When the Toyota Supra launched last year as the first of a series of 7-Eleven exclusive Hot Wheels models, it felt tailor-made for the internet hype machine. It was a very cool deco on a very beloved casting, which left me with the feeling that Hot Wheels knew they had to bring their A-game if they were going to sell a silver series model for $5.99 as a store exclusive. I liked it, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the future 7-Eleven collabs would fall short. What a joy it is to be proven wrong, as this AriZona-themed Mazda Miata is even cooler than that Supra!
I know collectors have a lot of feelings about this Miata casting. You can feel however you want about it, but as someone who remembers the terrible old NA Miata casting that this one replaced, I’ve always been happy with it. With the loose scaling rules of the Hot Wheels lineup, it can be tricky to make a car feel appropriately sized, and I’ve always thought that this Miata does a good job of feeling small. Plus, it’s modified in a way that fits modern enthusiast sensibilities, with a tow-hook mounted front license plate, a rollbar for track days, and a little lip spoiler on the trunk. Perhaps its biggest shortcoming is the windshield, which looks a bit odd without any detailing on the window frame.
Of course, the casting is only a small part of the story here. What really sets this model apart is the AriZona Green Tea deco, which has to be one of the coolest branded liveries we’ve ever seen from Hot Wheels! One of the best things about the NA Miata is its cheap price, which often frees their enthusiast owners to be more daring in the way they modify their cars. This metallic seafoam green with pink racing stripes feels simultaneously outlandish and realistic, as I could totally envision a Miata like this showing up at a local car meet. The AriZona brand feels like a perfect match, as it’s cool and hip enough that someone might actually theme their car around it. In fact, I’ve seen a modified 350Z with a similar AriZona wrap on Instagram before. The cherry blossom motif is also a perfect match for a Japanese car like the Miata.
It’s not just the great theming that makes this car stand out, though. The execution of the livery is surprisingly fantastic. At the front, the Miata’s hood is covered in an AriZona logo with a cherry blossom, those pink racing stripes, and even detailing for the lights! It also features a “GRNTEA” custom front plate, which is fantastic attention to detail. It’s also worth noting that the detailing features less of the dot-matrix effect we’ve come to expect on premium Hot Wheels models, though it is still present.
The side is probably this Miata’s best angle, with more cherry blossoms and another AriZona logo, along with a pink Hot Wheels logo on the fender! The front side marker lights and brake lights wrap nicely around onto the side of the model, Matchbox-style. Even these wheels are among the better wheels available to the silver series!
Around back, the Miata has detailed brake lights and badges, along with more pink cherry blossoms. Curiously, the rear license plate is not a custom plate like the front one, which seems like a very odd decision. It would have looked much better to have both plates match, but I’ll still take this black “Hot Wheels” plate over having no detailing at all.
Even the trunk lid is printed, which helps tie the whole model together.
It would have been nice to see printing for the windshield frame like the premium version of this casting got, but that’s probably unrealistic for the silver series considering the amount of printing on the rest of the model.
Perhaps the one place where this Miata falls a bit short of its Supra predecessor is the card art. It’s not bad, but it feels a tad basic, especially compared to the epic 7-Eleven parking lot scene on the Supra.
Yet even with all the Miata’s greatness, perhaps the biggest improvement over the Supra was in its distribution. Despite theoretically being a 7-Eleven model, you don’t actually have to go to a gas station to get one of these Miatas. It’s available on the AriZona website, and it’s also been included in large numbers in the Legends Tour shippers in Walmart stores. Ironically, that made this Miata one of the easiest to find Hot Wheels models in recent memory, and I think that’s a good thing! Even though this Miata is a hype-worthy model, that distribution should ensure that it doesn’t get scalped too much or attract crazy second-hand markups. The purchase price on my model at Walmart was $3.28, a far more reasonable price for a Silver Series model than the $5.99 that 7-Eleven charged for the Supra.
I’m not sure if this AriZona car is a one-off, or if it’s an indication of what’s to come from the Hot Wheels Silver Series. We’ve already seen that the next 7-Eleven model is an R35 GT-R that looks…rough. Hopefully that model doesn’t warm the pegs too much, because I want to see pop culture collaborations like this Miata continue. I think there would be plenty of potential for Hot Wheels to collaborate with brands like Monster or Mountain Dew. Time will tell, but I hope the excitement around this AriZona Miata inspires the Hot Wheels team to bring us more exciting licensed models!
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