Wednesday, November 20, 2013

HOT WHEELS 1/64 2013 KNIGHT RIDER "K.A.R.R."



There's been plenty of versions of K.I.T.T. released by various toy manufacturers over the years in 1/64 scale but this is the first time to my knowledge K.A.A.R has hit the pegs. It's a pretty good likeness to its reborn self in the 1984 episode after it was brought back to the series by fan demand and mysteriously didn't meet its end when it drove off a cliff two years earlier and forced a young couple who found him to give him a car version of cosmetic surgery. Sure it still has the red laser thing in the dash from the first season, and admittedly I also would have preferred the amber coloured scanner, but who's to say when in the episode of its comeback the car is from. I don't remember that episode in great detail anymore but maybe the paintjob changed before the new amber scanner was installed. If it really bothers you, you can always go down the local toyshop and buy the correct colour model paint jar and fix it. Still I think it's great to see a car to display alongside or driving headfirst into each other with K.I.T.T. K.I.T.T. was released in 2012 the year before K.A.R.R in the Hot Wheels Retro Entertainment Collection with the same blister card if you wanted a version with the same packaging as this one to display together.

The Retro series packaging is slightly bigger than your mass produced Hot Wheels range but the cars all the same size (1/64 scale). It is better in that it can be displayed sitting flat on shelf and doesn't tilt forward at a severe angle like your mass produced ones do if you aren't leaning them against a wall or something. Disappointingly unlike a lot of other die-cast car manufacturer's premium priced vehicles (these are about 5 times the price of your budget Hot Wheels line on the pegs in physical stores) you cannot see the car through the back of the pack and the cardboard is not covered in plastic meaning it is more susceptible to getting bent or if it gets wet is not protected. For the price of these I would have really have liked to see the better blister pack technology used.-- James N Sympson  Shop here

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