#20-11 Bone Shaker

Bone Shaker

The Bone shaker. The latest flagship car for the Hot Wheels brand. Hot Wheels has always embodied and celebrated cool hot rods and custom cars. Flagship car – a car that Mattel / Hot Wheels has actually manufactured into a real-life car that tours to chows and collector events around the United States. In an episode of Jay Leno Garage, a Hot Wheels designer noted that there are 14 such cars. The Bone Shaker is one of those additions. Darth Vader is the latest.

     The Bone Shaker casting has been featured in the Xbox Forza Motorsport video game and is the only car in the id series app to have a different paint job for the app car than the physical casting.  

The Bone Shaker was designed by Larry Wood and was first released in 2006 [1]. Bone shaker is the embodiment of the rat rod styling. A huge skull for a front grill, the skeleton hands holding the headlights in place. No frills interior, just seats and pedals are all you need. There have been a couple different versions of the casting. The main casting has an open roof. There is also a casting with a closed roof. There is a 1:48 scale release. 2018 collectors were treated to a limited run chase version with rubber tires painted like the real-life car and there were only 10000 pieces made, making it extremely rare and expensive when found for sale.

Bone Shaker has been in the main line every year since 2006 and has been featured in most of the Premium line including the 2020 Boulevard set which is a collector favorite (the boulevard sets have premium liveries and real riders with special wheels). There is also a special Batman 5 pack release that has not appeared anywhere else, the Joker Bone Shaker with purple paint and green wheels. Bone Shaker is a simple casting with not too much detail, but it doesn’t need a lot of detail, it is a true rat rod and that is how rat rods are meant to be. Bad to the Bone!!!

The real car is an exact replica (not sure which came first) of the 1:64 version. If you are curious about the specs and more images, check out this short article for more information:

https://hotwheels.mattel.com/explore/HW_50th/en/2011-bone-shaker

(photo courtesy of Google - labeled for reuse)

Take note that the real car is the open top version! There is no doubt that the Bone Shaker, weather in real life or on the pegs, will be sure to entertain and amuse all ages of Hot Wheels fans for many years to come.

Happy Peg Hunting,

Collector Quentin

       

I own the actual diecast pictured in this blog post. However, all Hot Wheels packaging artwork, Mattel logos, Hot Wheels logos, wheel types and paint descriptions in regard to the Hot Wheels versions are copyrights of the Mattel toy company.

[1] Casting information gathered from:

https://hotwheels.fandom.com/wiki/Bone_Shaker   

#20-09 Rescue Ranger

Rescue Ranger

I am going to put a date to myself here, but I also don’t care really. Too late for irrelevant things like that. We have a very important casting to look at for this post. The Rescue Ranger is modeled after a Chevrolet cab fire truck of the late 70s / early 80s era. It has the same front grill as the Chevy Van casting. There have been a couple different names for this casting, Recsue Ranger being the original, Emergency Squad and Ranger Rig have also been printed on releases of this casting.

The Casting

I remember as a young boy, getting absolutely hooked on a drama TV show called Emergency. It was a product of the early 70s. The station that the fire truck was housed in was station 51. I honestly don’t know if there was a connection to the Hot Wheels designer and the TV show but almost every fire related version of the Rescue Ranger that I have ever been able to look at has a number 51 on it. It was also named Rescue Ranger and Emergency Squad as previously noted. Other style releases have varied numbers, but the fire truck versions are all labeled station 51! It is a very integral part of the Hot Wheels city line up and has been around since its first release in 1985 [1]. Rescue Ranger and its surnames have been featured in the line up 45 times and continues to be in the line up into 2019! With all the new castings and version of fire trucks in the Hot Wheels line, this one in particular has stood up too many that have fallen to the wayside.

I have several of the releases in my collection, I tend to lean to the Fire Truck versions more, guess subliminal nostalgia kicking in. The rescue ranger has been featured as a HW City bomb squad, HW City Forestry Service, HW City Biohazard and HW City First Responder. There is only one Hot Wheels City or Metro casting that has been featured this many times and with this versatility while maintaining a sense of realism (teaser to a future post).

The older castings have a metal body and base, some of the newer releases have plastic body and plastic base. The all metal versions are great on the orange track, but the weight slows them down on uphill climbs. The details are all there, oxygen tanks molded in plastic, light bar, hose reel and sirens all clearly cast. Rescue Ranger is typically released with the basic 5spk wheels and they look great on this casting. The early basic blackwall versions really look great too. There was a release in the real rider series in 1986 (see pics) and the white real riders are the collector’s premium find. The casting has not been featured in the treasure hunt series yet but maybe sometime soon it will make the cut.

And that is it for the review of the Rescue Ranger. The current 2019 release is a Biohazard version in White plastic. Happy peg hunting and collecting. As always, drop a comment below and if you have any pictures from your own Rescue Ranger collection, leave them in the comments below.

  

Thank you,

Collector Quentin

I own the actual diecast pictured in these posts. However, all packaging artwork, Mattel or Hot Wheels logos, paint descriptions and wheel descriptions in regard to the Hot Wheels versions are copyrights of the Mattel toy company.

Hot Wheels Fandom pages is a community of Hot Wheels enthusiasts that are trying to put together, the largest complete database of Hot Wheels castings and information. Check it out at:

[1] https://hotwheels.fandom.com/wiki/Rescue_Ranger