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Your favorite Nintendo character is now a Hot Wheels car

Some work better than others

Nintendo Hot Wheels toy cars Nintendo/Mattel
Samit Sarkar (he/him) is Polygon’s deputy managing editor. He has more than 15 years of experience covering video games, movies, television, and technology.

Nintendo has teamed up with Mattel, the maker of Hot Wheels, to turn six beloved Nintendo characters into Hot Wheels cars — with varying results.

We would say the vehicles are based on the characters in question, but that’s not entirely accurate. As you can see in the gallery below, the designers at Hot Wheels literally modeled the toys after the faces and bodies of the characters, using the color schemes of their respective outfits. The six characters are Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Yoshi and Toad.

In some cases, the final product is borderline inspired — consider Bowser’s shock of red hair, which appears as engine vents sticking out of the hood of a burly Hummer-esque vehicle. In others, such as the Mario and Luigi toys, the black front grille looks more like a toothless gaping mouth than something meant to represent a mustache. That’s not to mention each of those cars’ rounded hoods, which make it seem like Mario’s and Luigi’s faces have melted into amorphous blobs around what used to be their mouths.

The toys are now on their way to stores, according to Mattel.

Update: Each car costs $3.99 at retail, a Mattel representative told Polygon.


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