Mattel’s boy toy favorite, Hot Wheels, is celebrating 35 year of miniature car fun with the launch of a new product line to include CG animated home videos, comic books, video games and online content.
Rock group Smash Mouth was on hand this morning to help Hot Wheels Sr. VP Jim Wagner kick off the promotion at the International Toy Center in New York. The event featured a preview of 2003 offerings, which also include Hot Wheels Highway 35 World Race vehicles.
To tie the whole marketing initiative together, New York-based production studio Starlight Runner has created a cross-media storyline featuring characters and an epic race conceived by franchise producer Jeff Gomez. The story will culminate in a five-episode, computer-animated Hot Wheels World Race video series to hit retail in March of this year.
Mainframe Ent. will provide the digital animation for producer Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner. Gomez, who was involved in the development of Acclaim’s popular Turok, Dinosaur Hunter video game franchise, also scripted the series’ second episode with X-Men comic book scribe Fabian Nicieza.
It was recently announced that Mattel has also licensed the brand to Hollywood for a live-action Hot Wheels motion picture with CG effects work.
