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Palm Size Movie Cars: Hero Cars from Hotwheels and Chase Cars from Greenlight

With the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) extended until the 15th of May, it’ll be some time before we can all go out, enjoy each other’s company, and watch a movie together. It’ll be a while before we will be allowed to gather as a crowd in a cinema or a concert. In the mean time, we can surf Netflix or, if you’re old school like us, dig into our collection of DVDs and re-watch our favorite movies. Please allow us to show you some of our favorite movie cars in palm-sized miniatures.

Back to the Future (1985)

Lead character Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) meets his friend, scientist Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown (Christopher Lloyd), late at night at a deserted shopping mall where Doc reveals a time machine that he made from a modified DeLorean DMC-12. The vehicle’s time displacement is powered by plutonium, which supplies 1.21 gigawatts of energy to a device he calls the “flux capacitor.” Doc explains that the car travels to a programmed date upon reaching 88 miles per hour, using the date November 5, 1955, as an example destination. Marty inadvertently went back to 1955 and that’s how the adventure, and the movie franchise, started.

This scene from the movie made legions of fans for the DeLorean and a number of the actual cars were converted as a replica of the time machine. For about P100, you can have your own time machine, a 1:64 Hotwheels version, that you can just park it on the shelf, no need to acquire radioactive plutonium. This miniature version may be able to take you “back in time” especially when you look at it closely while listening to Huey Lewis and the News belt out songs from this era.

Bullitt (1968)

Police detective Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is one tough cookie. He tools around in a Highland Green 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390. A car chase ensues on the hilly streets of San Francisco between Bullitt’s Mustang and the bad guys’ black 1968 Dodge Charger. The iconic car chase scene becomes movie legend with Steve McQueen actually driving the Mustang at break-neck speeds.

Of course, in the end, the good guy wins. McQueen becomes “cool”, the green Mustang becomes highly collectible, and the Charger, well… becomes collectible much later. If you have the resources, you can find a 1967 to 1968 Mustang GT fastback, paint it green, add 5-spoke Torque Thrust wheels, modify the front grill a bit, and uncork the exhaust so you can experience what McQueen did while filming the car chase scenes in 1968.

If you love Mopars and the 1968-70 Charger tickles your fancy, but you don’t want a General Lee, then you can make a copy of the bad black Charger chasing Bullitt’s Mustang. Or, for the fraction of the price of getting an actual Mustang and Charger, you can actually get both cars as Greenlight miniatures and have fun re-imagining the iconic car chase from the comfort of your armchair. Vvrroomm…

Christine (1983)

This Stephen King supernatural horror story that became a cult film by John Carpenter centers on a red-and-white 1958 Plymouth Fury that is “ba-ba-ba bad to the bone”. While on the assembly line in the Chrysler factory in the late ‘50s, the car killed a line worker who soiled its interior with the ashes of his cigar, and cut the hand of another worker just because he was touching her the wrong way. In 1978, it becomes the first car of teenager Arnold “Arnie” Cunningham (Keith Gordon), who then drastically changes his personality as his relationship with the ’58 Fury deepens. It killed the gang of thugs who bullied Arnie, but then it also tried to kill his best friend and his girlfriend. In the end, Christine (the car) gets crushed but there’s the hint that she might come back.

Well, she did come back – in miniature form – and from Hotwheels, nonetheless. We scored ours from Toy’s ‘R Us and we never looked back. It’s not inexpensive and it’s a nicely-done scale model. We take extra care of our little Christine because we don’t want to suffer the same fate as those who mishandled her 1:1 self during assembly at the factory. For those who’ve been bullying us, beware! Our little Christine will come and get you!

Top Gun (1985)

In this top-grossing all-time box-office-great, Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise), a fighter pilot, was riding a black 1985 Kawasaki Ninja 900 and his love interest, Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood (Kelly McGillis) was driving a black 1957 Porsche Speedster, albeit an Intermecanicca fiberglass replica. There was a scene where she, in her Speedster, was chasing him, on his Ninja, to explain why she did what she did during the pilot’s training class. Of course, the car and motorcycle chase scene was brief to make way for the longer and more anticipated OSS – obligatory sex scene.

Thirty-five years after the movie was made, Kelly McGillis has aged as everyone else, except for Tom Cruise (some people think he’s a vampire), who’s reviving his “Maverick” character for the movie’s long overdue sequel, and the black Porsche, which has now become a highly sought-after collectible car. Nowadays, you need to make what a superstar like Tom Cruise makes to afford an actual and authentic Porsche Speedster. However, for a much, much more affordable price, you can get a Greenlight “Black Series” Porsche Speedster that looks like the one that Charlie drove to chase Maverick to bed, err… to enlighten him. Our Speedster has just the driver’s side mirror and the “overrider” chrome bumpers instead of the two side mirrors and simple bumper guards in Charlie’s movie car. But that’s okay – a Speedster is nice to have in any scale.

So, there you have it – some of our favorite movie cars that can fit in the palm of your hand. There are larger versions of these movie cars in 1:18 or 1:24 scale but unfortunately, we don’t have those in our collection because we don’t earn as much as movie stars, or even earn as much as the movie extras and bit actors, come to think of it. At least, we’re happy with our palm-sized movie cars because, ahem, they’re already paid for and they’re ours! Now, enough small car talk (pardon the pun) and let’s watch the movies again, shall we? Pass the popcorn, please…

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