| 01.02.2014 – The Volkswagen is an iconic car that was originally built Ferdinand Porsche as the “People’s Car.” The well loved air cooled machine is also known in the popular culture in movies, and whenever a classic VW Bug comes along a name Herbie pops up!
Herbie is a star on its own that has five films since “The Love Bug” in 1968. Several diecast cars base from the popular pearl white VW Beetle that has red & blue stripes. For the 2014 Hot Wheels they released a new version of famed VW Bug… (Please CLICK on the title for the full article) |
Hot Wheels has previously produced various iterations of Herbie, The Love Bug car and continues to add one more to the list. The 2014 release includes Herbie as part of the HW Workshops with under the sub line “HW All Stars” that also include other vehicles known in the popular culture of TV, movies, and comic books.
This version of Herbie is based on the casting on a 1953-1957 VW Bug that was first released by Hot Wheels in 1989 which was designed by Larry Wood. But this is not the first VW Beetle that Hot Wheels had released.
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The original bug that was released only in 1968 is more customized in appearance not based on the Herbie VW Bug. There’s another version that is based from the one used in the films released in 1974 and this version was retired in 1980. This version now is known as the “Volkswagen Beetle” under its metal chassis, and has been the VW Bug since 1989 with more sporty appearance. It has larger tires in the rear that makes this VW not your average car from the 1960s.
There are several color and paint style variation of this Volkswagen Beetle which was first introduced in 1989. But the recent variation in Herbie colors has renewed interest in the famed Love Bug.
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Featured artwork on the card doesn’t look like the one packaged but you’ll never miss this car on the racks. The 2014 Hot Wheels releases will have the same card with categorized sub sets and Herbie is part of the HW Workshop numbered 191 or 250 under the HW All Stars.
Herbie is not perfect once you free this VW Bug from its bubble packaging as you’ll notice immediately the paint smudges of in some areas of the car. Most of them are from the red & blue racing stripes.
The white rims match the pearl white body that has been iconic about Herbie. This includes his signature number “53” that has a story of its own. His racing number was inspired from Los Angeles Dodgers baseball player named Don Drysdale retired by the team in 1984. The red, white and blue theme symbols of patriotic American flag colors.
Besides “The Love Bug” the film has four theatrical sequels followed: Herbie Rides Again, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, Herbie Goes Bananas, and Herbie: Fully Loaded.
The original film doesn’t show the “VW” logo and other marking of the car manufacturer as Volkswagen did not allow Walt Disney to use the name. But following with the other sequels they have included the logos as during the early 1970s as sales of the Beetle where down just to promote the brand and the car.
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Herbie has definitely have a long history from how this was chosen as the character in “The Love Bug” as an anthropomorphic pearl-white, fabric-sunroofed 1963 Volkswagen racing Beetle.
The diecast car by Hot Wheels has its own history and putting this together makes it one of the sought after collectibles in the 2014 HW series.
The Volkswagen Beetle aka Herbie, The Love Bug is part of the HW All Stars sub line of diecast cars for HW Workshop series under the main Hot Wheels 2014. This was acquired at Big W in Adelaide, South Australia for $2.20 AU dollars.
Hot Wheels is distributed in the Philippines by Rich Prime and retailed for PhP 99.75 pesos. For more about their Hot Wheels products LIKE Richwell Club on Facebook!
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