It seems like Hot Wheels has been neglecting the modern muscle car market lately in favor of JDM and retro Euro models, and there’s no better example of that than the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. This casting has seen more than a dozen releases, yet we have never seen one with a fully detailed stock look. As a fan of showroom-fresh enthusiast cars, that’s very frustrating.
The closest we’ve come to a clean, stock release is the debut version of this casting, where the Demon was released in a bright yellow color with black wheels and detailed brake lights. For whatever reason, Hot Wheels chose to prioritize detailing of the Demon logo and fuel filler cap over the front grille and headlights. Perhaps there were licensing reasons, or perhaps the Hot Wheels team just thought the model would look too plain without any side detailing, but the bright yellow front end with no detailing always ruined the look of this model for me.
When the Stars & Stripes series came out, I saw an opportunity. This 15th release of the SRT Demon finally has full front and rear detailing, and it absolutely transforms the look of this casting, especially from the front. The black mesh grille now actually looks like a grille, and the headlight air intake stands out far better than it has on any previous mainline version of this casting.
Unfortunately, this casting is also covered in some of the most gaudy graphics I’ve ever seen on a modern Hot Wheels car. Over-the-top graphics like these have plagued many of the new silver-label premium series cars, as it seems Hot Wheels feels compelled to use the extra budget allowed by the $3 price point to cover their castings in as much detailing as they possibly can, even to the detriment of the model. Luckily, a fix is just an Expo marker away!
Ahh, much better! This model finally looks how it always deserved to. The front end really pops with this new detailing, and the giant air intake on the hood stands out much more now that the front end is no longer monochromatic. With its newfound clean silver paint, the Challenger’s distinctive quarter panel kink stands out, as do its massively flared wheel arches.
I was even able to remove the red lip on the wheels, as I thought the red looked a bit odd with the red and blue detailing removed from the car. The now-silver lip on the wheels is a much better fit for the silver paint, while brightening up the dark wheels significantly. While I wasn’t able to preserve the Demon logo on the fender, I was able to keep both the front and rear reflectors, which help the side of this model still look like it received detailing. The front wheels look a little too small, but that’s par for the course with Hot Wheels and their staggered wheel setups.
The back of the Demon received the much-improved brake light detailing from the premium release, though there is some of the expected pixelation in the printing as a result. I think it looks great, and it’s certainly far better than any of the previous mainline releases of this casting. The extra-wide rear tires are visible from the back and look ready to make a pass down the drag strip.
I think this model looks far better with those excess graphics removed, and that highlights the biggest missed opportunity with Hot Wheels’ silver label premium series. So far, nearly every release in the series has been covered in unnecessary, ugly side graphics. One of the only exceptions is the blue Nissan Z from the Japan Streets six pack, which is my favorite version of that casting as a result. If Hot Wheels wants to appeal to collectors, surely they don’t need to cover their models in ugly graphics just to make them look interesting in the blister? I understand why they do that for the mainline models in order to make them appeal to children, but I think the silver-label series should be akin to a “mainline for adults”. Collectors have complained for years about the poor detailing on many mainline models, but that doesn’t mean we just want them plastered in as much printing as possible!
Imagine if this semi-premium series was focused solely on fully detailed, mostly clean deco-ed versions of enthusiast cars. I think they would fly off the shelves! It would be the perfect opportunity to get great versions of castings that are always so frustratingly detailed, like the Ford Focus RS. The debut version was the only clean one, and even that lacked rear detailing. I can’t be the only one who would like to see castings like that in factory paint colors with front and rear detailing.
Personally, I’d like to see a “Modern Muscle” set that included fully detailed, clean deco versions of the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, the Chevy Camaro ZL1, the Mustang Shelby GT500, the Charger SRT Hellcat, and the C7 Corvette. There’s plenty of options for similar themed sets too: Hot Hatches, Italian Icons, German Performance. Let me know what sets you’d like to see in the comments!
diecastleno.com 
Italian Icons 🙂
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