Well, by now, all the hoopla has settled down and everyone's gotten a chance to look over the Hot Wheels lists for 2003. after as graceless release as I've ever seen, we finally have the names and a lot of the pictures of the '03 line. As for the release of the list itself, well they say if three people know a secret it is no longer a secret. But if you tell it to 10,000 people at once, the odds of that secret remaining secure are as likely as Yasser Arafat being invited to a Bar Mitzvah. And sure, the Red Line Club has the right to enforce its rules, but was all the bad press worth trying to keep under wraps information that was due to be public knowledge in a few days anyway?

So we have the lists, and right off the top I disregard the treasure Hunts and the series cars, neither of which interest me. My focus is entirely on the First Editions, and the first thing I notice is that over half are models of, or based on real vehicles. Obviously, a lot of licensing fees went out the door this year. There is a strong contingent of exotics, reflecting the goodly number of super cars that have been introduced in the past couple of years. I won a bet with myself that both the Lambo Murcielago and the Enzo Ferrari would make the list, but the Cadillac Cien was a happy surprise. The Caddy V12 show car will never see production, but at least it will be immortalized in 1:64 scale. I can hear the complaints now about yet another red Ferrari and another silver Cadillac, and I fear that all the exotics will suffer from too much plastic, but these should be clean simple models, and as First Editions, spared the over-enthusiastic tampo machine. The Bugatti Veyron is another good surprise and will make an excellent Then and Now display with the classic Typo 57C Atlantic. The Chaparral 2D appears to be the sole race car this year, and the Meyers Manx Dune buggy should thrill the Veedub fanatics. I expect both the Tiburon and the Eclipse to be Tunered up, and of course we have the now ubiquitous Cadillac Escalade. There will be five different companies making an Escalade next year with more looking to get in on the fad, making this SUV the Gangsta version of the 57 Chevy, or something like that.

The domestic market also appears to be well represented and many have already found the '65 Bonneville and the Stingray. Indeed the Stingray Concept is the only '03 I've found so far and i was pleased to see the metal base on it. This car could easily have fit in with the Redlines of 1968. The Vairy 8 and the 8 Crate are good looking customized models of heretofore neglected vehicles. I also see a lot of Muscle Car names in the list, and at first glance that seems good. But since some of the names suggest duplication in the line, i.e. the 68 Mustang, you have to see the pictures to figure out what is going on. And while the only pics available are the designers drawings, what we seem to have here is a blatant attempt to cadge onto the Muscle Machine concept and style. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I thought Hot Wheels were supposed to be "Leading the Way", not following after everyone else. Perhaps the actual castings will tone down the exaggerated lines so that the cars resemble more the old Spoilers than like somebody else's product. I also figure this means that Muscle machines are on a downward trend. Once a fad gets taken over by the mainstream, its days are usually numbered.

Among the fantasy models I have yet to see anything that would make me flinch and turn away, as I recently did from the Eye Cancer. However, I haven't seen all the pictures yet and there is usually at least one model each year that never makes it onto my wall. The Quarter Mile Coupe satisfies the need for at least one new hot rod in the line, and the Wild Thing has the same art deco extravagance of the Phantastique. The Da'Kar is, as I suspected a custom designed for running the Trans-Sahara Dakar Rally. The Fish N Chipped looks as close as we're gonna get to an early sixties Daimler coupe. The other fantasy casts I will have to see before I make a final decision up and down. And what the heck is a Sinestra?

Over all, after examining the list and the available pictures, I would say the line for '03 looks strong. Keep in mind, though, that what eventually comes out might not resemble the picture. We still mourn the Cabbin Fever that might have been. I'm sure that as the individual cars come out, we will have the usual carping about plastic content and unseemly tampos, and thoroughly wrong-headed wheel choices. But you got to admit, when you get right down to it, what we get is pretty good for a 99 cent toy.

Contact the Gent directly at ramckee@mindspring.com