Hot Wheels has joined the world of blockchain/crypto with their Hot Wheels NFT Garage project.  Hot Wheels NFT Garage Series 1 hit the blockchain on November 16th of last year.  The set includes 40 digital collectibles divided into 4 themed subsets and 4 different rarities.  The the subsets are: Garage of Legends, Checkered Flag, Race Team, and Time Attack.  The 4 different rarities for Series 1 are Base, Rare, Premium, and NFTH.  

NFT stands for non-fungible token.  It is proof of ownership of a digital asset that is stored on the blockchain.  While digital collectibles don’t appeal to everyone, there is a market for them because they are somewhat rare and convenient.  What really separates Hot Wheels NFT Garage from other NFT projects is that they have physical Hot Wheels as a reward for acquiring the Premium or NFTH rarity levels.  The physical Hot Wheels for Series 1 were among the rarest Hot Wheels ever released to the public by Mattel.  Holders of the Premium or NFTH digital collectibles received a token that could be redeemed for a physical version of that particular Hot Wheels NFT.  There were 1200 redemptions available for the Premiums and 600 available for the NFTH Bone Shaker but not all tokens were redeemed.  The actual redemption numbers were 761 for the ’18 Camaro SS, 700 on the Twin Mill, 707 on the Rodger Dodger, 685 for the Mach Speeder, and only 394 for the NFTH Bone Shaker.  

The physicals are commanding a pretty high price on the secondary market right now.  They all feature Spectraflame paint and Real Rider wheels.  Full sets of all 5 vehicles have sold in the $2000 to $2500 range.  The Twin Mill and Mach Speeder are currently in the $150 to $250 range, the Rodger Dodger is going for around $200 to $400, and the ’18 Camaro SS is selling for $250 to $500.  The Holy Grail of the set, the NFTH Bone Shaker, is commanding prices of $1000 to $2000.  I believe the lack of awareness has kept secondary market prices lower than they might be otherwise.  As Hot Wheels continues to release more Series of Hot Wheels NFT Garage, we will see more collectors start to take notice and we can expect Series 1 to increase in value as it is the rarest of all planned series so far.  

Mattel has added even more intrigue to the NFT Garage Series with the announcement that their would be physical rewards for completing sets.  Members of the Mattel Discord channel voted on the set completion reward and chose the always popular ’83 Chevy Silverado.  Holders of a complete set of any series between Series 1 and Series 5 will receive a token redeemable for what will be one of the rarest ’83 Chevy Silverados ever released by Mattel.  

Here’s my video review of the Series 1 physicals

You can purchase the physicals while they last from Diecast Republic.