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In 1969, the second year of Hot Wheels™ releases saw the introduction of the Classic '36 Ford Coupe, designed by Larry Wood. The casting was manufactured in the US, and available in a variety of colors. Unfortunately, in less than three years it was discontinued, either due to budget cuts or a wearing-out of the molds — quite possibly both.

The casting was redesigned to save costs, and in the Bicentennial year of 1976, released as the Neet Streeter™, resplendent in its famous "Oldie but a Goodie" livery.

bbussey  RLC™# 348

On the originals, the chassis for each definitely are different; the exhaust system and rear suspension were changed. To clear up a misnomer here: the original Streeter chassis was not from modified tooling of the '36 chassis. It was a new tool based upon the '36 tooling. The whole front end is different, as well as the exhaust piping and taillights. Those features could not have been accomplished by modifying the '36 chassis tooling.

Also, the Streeter had the small diameter wheels up front replaced with medium diameter wheels. The body details are obvious, with the elimination of the rumble seat and glass, and the dumbed-down interior had the hood scoop added. While Taz has indicated that the internal rumble seat mounts still existed on the Streeter, it's clear that all of the components were retooled and nothing was utilized from the '36 Coupe.

bbussey  RLC™# 348

I have not seen a dissected original NS in decades, but I could have sworn that the black scoop was part of the black interior. It makes no sense, given the cost-cutting philosophy of Mattel® at the time, that they would have designed the NS to have an extra component to assemble. The existing '36 glass would have fit and they chose not to use it in order to cut costs, so it would seem that the interior would have been retooled along with the body and chassis for the NS.

nspo  RLC™# 18673

Found this on the OnlineRedlineGuide site. The caption says that the '36 Coupe molds were lost or sold, and this Neet Streeter™ prototype represents one of the first shots cast with the new tool since it has no casting number and is painted an odd color. It does indeed show rumble seat traces, showing that it's a modified '36 Coupe tooling, not an all-new design.

gglenn  RLC™# 5291

Is it possible that they reverse-engineered an existing body as the basis for the new design, if they didn't have existing tooling?

nspo  RLC™# 18673

Or the bottom mold piece (the one that forms the inside of the body) could have just been waiting for a part number; all they'd have to do is engrave it.

armataz  RLC™# 1903

So has anybody drilled apart the latest NS to see if the rumble seat "traces" still exist?

The 1990's India Neet Streeter™ is not the same as the 1970's Hong Kong casting as I had originally thought. The Indian release has seen much more wear, with less repair. I'd be surprised if any of the original tells still remain.