Mattel Launches Hot Wheels Digital Collectibles En Route To World Of NFTs

By Mikelle Leow, 18 Jun 2021

Image via Mattel / Business Wire

Unlike the Hot Wheels you used to collect, these ones can’t zip around tracks. And yet, they’re likely worth more.

Mattel is speeding into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) by auctioning its first digital artworks, modeled after three Hot Wheels cars: the ‘Twin Mill’, ‘Bone Shaker’, and ‘Deora II’.

Sales for the virtual toy cars will start on June 22 via Mattel’s collaboration platform Mattel Creations, with a starting bid of 99 cents per car.

Buyers will pay in Ethereum, in line with Mattel’s aim to reach out to “a new collector customer base who expect cryptocurrency as a purchase option,” the company explained in a press release.

While this could look like just another swing into a trend of NFT collectibles, Mattel president Richard Dickson justified that the company is, instead, “connecting to culture,” which he said is “core to Mattel’s DNA.”

Dickson expressed, “As we continually look to innovate, evolving physical product to digital art through NFTs was an obvious next step for Mattel Creations.”

After the week-long auction, Mattel intends to rope in more products from its brand into the realm of NFTs over the year. Could we be seeing crypto Barbies soon?