Tjets were way more controllable speed wise, and were a smaller scale 1/72 vs the AFX 1/64. I personally mix the two hobbies, largly because I'm prone to having 50 different projects going on at once so nothing ever seems to get done:cry: I have even gone as far as making my own custom slotcar railroad crossing and will have it fully automated with the crossing gates in the next few weeks. I'm even making my own lighted slot cars(head and tail lights) to run on the track. I can't wait to get all the street lights in, get all my buildings lit up again and let everything run their respective circles:D My favorite run time is at night with the passenger cars all lit up, the cars cruising up and down the main drag....Guess I better get back to my plaster cloth and quit pecking this keyboard...Yet another project to delay the other 49....Have fun y'all and happy motoring!!:wave:

I'm stuck in the 1930's so I have been building Jordan kits. I have a butt load of 1930's era cars trucks and the like to represent my Norfolk & Western RR small towns and farms and such.

Preiser and other s have a few vehicles in from the 1930's but most I build. Teh Ford Model A is a big one for me with about 20 so far.. these are tweezer kits!

I know the topic is HO scale cars, but since Y3a shared about his Model A's, I thought I'd share my first photos of my 1914 Model T Roadster Hot Wheels conversion. This is regular Hot Wheels 1/64 scale.

Hot Wheels also did a series of Speed Racer vehicles (from the movie) in 1/87 scale. The detail and such on them was great to me. 2009 looks promising in the 1/87 scale cars since they are going to be doing a 1/87 scale '66 Batmobile. I cannot wait to see how this looks...I probably become one of those guys I usually cannot stand, and buy all of them that I can find.

HW has a nice VW bug in 1/87. It's the only HO car I've bought, since they're $3.50 even at Walmart. HO vehicles are a HUGE rip-off!