Hot Wheels has become a go-to toy car brand for over 50 years, but this month its miniature rides are getting a digital makeover.
The company announced Hot Wheels id last week, ushering in a physical and digital presence for the cars. The cars themselves are embedded with wireless technology that houses the toy's performance stats. These are important for the Race Portal, which through an app, scans the Hot Wheels cars into the digital world, tracks speed, and counts laps. There's also a new id Smart Track Kit. It's just like the bright orange tracks we all remember so well, but this one includes a new design and adds a vehicle distance tracker to the number of connected stats fed to the Race Portal.
Hot Wheels id diecast toy car
Hot Wheels also said the Smart Track includes the fastest booster it's ever developed for a track kit. Of course, there are plenty of jumps and opportunities to crash the cars as well.
Within the app, there are tons of other ways to play with the physical cars. Aside from tracking milestones and performance, fans can level their cars up, compete with them online, and take part of hundreds of different challenges. Truly, it's the digital and physical worlds colliding for the toy-car brand.
Hot Wheels id Smart Track
The first set of Hot Wheels id diecast cars cost $6.99 each, while the Race Portal to take advantage of the app and all of its features is an additional $39.99. The Race Portal also comes with two exclusive Hot Wheels id cars. The Smart Track kit includes the Race Portal and two exclusive cars for $179.99. The app, meanwhile, is totally free to use. Do note, it's only available for the Apple App Store and not for Android devices.
We have a good feeling this will on the top of every young car fan's holiday wishlist this year—maybe even ours, too.