Ever dream of sitting in the hot seat of a car on trailblazing run on the familiar orange plastic Hot Wheels track? Well, now you can – all thanks to the official Mattel and GoPro collaboration. With the Mattel Hot Wheels Zoom In, you can strap on a GoPro Hero4 Session (or any compatible GoPro) in a secure and proper manner, and let it take on the orange track.
Now, the idea of first-person view Hot Wheels toy car isn’t new; back in 2011, Mattel had dabbled with the idea, introducing the Hot Wheels Video Racers, but while that thing actually looked like a proper Hot Wheels, its resolution was anything but stellar. It records at a sad 640 x 480 resolution at 30 fps. Bump it up to 60 fps, you’d be getting a 90s-worthy resolution of 320 x 240. It was that bad.
The only boon was, it had a built in video screen for reviewing footage, but that was, sadly, of equally pathetic resolution. Then, some folks decided to pull the body of a Hot Wheels toy car to make way for a proper resolution camera, creating what could be the best Hot Wheels chase car footage ever. That was then.
Fast forward today, Mattel, apparently inspired by those home brewed contraptions, decided to create an official GoPro-compatible Hot Wheels car, the Hot Wheels Zoom In. Basically, Zoom In a Hot Wheels toy car, complete with wheels and chassis, but in place of a proper car-defining body, it has a purpose-designed cradle with plastic clip to hold a tiny cube GoPro in place (which kind of makes it more like a camera trolley or sled). That’s basically it. All you have to do is to throw in an awesome track set, slap a GoPro on it and you are good to go.
Apparently, the Hot Wheels Zoom In will be available later this month. Anyways, it is super affordable at $1.09, but that is, obviously, not including the camera which you have to acquire. Still, it makes for an awesome toy/accessory if you already own a GoPro camera. You can read a full review by Andrew Liszewski on Gizmodo.
Featured image: Sarah New/CNET.
Image and source: Gizmodo.