The Toy Fair is held once a year in New York and is only open to people in the toy industry. Every year, since 1992, Mattel has brought with them an exclusive Hot Wheels vehicle. In 1996, the Hot Wheels brand was represented with the Power Pistons. A new model in 1995, the Power Pistons is what is considered a “track set car” as it was designed specifically for use on Hot Wheels track sets. Its safe to say that the Power Pistons shown above has not seen many Double Loop Launch and Criss-Cross-Crash track sets.
Toy Fair vehicles are about as limited as they come and can be highly sought after by collectors since they aren’t sold to the general public. These vehicles showcase upcoming Hot Wheels lines, products and design techniques. This new, at the time, casting was most likely picked to promote the track-ready vehicles released in 1995. In addition to the Power Pistons, the Power Rocket and Power Pipes were also released in the 1995 Model Series. This vehicle also features graphics similar to the Race Team Series cars.
Since the body of the Power Pistons is plastic (the base is metal), that is not Spectraflame Blue paint you see, its a Blue Chrome VUM. VUM is a process in which a colorized chrome surface is applied to Hot Wheels vehicles. This can be applied to both plastic and metal bodies. This Blue Chrome VUM coupled with white sides, and “TOY FAIR” in the Hot Wheels flame logo, make this one sharp car! Go ahead, scroll up and take another glance!
The Power Pistons has been released over 20 times since 1995 and has been included in a fair amount of track sets over that span. Some of these track set versions are very hard to track down as not many were made and most ended up being played with by kids. If you get a chance, break out the orange track and let this baby rip…if you don’t have track readily available, check out the Power Pistons in action in this video on YouTube: MOTHER OF ALL HOT WHEELS TRACKS.
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