Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow by Hot Wheels

[ritchie]

When the G box artwork was done it appears Lesney did just copy HW hub pattern which can only be because Lesney hadnt finalised their own when the artwork was done because its a valid point, those Lesney models could be HW with those hubs!

I thought so. Thanks for confirming..

R

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Thank you Ritchie for permission to use the 'Hot Wheels-Matchbox' hybrid Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow model in my Talk and slide show. I will give you full credit for this.

I only know of two colours for the interior on the Silver Shadow...Ivory or Dark Brown and out of 16 body colours, 3 have been seen with just Dark Brown interior and 3 have been seen with just the Ivory interior (the Pink models have both).

GHOSTHUNTER.

[ritchie]

there're rumours that the rolls-royce management was upset about the various spectraflame colours hot wheels used on their silver shadow releases. as a result hot wheels had their standard silver grey colour sprayed over their remaining stocks of spectraflame colour rolls. i found an example where green paint was noted underneath the silver grey. this seemed to coincide with the rumour...

1409181543bce57652a277b798.jpg (35.08 KiB) Viewed 2255 times

R

[GHOSTHUNTER]

There is always a certain amount of truth buried in rumours and this Hot Wheels one is very correct. Mattel did have a problem with the bright colours on the Rolls-Royce when the models were to come to the UK and yes they had to be repainted in a more accurate colour. Grey is a very neutral colour but also a popular colour for Rolls-Royce cars and bodies already painted in 'Spectraflame' colours were over-sprayed with a Silver-Grey colour for the UK market.

"Ritchie" has found a good example of one of those models with evidence of bright green paint over-spray onto the front of the engine and the long engine design suggests it has come from early production.

Ritchie, can you take a picture of inside the front wheel-arch showing the area behind the wheel, like my example below, thanks.

Clear (left model) and Blocked inner arch areas.JPG (41.06 KiB) Viewed 2246 times

GHOSTHUNTER.

[ritchie]

There is always a certain amount of truth buried in rumours and this Hot Wheels one is very correct. Mattel did have a problem with the bright colours on the Rolls-Royce when the models were to come to the UK and yes they had to be repainted in a more accurate colour. Grey is a very neutral colour but also a popular colour for Rolls-Royce cars and bodies already painted in 'Spectraflame' colours were over-sprayed with a Silver-Grey colour for the UK market.

"Ritchie" has found a good example of one of those models with evidence of bright green paint over-spray onto the front of the engine and the long engine design suggests it has come from early production.

Ritchie, can you take a picture of inside the front wheel-arch showing the area behind the wheel, like my example below, thanks.

The attachment Clear (left model) and Blocked inner arch areas.JPG is no longer available

GHOSTHUNTER.

Hello Ghosthunter,

I checked the model and it's blocked inner arch areas like the model on the right, a later casting. And it has normal engine size like other models.

I also checked my other models and it's interesting to see certain models are early casting like the left model while others are later casting like the right model. This is something I didn't realized before.

And the engines from the early casting and later casting models do have little differences and can be distinguished. But you mentioned a term "long engine design". From my observation the engine size from the early and later casting models are the same. Are you referring the "long engine design" to the engine from pre-production models? Below is an image I saved from the web before which was said to be a pre-production model, with clear glazing and a different engine from release:

ss1.jpg (27.51 KiB) Viewed 2225 times

r

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I have spent a very long time (too long in fact!), trying to sort out which 'HOT WHEELS' Silver Shadow castings came first. It was not made easy due to the lack of models in my own collection, I don't have nearly enough to conclude my findings as 100% correct, however, studying lots of pictures sourced from websites and EBay sales, I think I have sorted them and can not spend any more time on this model.

Shown below is an old composite image I did to show the two recorded engine bay designs, 'long engine' (on the Left) and 'short engine' (on the Right). The image also includes a Third design (extreme Right), only seen on a so-called 'Prototype' model, but because I don't have one of those examples, I have had to do a 'Representative' image to show what the design looks like against the other two designs.



I don't really know what the third model was 'Prototyping' for, why did they remove so much from the rear of the engine bay! and I believe the models come from very late in the Silver Shadow's 'Time-Line'. The close-cropped picture by "Ritchie" of the Silver-Grey model with the bonnet open, is one of those so-called 'Prototypes' and it shows how much shorter the engine area is (also nice to know other than Purple examples exist of this 'Prototype').

Shown below is a picture showing the Two recorded engine bay designs, both on full production models



The Red model on the Right is the first colour issue to be introduced into the range in 1969, it has the 'Long Engine' and the Blue model is from later with the 'Shorter Engine' bay.

I would welcome any input on the above so we can make sure the information is good and correct, anyone with plenty of examples of this model is encouraged to go away and take detailed pictures to help with the above, thanks.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[ritchie]

Hello Ghosthunter,

Thanks for the detailed illustration. I now see the difference for the long and short engine you described.

I checked all the models I have for the inner arch areas and engines. Below is a summary table which i hope is easy to understand. I use similar Excel table to keep track of what variants i'm short of (the 6 empty cells).

hwsscast.jpg (64.58 KiB) Viewed 2204 times

In the table, "Blocked" means blocked inner arch areas and "Clear" means clear inner arch areas; "Long" means long engine and "Short" means short engine.
So a "Blocked / Long" would means the particular model has got blocked inner arch areas and long engine.

The result is somewhat conflicted with your information. From your notes, clear inner arch areas is classified as early casting and long engine is also classified as early casting. But from my models, clear inner arch areas is always associated with short engine, while blocked inner arch areas is always associated with long engine. The only exception is the orange body brown interior variant (highlighted in yellow). It's got clear inner arch areas but long engine, which could be a transitional issue.

It's interesting to find out that a particular colour may got 2 castings. For example your red (brown int) model is long engine (assume blocked?) but mine is "clear / short".

I'd like to propose a bold hypothesis that, the prototype (shortest engine) came in first. And because too short the engine resulted part of the baseplate exposed from the gap, for the release they made the engine longer (the "Clear / Short" variants). Then they extended the engine length further (the "Clear / Long" orange model). And finally the inner arch areas got blocks (the "Blocked / Long" variants).

But this is immediate challenged as you mentioned that the first colour issue (red) has long engine, while the later blue issue has short engine. In addition, the initial release should be the Grey models which I got "Blocked / Long" examples. I doubt there exists Grey models which is "Clear / Short". Ghosty, from your first image showing the front wheel-arch with the grey and blue model side by side. Your grey model has clear inner arch areas, is it a short engine non-blacktop model?

And finally, a line-up of the 10 basic models.

DSC_1534s.jpg (42.75 KiB) Viewed 2204 times

Cheers,
R

[GHOSTHUNTER]

"Ritchie" said..."From your notes, clear inner arch areas is classified as early casting and long engine is also classified as early casting". I did for a very long while have this idea reversed and have only recently changed my findings, so in fact my notes may well have to be put back to their original form if after more research with the added input from "Ritchie" with his notes above.

As I write this, I can not get to my collection for the 'Hot Wheels' models, but should be with them over this coming Weekend, 18th and 19th of October.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[ogedei_voidoid]

Can I add to your table the following 2 which do exist. Cant remember but would of been when I was on RLOL or Anitas RL board.

Blue, Black roof & white interior
Purple, Black roof & white interior

The only problem with the Black roof cars is fakes. There was a run of Mavericks, Boss Hoss, Cougars etc that came to light 5 yrs or so ago, pretty much any casting where the black roof model was rare. Dont know if any RR were found to have been done but HTF black roof cars make me wary of them.

[ritchie]

Can I add to your table the following 2 which do exist. Cant remember but would of been when I was on RLOL or Anitas RL board.

Blue, Black roof & white interior
Purple, Black roof & white interior

The only problem with the Black roof cars is fakes. There was a run of Mavericks, Boss Hoss, Cougars etc that came to light 5 yrs or so ago, pretty much any casting where the black roof model was rare. Dont know if any RR were found to have been done but HTF black roof cars make me wary of them.

Sure, I'll add them to my table, which makes me more variants to chase... but many thanks for your info

And yes sometimes i also have doubts on certain black roof cars for its genuinity because it's just hard to distinguish. Even with sealed blisters, they might have been opened and sealed back without any trace...

r