at tires. Great paint. Totally boss, albeit fake, engines. The Snake. The Mongoose. Custom cars with enormous engines jutting through the hood—and even a bus with a blower sticking out of the roof. Everything from exacting recreations of classic designs to internal combustion flights of fancy, with one certain constant: Wheels. Not just any wheels though. Hot Wheels.

Tiny die-cast cars with unforgettable attributes make this 35-year old toy box mainstay the most popular toy on the planet, at least if you measure popularity by units sold—and as it happens, Parts Unlimited does measure popularity by units sold. Many in the powersports fold were fortunate enough to have had a mini bike—but for generations, practically everyone rolled with Hot Wheels.

For those preoccupied with motorsports and motorcycles as adults—well, ostensible adults, anyway—that fixation often began as children. It started with scaled-down hot rods and similarly sized sections of orange racetrack. As icons go, few company logos are as stuck in our collective psyche as that flaming fat tire.

And now, through a licensing agreement between Thor/Parts Unlimited and Mattel, that logo will be combined with one already familiar to your apparel racks, the Thor brand. One of the hottest new lines (pun intended) set to debut at Indy will feature that very flame.

The new Thor/Hot Wheels line makes its debut at the Indy show.

The Thor/Hot Wheels gear is basically a Hot Rod version of Thor’s Phase gear. While it’s primarily targeted toward today’s youth market, it is also available in adult sizes, as well. “It’s going to be a really cool line, very much identifiable as Thor clothing in the lines, the cut, the fit, and of course the quality, but with the added cache of that very recognizable flaming tire logo and with Hot Wheels-derived color selections,” says Parts Unlimited’s Greg Blackwell, who along with Thor’s Bob Maynard brokered the agreement. “We think that it’s going to go over really really well at the retail level.”
According to Mattel, more than 15 million boys ages 5 to 15 are avid current collectors, and the average boy collector owns more than 41 Hot Wheels cars. In fact, somewhere in the world two Hot Wheels cars are sold every second of the day! The company offers scale replicas of several current motorcycle racers, replete, of course, with the motorcycles themselves. Among the models available are Thor-sponsored riders like Jeremy McGrath (who had Hot Wheels sponsorship himself as a racer), Pro Circuit Kawasaki machines (again, with a prior sponsorship connection) and Yamaha of Troy-clad bikes.Not a bad customer base to leverage.

But the Hot Wheels brand is about more than just die-cast cars and trucks. In fact, Hot Wheels is involved in almost every racing circuit in the world, from NASCAR to Formula One, and that includes motorcycle racing.

Hot Wheels offers the brand recognition, and the marketing exposure, that is sure to make this new Thor/Hot Wheels gear a hot commodity in your dealerships. If you’re at Indy, be sure to stop by the Thor booth and check it out for yourself. This Thor/Hot Wheels gear is only offered as a limited edition, so be sure to call your Parts rep today and get your order in.

The jerseys, pants and gloves are available in Red/Yellow or Blue/Yellow.

Adult Jerseys - S thru XXL - $39.95
Adult Pants - 28 thru 44 - $99.95
Adult Gloves - S thru XXL - $24.95
Youth Jerseys - XS thru L - $29.95
Youth Pants - 16 thru 28 - $79.95
Youth Gloves - XS thru XL - $19.95