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Vintage 1984 Hot Wheels cars, loosely resembling the Buick Regal, were created that did more than just sit there looking pretty.
These cars had special front ends on them, that when banged into, flipped over to reveal a smashed front end!
Then you’d rotate the crash panel to repair it back to normal.
There were several other cars (model brands) made in this series, but in particular, 4 Buick Regals were produced:
2 white colored cars:
White Knocker Stocker (ZAP! on the side),
White Hot Wheels (official test vehicle) [not shown here],
a maroon version (TURBO on the side),
and a red one (Z50 Buick Stocker).
Note that the front ends on the cars in their (not smashed) state didn’t really look like a normal front end to begin with (no headlights, and the grille area was more like just 2 big bumper pads).
But that’s how they got the mechanism to be able to flip to the crashed side.
The cars all had blackwall tires with semi-chrome wheels (albeit a solid flat rim – no holes in them).
The slogan on the colorful card backing stated:
“Crash ’em! Fix ’em! Bash ’em again!”
(we actually remember the TV commercial for these, from back in the day!)
Rare to find one on an original card (we saw one for sale for $80), but more available as single loose versions (for about $20!).
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