Kan. man discovers his car turned into Hot Wheels

SALINA, Kan. — Derek Moline was shopping at the Salina Target store earlier this year when he spotted a Hot Wheels car on a shelf.

The car looked very similar to one he had helped build at his workplace.

Turns out the car, which was purple and lime green, had been painted to replicate the 1931 Chrysler four-door sedan Moline and the other employees of Bright Built Hot Rods created and entered in last July’s Hot Wheels’ Paint Your Ride Contest.

That old Chrysler, the Rat Reborn, took second place at the competition, costing Bright Built a chance at the grand prize having a Hot Wheels car made in the Rat Reborn’s image.

While still at Target that day, Moline called his boss, Keith Bright, co-owner of Bright Built Hot Rods and told him what he’d found. Bright said he was surprised about Rat Reborn being replicated, but then he remembered something he had been told at the 2008 contest.

“When we left, Larry Wood, a Hot Wheels designer, told me it the Rat looked like a Hot Wheels car, so he would probably make one,” Bright said. “We e-mailed Larry and asked him if this was our car,” said co-owner Kathleen Bright. “It sure was. It’s been so exciting to think we have a true Hot Wheels car.”

The Hot Wheels’ version of Bright Built’s car was named Shift Kicker.

Although a representative at Hot Wheels couldn’t confirm the number of Shift Kickers produced, the little cars have been sold at such retailers as Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target and Walgreens.

Knowing that they’d created something worthy of being made into a Hot Wheels car has been a morale boost for the Bright Built employees.

“It’s different now,” Moline said. “Now you feel like you’re driving a toy.” Bright Built employee Kelly Rediken said they can’t drive anywhere without being asked about the car.

The Brights said they are excited for their guys.

“They built the car,” Kathleen said. “They deserve all of the credit. We just financed it. It turned out to be more expensive than we thought, but (it was) worth every penny.”

The search for more of the Shift Kicker cars began soon after Moline discovered the Hot Wheels replica. “We had everybody in the country looking for the car,” Kathleen said. “They haven’t been that easy to find.”

The Bright’s said they were never contacted by Hot Wheels or the toy maker, Mattel, and the only way to find the car is online or to do a thorough search of store shelves.

“We have about 30 of them now,” Kathleen said. “But we have never bought one ourselves off of the shelf, because we can’t find it.”

The employees’ design Keith said he isn’t surprised by this, because Hot Wheels produces new designs weekly.

The Brights mostly have given the collectible to relatives, they said.

“We have enough cars for lots of grandchildren,” Keith said. Kathleen said that to others it may not seem that exciting, but they will never forget that it was their very own employee’s car design that was made into a toy. “There’s no value in this to anybody but us, but it’s a memory,” she said.