Hot Wheels cars have rolled at 1:64 scale for nearly 60 years, and every one of them showed up already built. Mattel is changing that with the Brick Shop Racer Series, buildable cars that snap together from resin bricks at the exact size of a die-cast Hot Wheels car.
Six cars open the series at $4.99 each, with sales starting in January 2027. Every pack hides one car, so which model you get stays a surprise until the box opens.
Price: $4.99 each
Where to buy: Mattel
On sale: January 2027
The first wave, at $4.99 each:
- 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, 29 pieces
- 2018 Audi TT RS, 29 pieces
- Maserati MCPura, 27 pieces
- 1991 Acura NSX, 29 pieces
- 1999 Honda S2000, 29 pieces
- Hot Wheels Bone Shaker, 28 pieces
Six cars, three corners of car culture
Two picks chase modern speed: the Camaro ZL1 and the Maserati MCPura, the newest car in the wave. The Audi TT RS covers the German corner in the bright green every toy shelf needs. Honda fans get the two deepest cuts, a first-generation NSX and an S2000, both from the years that made Japanese sports cars collectible.
Bone Shaker closes the list. It’s an original Hot Wheels design rather than a licensed car, a blown hot rod with a skull grille that has been a die-cast staple for two decades. In brick form it might be the strangest of the six, and probably the first one collectors hunt.
| Model | Pieces | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 | 29 | $4.99 |
| 2018 Audi TT RS | 29 | $4.99 |
| Maserati MCPura | 27 | $4.99 |
| 1991 Acura NSX | 29 | $4.99 |
| 1999 Honda S2000 | 29 | $4.99 |
| Hot Wheels Bone Shaker | 28 | $4.99 |
Scale is the trick. A finished car runs about three inches long, the same footprint as its die-cast twin, so built cars park in the same display cases and roll down the same orange track as the rest of a Hot Wheels collection. Nothing else in Brick Shop does that. The bigger sets are shelf models; these are toys first and models second, which is exactly the slot die-cast cars have owned for decades.
A metal base plate under every car
Small builds usually mean flimsy builds, so Mattel put metal where it counts. Each car rides on a metal base plate with functional metal axles and rolling wheels, finished with rubber-like tires. Custom molded pieces carry each car’s silhouette, so an NSX reads as an NSX instead of a generic wedge with headlights.
Bricks are smooth resin and click together with the rest of the Brick Shop line and other major brick brands, and each kit runs under 30 pieces with step-by-step instructions. Most kids will finish one in a few minutes, which is the point: build it, roll it, go back for another.
Buying works like a mystery pack. Mattel’s store sells each kit as a blind purchase, one random car per order, and a four-car Performance Pack at $19.99 sits on the same shelf for anyone who wants more cars per box. Duplicates are part of the game, same as they are with die-cast chase cars.
Twenty cars by the end of 2027
Wave one is six cars deep, and Mattel says the collection grows to 20 models by the end of 2027. That turns a $4.99 impulse buy into a year-long checklist, with new drops feeding the same shelf. Mattel’s own store already lists the single kits and the Performance Pack as coming soon at those prices, so the January date is a plan, not a tease.
Brick Shop launched in 2025 with bigger, pricier sets: 1:32 Speed Series cars from $19.99, then Elite at 1:16 and Premium at 1:12, all aimed at builders 10 and up. Racer drops the entry point to five bucks and the age grade to six. Ted Wu, who runs vehicles and building sets at Mattel, says the goal was bringing the Brick Shop approach to “the iconic 1:64 scale that has defined Hot Wheels die-cast cars for nearly 60 years.”
The S2000 also comes in a bigger build
Anyone who wants an S2000 with more shelf presence can skip the wait: the Speed Series version of Honda’s roadster is on Amazon now at 1:32 scale with 257 pieces for $21.99, and it packs in an exclusive 1:64 metal S2000, a metal signature plate, two sets of wheel covers and a decal sheet. Different model year, too: the big kit builds a 2007 car, the little one a 1999.
| Racer Series 1999 Honda S2000 | Speed Series 2007 Honda S2000 | |
|---|---|---|
| Scale | 1:64 | 1:32 |
| Pieces | 29 | 257 |
| Price | $4.99 | $21.99 |
| Ages | 6+ | 10+ |
Price: $21.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Price: $4.99 each
Where to buy: Mattel
On sale: January 2027
At $4.99, a Racer Series car costs what a premium die-cast car costs, except this one arrives in pieces on purpose. January is an odd launch window, just after the holiday shelves clear, but it also means wave one lands with no competition for a kid’s first allowance of the year. Hunting all 20 through blind packs is the expensive way to spend five dollars at a time, and plenty of collectors will do exactly that.
