What Is "Real"?

As I stated in an earlier post, I never had any intention of buying every single Hot Wheels car in every single color combination produced, so I decided to focus primarily on "real" cars and concept vehicles. But what is real? One of the first cars I purchased was the Mitsubishi Double Shotz in lime green just because I thought it looked like a car that would kill on the track. It has Mitsubishi attatched to its name, so it has to be real, right? Only after the fact did I discover that the Designers' Challenge contest it won was, in fact, a Hot Wheels contest in which designers from various car companies competed to create a new casting. So does this make the Double Shotz (and other models that debuted as a result of that contest) real just because it was designed by a real car company? Of course Hot Wheels has employed many designers who previously worked for actual car companies too, and some of their original designs borrow heavily from real cars.

For example, I bought a red Scorcher as soon as I read it was based on a Nissan concept car. As near as I can tell, the concept car being referred to was the GT-R R35, a seriously cool vehicle.

Okay, so maybe they made a few alterations. Does that make it any less real? Okay, new rule: Hot Wheels designs inpired by real cars are okay, but ones that are completely made up aren't. This is where it starts to get really confusing.

The Twin Mill is one of Hot Wheels most beloved castings. It's been in production off and on since the beginning and was Hot Wheels first original design. People loved it so much that they eventually made a real one.

Life imitates art. Everything works on it, and I understand it has some wicked track times. Does this make it real? Of course it does. But was it any less real when it was still just a Hot Wheels original design? Hence the reason I finally broke down and purchased a purple Torque Twister.

I liked this casting from the moment I saw it. I could tell it rolled well within the confines of it's clear plastic prison, plus I found its appearance extremely appealing. Yet I kept putting it back because it was neither real nor outrageous enough to warrant purchase. So what is real? The bottom line is that in a world in which truth is often stranger than fiction, it is impossible to say.