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| Dave: How long have you been collecting Hot Wheels? |
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| Bob Rosas: In the beginning, I think you would have classified me as an accumulator as opposed to a collector. You know, cars, cars all around me. I started accumulating for my collection in 1968. Most of the cars I had in the beginning were given to me after they finished testing them, but I would sometimes buy them at the company store. |
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| Dave: What intrigued you about Hot Wheels to begin collecting them? |
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| Bob Rosas: When Hot Wheels first came out, I was working on Barbie accessories. The engineers and designers who were working on Hot Wheels had set up long test tracks near my office. All day long I could hear those cars rolling down the tracks. Every once in a while I would get up and see what all the excitement was. Every time they would be racing side by side, I would hear the whoops, yells and laughter. The cars were really nice with their Spectraflame paint jobs and the fact that they looked like many of the cars out in the parking lot. At the time I owned a 67 Cougar 390 GT, and there was a very similar model of my car being tested for the next years line. I just had to have one. The designers gave me one and that was it, I was hooked. |
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| Dave: In 1973, when you started on the Hot Wheels line, what was the reason that Mattel discontinued the Spectraflame paints and went to enamel paint jobs? |
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| Bob Rosas: By 1972, the popularity fad for Hot Wheels had subsided. From what I was told sales were down and we needed to cost-reduce the line. The usual approach was to reduce the number of parts. But this time we looked at the expense of the Spectraflame finish and compared it to straight enamel colors. Big savings. |
| The Spectraflame finish required that the bodies be almost perfect, no pits or knit lines in the casting. This meant visual rejection of bodies with defects that did not comply. Then the bodies were zinc plated, again another visual inspection and then the Spectraflame paint was applied, inspected and assembled with the rest of the parts. Whereas the enamel paints were very forgiving and thick opaque paints would hide casting defects. |
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| Dave: What can you tell us about the Shell Promos from '73? Why was Shell given the chance to do the promos? Who chose the car assortment? |
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| Bob Rosas: Hey, the cars were not selling like they used to, and Shell offered to buy them for their promotion, why not do it? Shell picked the cars they wanted from a selection we gave them. We chose the cards that had less parts in them and we even had cast hoods, doors and other parts as part of the body to save labor and materials. |
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| Dave: What's your favorite '73 model and color? |
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| Bob Rosas: I like the Sweet Sixteen, it is reminiscent of the classic cars I favor. Because it's like a custom version of a classic car, I like the pale pink color. |
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| Dave: What's your main focus in collecting Hot Wheels today (Redlines, New issues, Real Riders, etc.)? |
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| Bob Rosas: I have almost all the old cars. So today, I just try to keep up with the new releases, and that's a big challenge in that I refuse to pay the scalper's price. I would rather not have the car. An example recently was, I really wanted to have the new Target exclusive 4 pack. I went to several Targets but they told me they sold out before they were supposed to be put on the shelves. I know the scalpers have them. I've seen them. I guess I will do without it unless someone offers it to me at a reasonable price. In my opinion Mattel makes too many cars now. I remember for years we just did 6 new castings and 12 retampo's. |
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| Dave: What's your favorite Hot Wheels car? Why? |
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| Bob Rosas: My favorite is the classic cars in general. But if I had to choose a favorite it would be the Auburn 852. When we did that car, Larry Wood and I drove out to Pasadena California in his '32 Nash to an automobile showroom that had been in existence since the late 20's. There was a beautiful Auburn there that we measured and photographed. |
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| Dave: What was your first involvement in the Hot Wheels project? |
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| Bob Rosas: The first project was when I worked for the tooling department in 1968. I was designing the die cast and plastic molds for the first cars. But relative to the actual cars and sets themselves, I think it was some loop and chute set. |
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| Dave: Was there a large cost difference in the 1973 wheels vs. the '68-'72 wheels? |
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| Bob Rosas: Yes, but probably not more than about 1 penny per car. But when you're taking a million cars, that's some savings. |
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| Dave: Were you able to keep a lot of prototypes that you worked on? |
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| Bob Rosas: Yes, usually we would throw them in the trash, but I had a personal interest in each one and saved them. Especially the hand-made brass prototypes. Only one of each were made. Larry Wood talks about them on his interview on the Mattel Hot Wheels CD Rom. |
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| Dave: What's your favorite prototype that you own? |
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| Bob Rosas: I really like the solid brass proto's, but because they were tested and rough handled they are pretty chipped up. Sometimes some of the plastic parts are broken or missing. So I like the hand-painted tampo samples that I saved from the trash bin. Especially some that had designs that never made it to production. |
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| Dave: Is it true that virtually every early ('68-'72) casting was painted white enamel in the pre-production phase? |
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| Bob Rosas: Not necessarily, mostly they sent us the first shots and we painted them to look for flaws. |
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| Dave: Do you have any little-known information about the White Enamel Camaro? |
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| Bob Rosas: I heard that it was only included in some track sets? I think I saw one in a package in a picture on the Internet but I don't know if it was authentic. I have one, but it was just one of the many cars that were in a junk box of cars we used for testing. I don't know how this car was used. |
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| Dave: What do you think of the current-day line up of Hot Wheels cars being produced? |
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| Bob Rosas: Among all the many, many cars there are some really nice ones. I still favor the classics, the cars from the 20's through the 60's. While I was signing autographs at the last Collectors Convention in Anaheim, California in October of last year, I had a chance to talk to many of the new designers and they do some really great stuff. All the time I was at Mattel, 90% of the cars were done by Larry Wood. Today there must be a dozen or more guys designing cars. Some of them had only been doing it for just a few months. |
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| Dave: Is there a car you'd like to see produced that hasn't been yet? |
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| Bob Rosas: Yes, my '53 Studebaker Commander. The designer was Lowey and he was way ahead of his time. |
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| Dave: Is there anything you'd like to say to the visitors of Redlines Online? |
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| Bob Rosas: Only that collecting cars should be a fun thing. Don't let the scalpers get you down. Don't buy from them, it only encourages them to hoard more cars from us. You can't buy everything, there's just too much out there. I would suggest to focus only on the new cars or a certain type of cars like Ferraris or Volkswagens or police and rescue vehicles or Classics and the list goes on and on. Make your collection manageable, and not a fanatical and painful experience. Have fun, take them out of the package. See the other side of the car you wouldn't normally see. |
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| Dave: Thank you, Bob, for sharing your experiences and insights with us! |
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