Joy Ranting by hokuan

Many years has passed and the number of Malaysian Hot Wheels collectors has increased, which should be a good news - the more the merrier. But things are not that merry given the current market status of Hot Wheels here.Price increases every year, and many old timers are quitting due to nostalgic reason, they missed the old price. We're treated more like a child rather than a serious collector. We adults like rubber wheels, but we can hardly get any of that series here, for example the Larry's Garage.
But hey, Mattel is a big company, they must have their reasons of doing so. They brought in Ferrari Racer, which at some points are selling well, but most of the time left hanging there. They've brought in CARS, but not selling like hot cakes. Speed racer? That's not worth to be mentioned. And recently we have the Speed Machine, and yes, this is really nice and selling well here :) So Mattel, why speed machine could sell well, but the others failed? Lets first look at the price.

Ferrari Racer - RM9.90-RM14.90
CARS - RM Not-worth-buying
Speed Machine - RM WTF
Speed Machine - RM14.90
Ferrari 1/43 - RM40

Does price really affect the market? At certain point, it will. But it depends on what you are buying. Malaysians are smart shopper, they know what they should be paying for. We won't pay a chicken for a price of a cow.

What if the rubber series we're brought in here? How will the price be? Given the fact that our cars here are much more expensive compared to oversea, ironically, so lets assume:

Ultra Hots - RM34.90
Larry's - RM29.90
Phil's - RM29.90
Classic(non-rubber) - RM 19.90
G-machine - RM34.90

IF Mattel are going to sell them here, my guess is the price should look like the one above. Will it sell like hot cakes? I guess not.
So what can Mattel do if they want to sell it here(day-dreaming)? Easy, Mattel has the brand power compared to other diecast company, for some reasons we like Hot Wheels more than Maisto or Jada, so if Maisto is selling real-riders for RM19.90-RM29.90, and Jada selling for RM24.90 - RM29.90, the price range of Hot Wheels should be around that range.

That's all from me, thanks for reading!