Hot Wheels Roll into Town: Pop Culture History for May 18

While anyone can enjoy playing with and collecting Hot Wheels cars, Mattel initially designed them for boys in hopes of mimicking the popularity of their hit doll, Barbie.

May 18th is also significant in pop culture history because it marks the opening of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Mount St. Helens losing her cool and the first spit-take on TV.

1968: Hot Wheels: The Car Show That Never Ends

Elliott Handler was the co-founder of Mattel, a toy company he started with his wife, Ruth. Her claim to fame was creating Barbie. Elliott wanted to create something just as iconic for boys. He was inspired by his son who enjoyed playing with Matchbox cars. Handler went a different direction with Hot Wheels. He worked with a GM car designer and a real rocket scientist!

It was on this day in 1968 that Custom Camaro hit store shelves which was quickly followed by 15 other cars. Together, the grouping was named the “Original Sweet 16.” Each all-metal die-cast car came with its own collector button.

Hot Wheels distinguished itself apart from Matchbox in another way, Mattel offered a racing track (sold separately) that included the iconic plastic orange tracks and the burgundy-colored connectors. From there, the set got bigger and more elaborate and eventually got rid of their competition. In 1997, Mattel purchased Matchbox.

Since 1968, over 25,000 different Hot Wheels car designs have been made. It is estimated that 500 million Hot Wheels cars are sold each year. Fun fact – that comes to about 16.5 cars sold every second. From my research, the only car based on Barbie was the pink 1956 Corvette which was featured in the 2023 Barbie movie. And incidentally, a Hot Wheels movie is currently in development at Warner Bros. No word on when they plan to release the movie.

1953: The First Spit-Take on TV

The very first recorded spit-take occurred during the 1906 silent movie, Dream of a Rare-bit “performed” by Jack Brawn.

When it comes to TV, Danny Thomas is usually the one people credit for doing the first spit-take during The Danny Thomas Show. However, it was Desi Arnaz who did it first on I Love Lucy during the episode, “The Ricardos Change Apartments.” In the episode, Ricky Ricardo translates what Lucy is saying to his Cuban friends, but he accidentally repeats it English before laughing.

1980: Mountain Blows Her Top

Mount St. Helens blowing her top — *(Pixabay)*

Washington’s, Mount St. Helens lost her cool. The eruption caused. 57 people died and the event caused $3 billion in damages. The U.S. Geological Survey says it continues to be a “very high threat”.