Polestar X Hot Wheels: How to build the ultimate toy car

Dreams are wonderful things. They can take you anywhere, help you do anything, and are (mostly) good fun. Whether they happen while you’re asleep, or are constantly bubbling away in the back of your mind, they can be something to aim for, or even something simply to distract. It is in this fantasy world, with rules not so much discarded as thrown out of the window, that this year’s edition of the Polestar Design Contest took place.

For over half a century, Hot Wheels has driven automotive performance and design; driving car culture for fans of all ages. At its core the company is about accepting challenges and pushing design limits to create authentic die-casts that reflect car culture. This fearless approach to design proved the perfect addition to this year’s contest.

Fundamentally, the Polestar Design Contest’s job is to find new design talent. But with the winning entry of this year’s competition being turned into a bona fide 1:64 die-cast collectible, the ‘Hot Wheels’ brief added a certain layer of complexity to the competition. “We were talking with Polestar, and wondered ‘what if the brief was to design a Polestar Hot Wheels car?’ What would that look like? What does it entail?” The two companies got talking about specifics, says Callum. “We had a lot of discussions about whether it should be this, that, hot rods, customs, that type of thing. Ultimately, we wanted people to think about the spirit and DNA of Hot Wheels, and how that could be applied to Polestar. That’s such a challenge in itself - we’re so different, and apply our identities differently.”

When it came to picking the three finalists, the judges looked closely at how they worked for each brand. “The top three being so different really speaks to Polestar’s DNA and how Hot Wheels treats things, because there are so many options. When we’re designing at Hot Wheels we try to represent the whole automotive industry, and obviously we can’t do that in one vehicle - that’s why we got down to the three wildly different designs at the end,” explains Callum.

The Top 3

Looking at the final three you can see what he means. The Polestar TRX, Polestar Track Toy, and Cyber Shaker are distinct takes on both where Polestar could go in future, and what makes a good Hot Wheel. “The Cyber Shaker has batteries and capacitors sticking out of the hood, which is the kind of thing we’d do - they reveal the power of the vehicle. The Track Toy looks fast, like it could, you know, do a loop on the track and things like that. The winner, the TRX, has angles and surfboards on it, which really pulls into one of our most iconic cars, the Deora 2. We really saw a lot of our identity in that car.”

Identity aside, there’s one thing about the TRX that really stuck out for Callum and his team. “It looks like a toy. It looks like a good car design, but it still has that excitement for kids. It’s still a toy.”

The TRX will go into Hot Wheels’ Basics line. These are the toys you find in supermarkets, toy stores, and wherever you usually go browsing for tiny cars. And they’ll be affordable enough for most to pick up without thinking. To achieve that price point they consist of four main pieces: a chassis, interior, windows, and a bodyshell. That doesn’t leave much room for complex design when it comes to casting.

The problem with the top three designs, however, was that they all had plenty of challenging surfaces and complex angles, which would make production tricky. Thankfully, Hot Wheels was on hand to help. “We had feedback rounds to play with proportions, scale, and angles to make them ready for production. Designers are problem solvers, and we flourish when there’s a good challenge with some limitations to work to,” commented Callum. Even with refining, the TRX will apparently still be tricky to manufacture, but it’s got all the right spirit in all the right places, so it’ll be worth it. 

Considering it’s a huge competition, making a final decision could have been fraught with conflicting opinions, furrowed brows, and terse debate, but that was far from the case. Polestar is perhaps (we’ll admit it), a touch more conservative than Hot Wheels’ style of brash colour and sharp angles, however, both firms were working towards a common goal. “It was very collaborative,” says Callum, “I would love to tell you stories about how we clashed and that there were fights to the death, but we’re all car designers and we all agreed fairly easily. Ours are just a bit smaller than the real things.” 

Juan-Pablo Bernal, Polestar Head of Interior Design, agrees that the process isn’t an ‘us versus them’ situation, but something that both Polestar and Hot Wheels worked closely on. “While the size of our respective finished products are slightly different, our goals for the Polestar Design Contest were the same. We wanted to find a car that perfectly blended both our values and DNA.” Through various feedback sessions throughout the different stages of the contest, Bernal notes, entrants not only learned how to make their cars more appropriate for production, but they received something far more valuable. “They had the ear of established designers from both ends of the automotive scale. We were there to listen to their ideas, and to guide them in directions that they may not have thought possible. In the end, we want to inspire them to be better designers. Hopefully we did that.”

The Polestar TRX

In the end, the Polestar TRX was chosen for its ability to blend Polestar DNA with Hot Wheels’ philosophy of fun. “The Polestar TRX looks fast, like it could do a huge jump and fly down the track as fast as possible. And it looks like it’ll do all of that on orange track. On top of everything else it offered incredible potential for play. That’s what did it for us,” beams Callum.

But the Polestar Design Contest isn’t just about making a cool new Hot Wheel for the masses, it’s about finding and nurturing new talent in the automotive design space. For winner Shashank Shekhar, it’s a significant milestone in his car designer journey, and having his design out in the world for all to see is no bad thing. “I graduated [in automotive design] two years ago, and this is the point my first design will hit the market. It’s a big, big, big deal, of course! I’ve already got a lot of messages saying ‘I need to buy your Hot Wheel.’ I’ve got a list of people I’ll send them to.” 

Shekhar, like plenty of car designers, found early inspiration in toy cars, so to design one is an incredible boost. Car design is something he wanted to do from an early age, for him there was no plan b. The competition, says Shekhar, was especially exciting because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. He thanks the Polestar Design Community and Juan Pablo’s stewardship as key drivers of this atmosphere. “There’s a sense of humour to the Polestar Design Community. It’s very reachable, very open, very casual, but still professional at the same time. It’s fun, and that’s very important.” 

Shekhar’s Polestar TRX will be winging its way to shelves in 2025, and will be a mainstay of the Hot Wheels line up for years to come. A dream come true for Shekhar - the theme of the competition has, in its own way, fulfilled one of his. So, here’s to the dreamers, the car designers, the mentors, the 1,000 plus entrants, and the millions of children around the world currently pushing a car toy around a track.

Click here to learn more about the 2024 Polestar Design Contest.