Hot Wheels Legends | Manila Tour

The Hot Wheels Legends Tour was announced months before the upcoming event, which was a weeklong festivity that was held at the Main Atrium of the SM Mall of Asia that features some of the best custom vehicles that entered this contest that was graced by a Hot Wheels designer Brendon Vetuskey during the duration of the event. Leading to the event, the Hot Wheels Legends Tour has ten custom real-life vehicles showcased at the busiest shopping centre in the country. The crowd continued to grace the event since it opened and certainly gave the Hot Wheels brand street cred not just as a die-cast brand, but also as acknowledging the interest in real vehicles.

The tail end of the showcase doesn’t have much left as this is the last day, but there are enough crowds to visit the exhibit and displays at the same time sparking interest in die-cast car collecting despite not much left being sold on the toy section area.

Still, the event features some of the best customs for hard-core car enthusiasts and might inspire young ones who visit the exhibited area. The ten entries that were on display are a crowd-pleaser for those who don’t go to the usual car shows.

The event is free entry and have the photo opportunity to take some photos of the vehicles on display as well as some Hot Wheels products that are available in retail at the same time can be seen out of their packing.

However, the focus of this event was not on the Hot Wheels collections that you usually see in local car shows. But the actual vehicles that entered the competition would probably inspire the visiting Hot Wheels designer to create his take on the vehicles that were on display at this event.

Hot Wheels Exclusives

But before you even enter the display area there’s a table, where a handful of Hot Wheels exclusives are on display and can be purchased for a minimum purchase. Most of these can also be found in other countries on retail. But some that were sold earlier this week are from the previous year's releases.

It just so happens that most of the “Regular” Treasure Hunt cars at local retail in the Philippines can only be acquired through one of the special boutique stores, which sometimes through a similar event they organized or participated in. They are a few levels below other Hot Wheels premium collectibles like the prestigious Super Treasure Hunt cars that are elusive in most places outside this country.

The last time they made the regular treasure hunt cars attainable also with a minimum purchase was earlier in one of the major car shows. But the ones at the Hot Wheels Legends event were fairly new and interesting too they can be as elusive as most regular Treasure Hunt cars if you know where to look.

Top Threw Winners

Of course, there are only three winners that were chosen on Saturday as Brendon Vetuskey is one of the judges who were present for the event aside from the Meet and greet that was held Friday afternoon. The event since the start of the jam-packed event was also the opening for the FIBA World Cup, which was not related to this event adding the draw of the crowd for Mall of Asia to have enough foot traffic for random mall visitors to see this event.

The winners for this Hot Wheels Legends Tour in Manila had two runner-ups and a winner, which turned out to be the custom yellow Toyota FJ Cruiser owned by Frederick Corra, followed by the first runner-up with the 1988 Toyota Cressida owned by Justin Santos, and the second runner-up SR Performance Batman Race 2022 that appears to be entirely custom from the ground up not revealing its name of an existing brand/make of the vehicle.

Last Day Spectacle

Despite limited the space of the venue for this event and only ten entries were present it is still the place for gearheads and those who aspire to be future mechanics as well as die-cast customizers who would dream of working for Mattel with their ideas in making their take on the next Hot Wheels is the veritable place to see the customized vehicles on display.

It was nearing the end when people continued to come in and have a photo with one of the ten vehicles or just look at the products available. Hot Wheels is a popular die-cast brand surpassing the former British brand Matchbox, which inspired its creation, and is also owned now by Mattel and has become a household brand when you talk about toy cars and Monster Trucks.

In case you missed out on all the excitement, catch the next Hot Wheels Legends event. It might not be in the Philippines, but surely there are upcoming ones lined up just follow Hot Wheels Philippines on Social Media via Facebook and Instagram.

Hot Wheels and Matchbox are manufactured by Mattel, and distributed in the Philippines by Richwell, where you can also follow for updates on their social media through Facebook and Instagram.