How were hot wheels invented?

Answer 1

Hot Wheels cars were produced by Mattel because the owner at the time, Elliott Handler, saw his grandchildren playing with another toy company's toy car. He said, "Why aren't we making toy cars?" He had a meeting with his team and a little while later, Hot Wheels were born.... Handler wanted kids to have toy cars that looked just like the real cars that roamed the streets of Southern California. That's why the early packages said, "Hot Wheels, California Custom Miniatures."

It was a group effort. It was Handler's idea to make a "different" toy car and the R&D Team came up with the design of the mandolin wire axle and Delrin® bearing. Head Engineer Howard Newman took the idea and developed the axle into a torsion bar suspension like real cars and added the use of a very hard plastic material for the wheels called Delrin® in which he could make a low resistance bearing that would fit tightly into the back of the wheel.