Hot Wheels Redline Era Promotions

*posted with permission from the onlineredlineguide

Beginning as early as 1968, Mattel promoted the Hot Wheels brand by partnering with other companies for promotional offerings of Hot Wheels.

1968 Hi C Mail-In Offer

In 1968, Hi C, a sugar laced fruit punch, hosted a mail-in offer for one of four 1968 castings.
The packaging of the car as received is not known.

Label from a Can of Hi-C

1968 Hi-C Promo Mail in Coupon

1969 Duz Soap Promo

The DUZ Soap promo offered a free normal production BP when purchased with a “King Sized” box of soap.

Blisterpack with Duz Sticker

1969 Burry’s Cookie Puzzle Prize Offer

A little known cookie company offered Hot Wheels cars as a prize in a puzzle promotion.
Each box contained a puzzle piece. Collect all three pieces of a puzzle and win the prize shown in the puzzle.
No puzzle pieces are known to have survived.

Burry Cookie Box

Rear of the box

Details of the promotion

1969 Signal Oil Company Promo

The Signal Companies traced their history to the Signal Gasoline company, founded by Samuel B. Mosher in 1922.
It renamed itself to Signal Gas & Oil in 1928 to reflect its expanding businesses; by the 1950s, Signal was
the largest independent oil company on the West Coast of the United States. In 1964, Signal merged with the
Garrett Corporation, an aerospace company, and the combined company adopted “The Signal Companies” as its
corporate name in 1968.

Signal Oil Trifold Promotional Brochure

Dated 1969, this trifold brochure offers Hot Wheels for bargain prices with a ten gallon purchase!

Center Outside Panel

Left Outside Panel

Right Outside Panel

Inside is a Checklist

Many all of the cars shown here appear to be non-production!

1970 Coca Cola Snake and Mongoose Promo

In 1970, Coke sponsored a promo to get the Snake and Mongoose Funny Cars.

Mail in Coupon

Counter Top Sign

Poster Version

1971 Prell Shampoo

Prell Shampoo, a Proctor and Gamble product, featured a custom package that included a normal car.
Complete intact packages are very rare.

Front of the Prell Promo Package

Back of the Prell Promo Package

1971 Gleem Toothpaste

Similar in design to the Prell packaging, the Gleem Toothpaste promo featured a custom package that included a normal car.
Complete intact packages are very rare.

Python on a Gleem Package with no toothpaste

1971 Lux Soap

The Lux Soap promo was only offered in Canada. Once extremely rare, a couple of stashes of the Lux packages
have surfaced over the years. The count is probably still only about 100 known packages.

Print Ad for Lux Soap Promo showing the hanging BP

Lux Soap Promo Hanging blister pack

1971 Dole Pineapple Juice Promo

A mail-in promotion featured on cans of Dole Pineapple Juice .
60 Cents plus four labels for each car!

Dole Pineapple Juice Label

Dole Promo Cars as Received

1971 Eskimo Pie

1970-72 Shell Gas Station Promotions

For several years running, Shell offered regular blister packed Hot Wheels as an incentive to “Fill Up”.
The cars and the BP’s were in no way special but the promotional posters are documentary of the promotion.

Gas Station Poster

Shell also sponsored a “coin game”, where coins were given out with a purchase and prizes were awarded for
certain combinations of coins The coins are quite hard to find.

Shell Coin Game Card

 1973 Shell Promotion

During 1973, the Shell Oil Company continued their tradition of using Hot Wheels as a promotional item.
The 10 castings used in the promo underwent minor changes to reduce the cost of each car.
With some exceptions, each car was made in six colors.

Shell Promo Jet Threat in Baggie

The cars were sold in a small plastic bag, sealed with a stapled header card.

1975 Herfy’s Promotion

In 1975, a restaurant chain in the Pacific northwest, called Herfy’s used Hot Wheels as a promotional item.
Six castings were used in the promotion each in the normal production color with additional tampos.

1975 Herfy’s Promotion

1975 Herfy’s Promotion Cars

1980 Wisconsin Toy Company

In 1975 or so, Mattel contracted with a soap company, believed to be Proctor and Gamble, to provide Hot Wheels for a promotion. Five castings were
selected and the tooling was modified, replacing the metal bases with black plastic, presumably to reduce costs. However, for reasons unknown, the
promotion was cancelled before manufacturing of the cars was completed. The Hong Kong production runs on four of the five castings were fully completed
but the fifth was cut short. Stock of four of the castings went into storage and were subsequently sold to a third party who put them into baggies with
header cards, i.e. “The Wisconsin Toy Company”. The short run fifth casting apparently went to Japan and was included in the Japanese Red Box releases.

Wisconsin Toys

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