Another Saturday is upon us and your concept of fun may vary on where you live and what time of year it is. Here in Arizona, temps have began to cool off and a lot of folks around here like to go mudding in desert. So today, I bring to you, the Hot Wheels Bad Mudder from the 1998 First Editions.
The Bad Mudder is one of the few Hot Wheels castings that has only been released once. This 1998 First Edition version was the first and last release. Originally, there was speculation that a group of mothers wrote Mattel about the name “Bad Mudder” which closely sounds like “Bad Mother“. The speculation continued in the form of collectors saying Mattel pulled this casting for the sake of angry mothers. While I don’t doubt that Mattel may have gotten a few letters due to the name, that was not the reason why Hot Wheels discontinued the Bad Mudder casting.
First, lets look at some evidence. One, Hot Wheels could have simply renamed the casting, which they frequently do. Two, in 2008 Hot Wheels released the Bad Mudder 2. There is no way they would have done this if there was so much backlash 10 years earlier.
So why was the Bad Mudder discontinued? It is my understanding that there was a copyright issue over the design of the truck which closely resembles a custom designed truck owned by Robby Gordon’s Race Team. Whether or not this was the exact reason, we may never know. But, we do know this has happened before when Hot Wheels designed cars have been pulled at the request of real car custom designers because they closely resemble a design that had made years earlier. See: Super Smooth.
If you have any thing you would like to add to this, please leave your comments in the section below.
Wheel Close 
