Category Archives: Latest News

Hot Wheels Red Ripper

Think this Hot Wheels Red Ripper has what it takes to win the World’s Best Driver? Presented by Hot Wheels, this Red Ripper is a part of Team Red, of course, who are known for being outrageous! This mini movie is entertaining for all ages, probably because Greg Tracy coordinated the jumps and stunts, including those over snow, desert, rock and wooden terrain.

A famous and successful world champion racing driver, Mario Andretti, starts off the race! However he is not the only professional racer here. The four teams each have a partner, including AMA National Trials champion Geoff Aaron, Monster Truck driver Casey Currie, Motocross racers Bryce Hudson and Luke Johnson, Freestyle Moto racer Ronnie Renner, and pro BMX rider Aaron Ross.

In this competition, all the contestants must race through all seven Hot Wheels Test Facility zones. Do you think the custom single seat ripper has what it takes to win? Created by Billy Hammon’s team partnered with Bandito Brothers, we think it will! To find out more, you can watch the short 22 minute mini movie below.

Hot Wheels Rip Rod

Working together with both the Hot Wheels team and Ford, we were all very enthusiastic to have this Rip Rod featured in the 2013 SEMA Auto Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

With almost everything being custom built, such as the tubing and the fiberglass body, we decided to add on to the vehicle and have a matching custom aluminum trailer to stand out and create a total package.

The attendees at the Convention Center were able to see this displayed in the Ford Motor Co. Exhibit. However, you can watch the video below to see a little behind the scenes action on what it really took to make this awesome Hot Wheels Rip Rod, and see it at the SEMA Auto Show in case you missed it!

Concours d’Elegance

Our team is excited to showcase a few of our custom car builds for Mattel at the Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance, located at the beautiful Trump National Golf Club.

Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance is a non-profit organization dedicated to show classic, historical and special interest vehicles to provide funds for charities and local communities. For such a great cause, we also had a great time!

There were many classic cars, and some with a lot of historical value. Different classes ranged from American Classics and Post-War European, to Mustangs and Microcars. Altogether there were 22 different competitive classes, and we decided to put in the Boneshaker, Twin Mill and the Darth Vader Car in Class #22, for Innovative Hot Rods and Customs.

All the classes reflected Automotive Innovation, which is the theme for 2014. The event also celebrated the 50th Year anniversary of both the Porsche 911 and the Ford Mustang. We definitely hope we can make it again next year, with even more custom cars to show off!

Casey Currie’s Jeep

We are pleased to have worked with Casey Currie, who is well known in the world of motor sports. He does it all, such as off-road racing and building off-road vehicles.

Designed by both Casey Currie and Hot Wheels, we had this vehicle wrapped, paying very close attention to all the exact details that he wanted. We can tell he has a passion for Jeeps, and we hope this one brought more variety to his CRC Jeep line.

On September 7th, Casey Currie, partnered with Monster Energy, showcased all of his Jeeps, including this newest addition, at the Angel’s Stadium in Anaheim for the Dub Show. He showed what his Jeeps can do on the pavement, and even gave over 40 rides that included jumping from his metal ramp.

We were excited to hear that Casey Currie was so pleased with his new Jeep, he will be hitting the trails with it this coming weekend! To keep up to date with that, you can always visit his Facebook page. We hope Casey Currie has fun on all of his future adventures, especially with this Hot Wheels Jeep being added to his collection.

Barbie Corvette

Forever 21 invited everyone through social media to an event at the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California to launch and unveil their new “Forever 21 Barbie Collection,” an exclusive line of apparel and accessories for women and children to celebrate the most famous fashionable icon by Mattel, the one and only Barbie.

Not only was it the first chance for guests to shop and preview the new collection, but there were plenty of activities as well. This included a beauty bar with custom Barbie manicures and temporary tattoos, and photo booths! However, what better way for Barbie to show up to her own event than in her very own iconic hot pink “Barbie Corvette”, all custom wrapped by the experts at ONE11INK.

Fans were able to take pictures of the dream car their inner child wished they had. Also at this event was the appearance of a special celebrity guest, Willow Shields, who is best known for her recent role in the Hunger Games movie franchise. To see more pictures of this event by Forever 21, simply search #BarbielovesF21 in either Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Hot Wheels Darth Vader Car

Action Vehicle Engineering and Hot Wheels invite you to come over to the dark side for Comic Con San Diego 2014. With Mattel finally partnering with Lucasfilm and Disney, they have created concept toy cars based on the popular characters of Star Wars. However, they still wanted to bring one of these concept cars to life, and Darth Vader is the chosen one.

One would imagine the cool villain as a very menacing hotrod. With a Chevrolet Corvette chassis, this sleek car can go up to the speed of 150 mph. It uses a tuned LS3 V8 to send 526 horsepower to the rear wheels and has a backlit, side-exit exhaust system. The horsepower is strong with this one!

As fans of Star Wars, we wanted to put in as much detail as possible. Of course, this entire build would not feel complete without the sound of Vader’s famous breathing and the sound of light sabers. It comes with its own lightsaber side pipes, just in case the Sith Lord might need it, and it lights up red!

The helmet itself raises up and down, but only when Darth Vader uses the force, and the custom seats are made out of fabric that looks similar to what Vader wears. The hood of the car features the Sith Lord’s chestplate, and the red trimmed wheels really made it all feel complete. You will also find the Galactic Empire logo on the rims, the wheel, and even sewn into the leather seats. Did you happen to notice the front grill? Yes, those are all engraved outlines of the Hot Wheels logo.

Not going to lie, a lot of hours were put into this custom one of a kind build, and every minute was worth it. With as much fun as we had making this build, we sure hope that all the fans at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con will be just as enthusiastic. If you are one of the many who unfortunately won’t be attending this year’s Comic Con, I hear that it will still be making appearances for the fans in the future.

Special thanks to Hot Wheels for the current photos and videos of the reveal. Also special thanks to Jan Wagner for his article on the Darth Vader car in his AutoMatters column from The Armed Forces Dispatch Newsletter, as can be seen below the video. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram (@ActionVehicle) for more current news and events.

Ronnie Renner’s Ambulance

We sure had fun making this build for Ronnie Renner, who is well known in the motocross circuit, and famous in the freestyle world.

With the top rails custom made, this vehicle will get Ronnie where he needs to go, and especially with what he needs to take with him. We made sure he had plenty of room for his bikes and tires. However, this wouldn’t quite feel complete without the custom sirens and loudspeaker!

Since Ronnie’s favorite color is orange, because it does match his personality quite well, we made sure to detail it with enough orange so it can match with all his other vehicles, because they are all, of course, mostly orange.

All wrapped up with a Hot Wheels logo and ready to go, we were glad that Ronnie was super stoked about this reveal! He introduced this vehicle to his Instagram followers (@rendawgfmx) as the “Loose Caboose,” but I think we will just call it “Ronnie Renner’s Ambulance.” Hope he had fun taking this to the 2014 X Games in Austin, TX!

Hot Wheels Road Trip to X-Games

X Games 2014 in Austin, TX coming up? Well, why not make a road trip out of it! Our team went with Hot Wheels to take the opportunity to showcase a few Hot Wheels cars, including the Hot Wheels Camaro, which really does glow in the dark, the Bone Shaker, also featured in the “World’s Best Driver” campaign, and the Twin Mill, showcased in 2012 at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis as one of the five “Hot Wheels for Real Cars”.

Who better to come along on this trip but two BMX All-Stars, Aaron Ross and Terry Adams! Fans were able to follow Hot Wheels (@HotWheelsOfficial) on Instagram for exciting updates and locations for Hot Wheels Roadshow Events to meet the cars and the stars.

Following the infamous Route 66, we decided to take a few iconic stops along the way. First, the “Living Ghost Town” of Oatman in Arizona, where our Hot Wheels Bone Shaker was dying to come out to play! Next day was the Hot Wheels Roadshow Event in Flagstaff, AZ for fans to get a chance to see the cars and meet the BMX All-Stars. But the day wasn’t over yet! Another iconic stop on Route 66 was nearby, one of the three surviving Wigwam Village Motels.

The second Hot Wheels Roadshow Event was in Albuquerque, NM for the fans, where the whole crew had a blast! After four days of fun and adventure, and over 1,600 thrilling miles, we finally made it to the Austin X Games 2014!

Gran Turismo 6 – First Love

Our team is extremely proud to have helped in the restoration of Mario Andretti’s first love of racing, the Hudson.

On December 3, 2013, the world came together for the first ever, live social rebuild of a race car. All in effort to reunite Mario Andretti, a famous and successful world champion racing driver, with his first love and recreate the Hudson in GT6.

The Hudson is what Mario and his twin brother Aldo began to modify with funds that they earned in their uncle’s garage in 1959. They took turns racing the old Hudson on oval dirt tracks near Nazareth, where they were living at the time. Both brothers had two wins each after their first four races, of course, without their parents consent.

Aldo was seriously hurt near the end of the season, and their parents were unhappy to find out that the twins were racing. However that did not stop Mario Andretti from having 21 modified stockcar wins in 46 races in 1960 and 1961.

Working closely with the Sony PlayStation team, fans were able to view updates and behind the scenes videos during the entire build each day, for all five days.

We were excited when PlayStation integrated this recreation to be featured in PlayStation’s new video game, Gran Turismo 6 (Release Date: December 6, 2013).

Every small detail in the interior and exterior of this recreation was captured and photographed in every possible angle. You can drive this exclusive car through one of the game’s updates, available as of December 19, 2013.

To get inside this amazing story in full detail, watch all three video chapters (“First Love,” “Live Build,” and “Reunion”) of this short film, and see what Mario Andretti thinks when we unveil the recreation of his first love of racing. Plus, you can get some exclusive insight from our very own CEO, Billy Hammon.