Digital& NFT

Will Mattel’s Hot-Wheels NFTs Set a Toy Industry Standard?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are still in an early phase of existence and growth. Many individuals are still not sure if the trend to the digitization of physical assets even brings any real value that will appeal to collectors in the years ahead. And some people are still spending thousands or millions of dollars to buy hot NFTs.

Mattel, Inc. is making an effort through its Mattel Creations direct-to-consumer platform to take its toys to an art collection including NFTs for the Hot Wheels brand. Mattel aims to expand across the emerging art space with three NFTs from its Hot Wheels NFT Garage Series.

Mattel began featuring three vehicles starting June 22, 2021 from “The First Editions” vehicle collection. These are available in auction format for one week and the three cars featured are Twin Mill, Bone Shaker and Deora II. While some other recent NFT launches have been either exclusive or limited edition, Mattel is making “The First Editions” each a 1-of-1 NFT for exclusivity.

According to Mattel, the company is creating a new way for innovation and artistry to converge in the toy space, and will continue to express its brands in the NFT format as it launches new creations on NFT.MattelCreations.com over the course of 2021. Mattel’s portfolio of other iconic brands includes Barbie, Fisher-Price, American Girl, Thomas & Friends and many other intellectual properties which it owns or licenses.

And to keep the crypto-theme even more alive, Mattel will also allow the purchasers of these NFTs to make purchases exclusively with Ethereum. Mattel also noted that the ETH can be purchased via your bank account or credit card using services such as Coinbase or Gemini.

It remains a question as to how transferable the toy and game market will be into NFTs. Will adults buy these up for their kids or will collectors and investors keep these away from kids?

If the auction proves to be successful and if it will be able to be maintained then there are a whole host of toy products in Mattel’s portfolio that could be used for NFTs and further digital art. Furthermore, every other toy company and toy product might find a new market if the intellectual property owners believe it will help the brands in the future.

So far these might not be considered a “hot” auction. That said, individuals who are interested in keeping NFTs and crypto interest strong still have plenty of time to get involved.

As of the morning of June 24, 2021, the platform already showed bids, and these have been converted into U.S. dollars from Ethereum ($1.00 was $1,967.69) to better represent what the auction prices were with 5 days to go. These were seen as follows:

  • Twin Mill (1969) had 9 bids at 1.1 ETH (est. $2,164.46)
  • Deora II (2000) had 10 bids at 0.35 ETH (est. $688.69)
  • Bone Shaker (2006) had 5 bids at 1.0 ETH (est. 1,967.69)

Richard Dickson, who is Mattel’s President and Chief Operating Officer, said of the offering:

Connecting to culture is core to Mattel’s DNA, and as we continually look to innovate, evolving physical product to digital art through NFTs was an obvious next step for Mattel Creations. Mattel Creations is the perfect platform for us to present limited edition collector products that speak to our incredible fan base as well as attract new fans to our vast portfolio of pop culture brands. Toys as art, and art inspired by toys.

It may seem like a stretch that taking physical toys into digital art will have a broad appeal to kids. Then again, have you tried taking away your kids tablet lately? And with prices this high it may just boil down to adults and collectors who want something they feel is unique — or the crypto-investor crowd could take over to compete for the same asset. The verdict is still undetermined on this one.

The auction results made news, but seem short of the peak NFT craze prices.