How To Spot Fake Hot Wheels Toy Cars (Diecast)

Last Updated on July 27, 2023 by Ch David

Whether you are a kid or an adult, you’ve most likely grown up with these little Hot Wheels cars, and for most of us, these made out childhood better.

The Hot Wheels diecast cars can be considered both toys for kids, as well as collectables for people that want to build up a nice wall of their favourite cars.

Surprisingly or not, these little Hot Wheels cars are replicated, and even though it’s mainly the popular and rare cars that are replicated, there are many fake cars floating on the market.

In fact, when you want to buy one or more Hot Wheels diecast vehicles, it is pretty important to know which toy car is fake, and which one is real.

How to spot fake Hot Wheels cars

To put it shortly, the fastest way to spot fake Hot Wheels toy cars (diecast) is by checking the packaging and the details on the bottom side of the car. Most fake Hot Wheels cars present flaws when it comes to the packaging’s inscriptions, and when it comes to the bottom of the cars, the fake ones either miss the correct inscriptions or there are no inscriptions at all, which automatically makes a fake Hot Wheels piece.

1. Hot Wheels logo

• The replica manufacturers forgot to add a letter to the Hot Wheels logo.
• In fact, the box’s “HotWheels” logo is spelt as “HotWheel”, therefore missing the letter “s” at the end of the word.

On the other hand, the authentic Hot Wheels packaging has the full and perfectly spelt logo, as it is mentioned as “HotWheels”, as it has to be spelt.

• The fake car is not even labelled as Hot Wheels.

Again, as simple as it may seem to spot a fake car, make sure that you double-check the “HotWheels” logo that’s written on the box.

2. Vehicle name

• The fake item is missing the inscription regarding the car.
• The replica Hot Wheels car doesn’t have any inscription about the year, the brand and the name of the model of the car that’s inside the package

The authentic Hot Wheels cars must have information about the car’s brand of manufacturing, the name of the model and the year of manufacturing written somewhere on the box.

In fact, you can see how the authentic image mentions it all: there’s a 1974 Brazilian Dodge charger.

3. Bottom inscriptions

• The fak carar has no inscription at all, and how the real one has quite a few of these.

The genuine Hot Wheels toy cars must have the Hot Wheels logo, the car’s manufacturer and model, the country of manufacturing, the year when the car was made, as well as the code of the year in which it was crafted.

4. Model and collection

• The fake Hot Wheels car’s packaging doesn’t say the model/collection of the car.

The authentic item states the fact that the 1965 Ford Galaxie in the box is the 10th out of 10th cars in that specific collection.

A quick mention:

• The steps we’ve written so far are the BEST ways to authenticate this item
• The next few steps are still reliable methods…
• … but they apply to non-top-versions of replicas available for this item

If in doubt, we recommend double-checking the steps we’ve explained above this line.

What if my Hot Wheels car has errors?

There are many authentic Hot Wheels cars that have a few mistakes on them, and whether that is the car being scratched, cracked or generally not at the best of its quality, this does happen on the real Hot Wheels products as well.

This image shows you how an authentic Hot Wheels car has a crack on the roof.

That’s something you’d see on real products sometimes.

Errors like that above happen from time to time when the lack of quality service from Hot Wheels happens, but once again, you won’t have to deal with this on many cars.

My car’s packaging has a sticker on the back. What does it mean?

No need to worry if there’s a sticker on the case spelt in Chinese or in any other language – that means that your Hot Wheels packaging is an imported one that comes from outside of the country.

Shortlist: Identify a fake Hot Wheels car in 30 seconds

1. Check the packaging for its spelling and make sure that all of the letters are correct
2. Look at the box for the name, the brand the model and the year of manufacturing the car. Most of the fake Hot Wheels cars miss this text
3. Examine the bottom side of the car. The replica Hot Wheels cars tend to have no inscriptions at all, or if they do, they often have the wrong ones
4. Check your Hot Wheels cars for the collection’s number, and make sure that the text written on the box of your car matches the one mentioned within the official collection

Expert Hot Wheels authentication

If you need help with the authentication of your Hot Wheels cars, we’ve got you covered.

All you have to do is send us high-quality pictures of your Hot Wheels cars and we will get back to you with the results within 24 to 48 hours. The results will also come with a report on why we believe your item is fake or authentic.

That brings us to the end of our guide on how to spot fake vs real Hot Wheels cars. We will continue to update this article as better and newer comparisons are put out.

Need our opinion on your item’s authenticity? It’s a service we provide.

Get a fully-detailed report for why you have a real or fake item. Takes less than 48 hours!

Alternatively, use our free resources: written guides and video tutorials.

Thank you for reading this,

Ch Daniel and Ch David