Tag Archives: Grandchildren

Before Hotwheels came to the die cast toy market, Matchbox was the no.1 seller. However, because Matchbox was a company based in the U.K. most of the models were European cars or trucks. Many of these toy cars were imported to the United States and as a result, the founders of Mattel had watched their grandchildren play with small foreign cars. With Mattel being the leading toy company in the United States, they had a huge hit toy for the girls with the Barbie Doll Line but they didn’t have such a hit toy for young boys. From here, it wasn’t too difficult for the founders to become motivated to make a diecast toy car for Mattel to offer and have a hit toy for the boys market in the United States. Naturally, the first die cast cars that Mattel had designed and manufactured where American-made vehicles.