Hot Wheels Custom Volkswagen Gallery

This is often called "ice" blue but is NOT a true light blue. Compare the color to the richer, darker blue immediately below, and to the true light blue cars.

Several thousand brown VWs with white interior (all US casting) were found a few years ago in a Mattel warehouse. Because of that, this is the easiest VW color & interior combination to find in mint condition.

Note the lighter color than the brown VW above; this light brown is often called "copper."

This rich, dark brown is tough to find and often called "chocolate."

This dark green shading is often called "forest green".

Bright green variant, often referred to as "kelly green" by collectors. This is actually more common in VWs than the dark green.

The green enamel VWs are only known to have been made in Hong Kong.

Very rare color - not listed in the Tomarts, "the bible of Hot Wheels collecting." However, it may be that many light greens exist but have been misidentified as olive. So far light green VWs have only been found in US casting with dark interior.

This is a bright lime VW, almost a yellow. Many lime cars have a milky cast and are usually called "antifreeze" by collectors -- see the next lime!

This is a typical lime car with a milky quality to the paint. The color is often called "antifreeze" by Hot Wheels collectors.

Another example of "antifreeze" paint. Note the splotchy toning on the sides; antifreeze cars are susceptible to toning and also dark pepper spots.

Magenta is a tough color for VWs, rarer than the more expensive pinks.

Another super rare color, magenta enamel! Unlike the green enamel VWs (which were only made in HK), the magenta enamel was produced in both US and HK, though far rarer than the green enamel.

Olive came in 2 distinct shades -- light and dark. This is a nice dark olive.

Arguably there are rarer Custom Volkswagen color combinations, but the hot pink VWs are by far the most desirable and command the highest prices.

Orange is often thinly applied and prone to toning and pepper spots. This is the deepest, most even orange VW I've ever seen, and one of my favorites.

Tomart's lists this color as "lavender" but the common (and more accurate) term is creamy pink. Ask any interior designer -- Lavender is a purplish color, not a pinkish color!

Rose pink is closer to red than true pink. It's not a rare color for VWs, but has only been found in U.S. castings.

An example of why "mint" doesn't mean "perfect." This purple VW has never been played with and in fact was removed from a damaged blister -- but the paint has multiple pinpricks anyway.

The "no sunroof" (also called NSR) Custom Volkswagens are a real rarity, having solid roofs without the plastic sunroof. Less than 200 are known to exist, and all came from Germany or England. Almost all are blue with about 15 known in other colors such as aqua and red. The theory is that these "Europe only" castings were the first Hot Wheels Volkwagen variants produced, and only for a couple months. In addition to the unique solid roof, they have different glass and interiors than the regular sunroof Volkswagens! And despite their rarity, there are a number of variations including three different color interiors (white, light silverish brown, and dark brown).

Like most of the No Sunroof Volkswagens, this one is in poor condition. Only about a dozen of the 200 or so known NSR Volkwagens are in mint or near-mint condition.

The most common version of a rare variation! About half the No Sunroof Volkswagens known, have the dark brown interior.

Now here's a true one of a kind VW! This VW was a final engineering prototype, it's riveted but was never painted! The final engineering prototypes (FEPs in Mattel speak) were made from finished casting dies prior to production, so that engineers could check the casting for problems or errors.

This VW looks very similar to the 1974 Flying Colors VW. In fact, a large number of bodies were left over from '74. In 1980, these were fitted with black plastic bases and sold by the Wisconin Toy Company. (The 1974 versions used metal bases.)