Why Does Mattel Change The Castings? VLOG
0Why does Mattel change the castings? Most of the time, it is cost savings. It may be to reduce weight, have fewer piece components, or be easier for workers to put together on the assembly line. Please take the time to expand and read this description.
When they switch parts from metal to plastic, or even change the design so that there is less metal, their savings come from different areas. Metal is generally more expensive so using more plastic parts cuts down on the raw cost of materials. Metal parts also are hard on the tooling that produces those parts. Tools and dies that produce metal parts wear down a lot faster and have to be replaced more often than tools that produce plastic parts. Finally, there is the weight factor. It might not seem like a big savings to reduce the weight by a couple grams but when they are paying to ship containers of toys across the globe, that weight adds up and so does shipping costs.
Another change that you will see to models is a reduction in the number of parts. I show a Hot Wheels Nerve Hammer in this video and it used to have a rear spoiler that was inserted into the trunk of the model. That was a separate piece that would have to be assembled. You may think, big deal! It's just one part! Well, when you're making tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of toy cars, all that manual labor required to assemble cars adds up!
When Mattel or any other company designs a product, they go through a testing phase before they start production. It might get the approval from all the required parties and then after a production run or two, the factory realizes that the design is causing production delays. The model might be tricky to put together. It might not be ergonomic and could be causing workers physical strain.
Another instance where we will see a casting change is that the Licensor requests it. For example, Ford might want a different grill on their Mustang. Even worse, Mattel might have tried to copy a Ford design into one of their fantasy models and Ford told them that Mattel is infringing on their copyrighted designs. So to avoid a lawsuit, Mattel changes the part on their fantasy car.
Sometimes, the tooling just breaks so Mattel decides to change the model a bit to make it easier to produce.
The models shown in this video are:
Hot Wheels:
Nerve Hammer
Matchbox
Dodge Charger Pursuit
Blizzard Buster
Dodge Monaco Police Car
Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Polizia
2000 Chevy Suburban
Subaru Impreza WRX
2006 Ford Crown Victoria
Dodge Magnum (Police)
End-card Annotations:
Matchbox Case Unboxing Playlist
http://goo.gl/PLR21m
Monster Jam Monster Mutt Casting Change
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqhwNxo-jLw
Hot Wheels Mustang Mach One Casting Change
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5JlVccsFNE
Highlighted Collector Videos Playlist
http://goo.gl/bhZmLF
Additional Casting Changes videos:
Hot Wheels Twinduction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2LHyIgoOKs
Hot Wheels Dream Van
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkfvjKO69Uw
Hot Wheels Indy 500 Camaro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzNRSRgbf6Y
Hot Wheels Batman Tumbler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeFqG1QlIbQ
Hot Wheels '56 Ford Truck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_7sUapruOo
Hot Wheels T-Bucket
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBYgaWEu-io
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