ANN/THE STAR – You’ve probably heard that a Hot Wheels toy replica of Malaysia’s first national automobile, the Proton Saga, is now on the market.
If that isn’t enough to make any Malaysian happy or proud, maybe this will: a Malaysian nine-year-old drew the box artwork for a limited edition version of the automobile.
Saw Jane Harn from Penang won the Hot Wheels x Proton Kids Design Competition 2023, and she will be the first child to see her hand-drawn artwork on Hot Wheels die-cast packaging.
Saw’s design depicts and commemorates a variety of Malaysian natural elements and accomplishments, including the rhinoceros hornbill and hibiscus, the country’s official bird and flower, as well as the official Monument.
Her design will be printed on the special edition Hot Wheels Proton Saga, available for purchase nationwide in 2024.
According to Matt Gabe, Hot Wheels Lead Packaging Designer, her design was chosen from over 400 entries to the competition, and the process to choose the winner was no easy task.
“I looked through them, the design lead at Hot Wheels looked through them, our marketing counterparts also looked through them, and the designers of Proton looked through them,” he recalled.
“Then we narrowed it down to about 20 that could all be the one. From there, we had judging criteria on stuff like creativity, style… all these different things, and we rated them from one to five. This was really hard because they were all really, really good, so pretty much everything was like a four or five!”
After that, they tallied up the scores between those involved in the judging, and finally ended up with Saw as the winner.
“It was tight between two or three of them who all had almost the maximum amount of score. So the one that we ended up with was the one we felt celebrates Malaysia perfectly.
“Her style is almost like it was painted, but with markers. Then I think she used a white paint marker on top of things to give everything like a little highlight. So it just has a lot more depth than your average kids’ drawing.
“At Hot Wheels, we’re always designing with kids in mind,” Gabe added. “This competition has been a great way to see first-hand what impact car culture has had on participants and get a glimpse into their creative minds.”
Gabe said the Hot Wheels Proton Saga project came about in 2022, which happened to be both Proton’s 40th anniversary and also the 40th anniversary of Mattel producing their toy cars in Malaysia.
“So it was the perfect time for us to combine forces. It’s going to be very exciting for Malaysians to get their car in a Hot Wheels package!” he said.
“We’ll be doing the car in two phases – first is the main line version, which is the one with the blue back card. This will be available everywhere in the world at the very end of this year
“Then in 2024, we also have the new custom version that is going to be available exclusively in Malaysia, and will feature the artwork by the contest winner.
“Even though there are a lot of adult Hot Wheels collectors, it is still a kid’s toy. So anything we can do to get kids involved is pretty exciting for us, especially when you see what the younger generations’ creativity can unlock”.
Now, making a limited edition Hot Wheels car look good is one thing, but Gabe’s job is to make every single little car look good in its packaging.
Making the packaging look good and unique rather than just a generic one is also an added incentive for adult collectors who usually prefer to keep the cars unopened and in mint condition.
However, Gabe said that this doesn’t factor into his thinking when it comes to designing something.
“My first job is to make it look cool, because we want people to buy them and play with them however they want,” he said. “So if they want to rip it open, go ahead; if they want to buy it because they liked the card art, also cool. What I tell people is to buy one to open, and buy another one to keep on display, if that’s what you want to do!
“But yeah, I just want to make this little car look as good as I can. That’s my goal.”
While the regular Hot Wheels cars have the standard blue-coloured card with the illustration of the car, the more premium, limited editions ones tend to have customised packaging.
When the design is for a licensed car (like the Proton Saga) or one from a movie, for instance, Gabe said a bit more work needs to be put in to make sure they get it right.
“I would work with the toy designer to make sure that this piece of artwork looks correct and has all the details they want,” Gabe said.
All the artwork is computer generated, and the designer usually starts with the 3D file that they use to make the toy.
“Then we have a team in our Mattel office in China that does all of the rendering and the retouching, in any art style we need. My team will then work with the one in Penang to make sure that the colours are right, because the colour on screen and the colour that actually gets painted may not match. So we make sure we calibrate the colours so that most of the time it matches the product, and the picture looks perfect,” Gabe said, estimating that they do the art for about 400 cars a year, and that the whole idea behind the packaging is to make the product ‘pop’ on the shelf.
With the Proton Saga one, Gabe said that his part in the process came a little later.
“So there was some back and forth on the car, and then it was decided we were going to do the first generation Saga. Then we had to decide what colour to do,” he recalled. “As they develop the actual toy, Proton would have to approve it, so for my part, we decided we wouldn’t do the graphics and the colours until Proton okayed it.”
The Hot Wheels Proton Saga is already available for purchase in Malaysia, while the Hot Wheels Proton Saga Limited Edition, featuring Saw’s winning design will be available for purchase in Malaysia in 2024 at leading toy specialty stores, departmental stores, hypermarkets, petrol kiosks, online and in convenience stores nationwide. – Michael Cheang
