Today we look at the Hot Wheels Deora II and go back to the first year of the Red Line Club over at HotWheelsCollectors.com (HWC.com). HWC.com was launched on July 29, 2001 by Mattel/Hot Wheels as a place to have collectors share everything Hot Wheels and as a place to sell limited edition Hot Wheels directly to the collector. Creating a membership known as the “Red Line Club” in 2002, Hot Wheels gave collectors that were part of the Red Line Club priority in buying limited edition HWC.com Series vehicles. The 2002 Series was known as Series 1.
The first Series 1 online sale occurred on April 11, 2002. Through a bevy of server crashes, the Volkswagen Drag Bus offered that day sold 10,000 units in about an hour and a half. Five sales later, on June 25, 2002, the Deora II shown above was sold. A new spectraflame process was in development so the Deora II received a Yellow/Chrome VUM applied to its metal body.
For insight on the VUM process, please see the Toy Fair ’96 article featuring the Power Pistons.
In addition to this new high-end spectraflame paint being developed, a “neo-classic” red line wheel was being developed for the Red Line Club. Ultimately, it wasn’t until September 4, 2002 when the first car featuring neo-classic red line wheels was sold. So with the absence of this new wheel, all Red Line Club releases featured Real-Rider Tires–tires made of a synthetic plastic that have a rubbery look and feel. Until the Deora II was released, all preceding releases had Deep-Dish Real Riders with a red stripe (no, not the beer). So it was very strange when the Deora II was released with Yellow-Line Real Riders. The explanation that was given at the time was that it was done so the yellow stripe on the tires could match the body.
HWC DAVE, an administrator at HWC.com at the time, jokingly created artwork with the name of the Red Line Club changed to the Yellow Line Club. He tried to garner support for this release as it was his name that was literally on it. If you read the license plate on this Deora II, you’ll see that it says “HWC DAVE” on it. While HWC DAVE is lone gone from HWC.com, we salute you in your 1-car, Yellow Line Club.
Wheel Close 
