Loading ...

header graphic


BlueRealRiders.com Voices of Dissent 2008 RLC™ sELECTIONs™ #2

Regarding the Bait 'n' Switch Barracuda
AKA the Kontroversial Kuda

Posted 06-01-08


During the second RLC™ sELECTIONs™ poll of 2008, voters were shown a photo of, and allowed to vote for, a car that hadn't been made since 1970. (HWC.com declined to allow the BRRC® to show that image.)

It was forty years ago, and among the first 16 Hot Wheels® releases were "California custom" renditions of some of the hottest cars on the road at the time! We're offering a choice of four of those beloved original castings...
--HWC Staff


The questioning began, even as the votes were cast.

Since the original Custom Barracuda casting is the one that has been pictured two weeks running... are you going to retool the original Custom Barracuda casting if it wins the sELECTIONs bracket?
--RLC member

I'm glad you raised this issue... count me as another member who'd be VERY unhappy if they tried to pass off the current King Kuda casting as a Custom Barracuda.
--RLC member


To widespread disbelief, there seemed to be confirmation from On High:

After this week, only one of these two will be admitted to the sELECTIONs® series: the Custom Barracuda (a '68 casting based on the 1967 Barracuda) or the '70 Ford Torino, released in the 2008 inaugural Modern Classics line.
--HWC Staff


The Barracuda won. Only then came the official announcement:

When the four cars were selected for the '68 bracket, I consulted with the team to see what we had in our tool bank. It was unanimous that the "Custom Barracuda" had already been retooled.

Once it was put in the polls and all the queries started coming in, it was obvious that unanimously, everyone was wrong. It was at that point we started exploring options to make this right should the Barracuda win.

I can tell you this will most likely not be a "from the ground up" re-tool. However, we're looking at making some tool modifications to the existing Custom Plymouth Barracuda tool, (currently in Ultra Hots) that will get us closer to the original look of the Custom Barracuda.

A perfect solution? Nope. But hopefully an acceptable one.

If nothing else, it will be a version of the Custom Cuda which hasn't existed before.
--HWC Staff


Members expressed everything from outrage to amusement; and another uproar began.

Its too bad everyone voted for the Barracuda... I'm voting blue with Real Riders to make this casting a complete joke.
--RLC member


When the voting brackets for color came up, Aqua was the closest color to blue offered. The membersheep actually moved slightly to the left, and Green became the color voted in by the majority.

But the "redline purists" were dismayed by the "wheel rounds". The historic RSW/TBS (Red Striped Wheel with Torsion Bar Suspension) was competing against what was declared the ugliest Real Riders wheel Mattel could find. (That's the wheel shown on the BRR®mobile). Even so, the cheapie rubber wheels won yet again.

In a final postscript, the staff added insult to injury:

As you know, after the confusion with the photos and tool availability for the Custom Barracuda in sELECTIONS #2, we were going to attempt to modify the current tool in some way to get it closer to the original 1968 version. Unfortunately, after several weeks of work, it appears the tool can't be modified to bring us the results we were hoping for.

We'll be moving forward with the Custom Barracuda currently in our tool bank...
--HWC Staff

Since its creation in 1976, the Neet Streeter has never had windows.

You can change that.

Glass for Streeters
Click here

Photo showing the vas deferens between the original body style (left) and the modern re-issue. We're picky!

hotrodrascal  RLC™# 25975

This sELECTIONs round was very messed up. Wrong casting; if I would have known it was going to be the KK, which has already been a sELECTIONs winner, then I would have voted differently. But of course we find out after the casting won, that it is not what was advertised.

Then the RR "wagon wheels" on a casting representing the '68 era? Man, the wheels on that look fugly.

The RLC should offer this one for $10 with free shipping and give us double points per purchase.

loaf  RLC™# 12361

Hey, all those RR voters have got to be happy. That thing sure is ugly with the color/wheel combo that won. Congrats.

Alleycat1434  RLC™# 32082

Did we vote on that thing? Yuck... I'll still pick one up since it's a Mopar but I hope it looks better than the pictures...

carwizard64  RLC™# 3919

I still believe that if HWC people had come clean on this snafu well before the casting final closed I could be ordering a Torino on July 8th.

justbcuz  RLC™# 2428

Yeah, I got ya. It's from the 'Barracuda Polls Are Over!' news story...

"Offered the opportunity to have a '68 Editions Hot Wheels® casting restored to active duty, Red Line Club™ members took the bait and selected the Custom Barracuda for the second 2008 RLC™ sELECTIONs™ car!"

I thought that was a poor choice of words after the bait-and-switch tactics (ignorance, whatever) of posting an image of an actual '68 Custom Barracuda casting, then admitting that they didn't have a clue, and it was really going to be the 30th anniversary based King Kuda casting with a hood.

'Shucks and giggles'. I'm really not very amused. I find it almost unbelievable that the people in charge didn't know the difference, and / or didn't know what castings they had available.

crum_a  RLC™# 43020

I'm betting that the production numbers on this one will be very low. I still can't believe they (you know who you are) voted for those rubber wagon wheels.

Note: There were 5592 ordered and produced.

MauserBob  RLC™# 35562

Abso-frickin-lutely hideous. Proportions don't look right to me... wheelwells too big & too square looking, and the side profile shows a windshield\roofline more befitting an FW-190 than a 2nd gen Barracuda. Last but certainly not least, that trunk's got more junk in it than J-Lo's does. Don't look right at all.

Note that I never bothered to mention the much-maligned wheel selection. No need to make dead-horse pureé.

juswheels  RLC™# 2081

Just my opinion but from looking at the photos, the fit on the grille is not only awful but incorrect, to boot. The body shows some normal production mold pitting but the "new" hood is smooth as silk. It looks like something that was built from a Pick N Pull parts yard. As for the grey wheels, well they speak for themselves. Wasn't anyone thinking when it was designed? Sorry, but this is waste of money and one to avoid.

36ford  RLC™# 16448

It's a hideous casting and it deserves the hideous RR's that it got. This is by far and away the easiest car I've ever passed on.

RR fans - eat it up - enjoy !!!

DeviantMan  RLC™# 37340

I'm disappointed in the decision to use that overweight Cuda casting instead of that more accurate and more recent drop-dead ***y casting 1968 Plymouth Cuda. Just how difficult is re-casting anyway? I would have got this car only because of the new casting, but thankfully I can pass on this and get a better release down the line...

Wait, is the word *** taboo on this board??? That's typical.