Boom or Bust? The Hot Wheels Walmart-Exclusive BMW Series

Yeah, I know I'm a bit late here. You may have already seen these, as collectors in other countries had already found them last month. And how much more appropriate it would have been, to find them last month, with BMW's 100th anniversary going on. However, the big news this week circling around us folks here in the U.S. is that Walmart stores across the country have started putting out the "new" BMW series. It's a series of 8 models, per usual, focusing solely on Bimmers. We know there's a ton of Bimmer fans out there, so these are sure to be popular.

I was fortunate to find every one of the releases in this series. That was not the case with the Porsche series. I'd like to thank those on Instagram for sharing the news. If it weren't for them, I would not have stopped by Walmart on a whim a couple days ago. The good models would have been gone by now.

Like I said, there are 8 models in this series. You only see 6 of them here. I left behind the motorcycle and the E36. One, I don't collect motorcycles and two, I've never liked the E36 casting. So let's just focus on these six.

We have the M1, 2002, Z4 GT3, E30 M3, and the E92 M3 in street and racing forms. Six castings that I would collect any day of the week. Despite that, I'm still torn on how to judge this set. Being largely a sports car collector, I can never turn down any BMW releases. But when you look at these, there isn't one that stands out above the crowd. All of them pale in comparison to their First Edition counterparts. To me, none of the liveries are particularly appealing, and the overall designs look very mediocre.

This goes back to my argument that Hot Wheels clearly isn't putting much effort towards these Walmart-exclusive sets. While I can't necessarily blame them for it, as they're priced the same as the mainlines, I'd like to see more thought put into the design, into the color combinations, into the execution. Some of these models could use better wheels. Two-tone wheels are incredibly tacky and don't belong on such wonderful castings as these. The color choices are questionable; most of them aren't even proper BMW colors.

There is one bright spot, however. It's the model you see above: the stock E92 M3. Executed flawlessly, in my opinion. There's nothing better than a clean design, and that's exactly what it is. Plain-jane silver paint, simple striping, and oh, those 5SP wheels! We need more 5SP's on modern sports cars. Collectors and scalpers alike may hoard the Z4's and the M1,s but if there's one model that's a must-have, it's this one.