Hot Wheels Larry Wood Collection Prototype: Blue Fiero on Test Card
A unique Hot Wheels prototype consisting of two cars (Blue Fiero and Hiway Hauler) on homemade card (here from the box of a fan!) instead of the standard Hot Wheels card. It still displays correctly within the glued bubble. With holographic sticker ‘The Larry R. Wood Collection’.
Accompanied by Certificate of Authenticity #3069 titled “Hot Wheels Blue Fiero Prototype on Sample Card with Hiway Hauler” and signed by Larry Wood.
Larry R. Wood, the most famous Hot Wheels die-cast car designer, also built one of the largest Hot Wheels collections. He graduated as an automotive designer in 1965, joined Mattel’s Hot Wheels design team in 1969, and saw his first design reach the market in 1970. During his fifty-year tenure (1969-2019), he spent nearly two decades as the sole designer of the Hot Wheels line. Over this period, he created hundreds of cars and became the defining creative force behind Mattel’s die-cast brand. Over time, Wood not only designed Hot Wheels but also collected them. He amassed one of the largest Hot Wheels collections in existence, which included standard releases and special edition models along with his unique prototypes that offer insight into the design process. Because he was responsible for designing so many models, his collection functioned as a personal archive of his own work. He kept it in a Long Beach industrial building, with Hot Wheels displayed on the walls and surrounded by his real collection cars, some completed and others still under construction. Wood affectionately called this space ‘Elwood’s Garage’ (a play on ‘L. Wood’). In 2019, the same year he retired from Mattel, Wood’s collection was sold to a consortium of three collector-dealers.
