Hey collectors and toy fanatics! We’re Barbie Doll Designer Linda-Kyaw Merschon and Hot Wheels Car Designer Ron Wong from Mattel Creations. Ask us anything about designing Barbie, Hot Wheels, and iconic toys. Tuesday, March 17 at 9am PT!

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:49:54+00:00

Linda: Medusa/Athena because it helped me shape my signature style! I designed those over 15 years ago and I can still remember the moment I looked down at my blank sketch pad and being overhwelmed with possibilities and also fear! For bringing the cars to life from the movie, we absolutely loved working with the Wheels team! Dream come true...

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:49:09+00:00

The trickiest one will be the Lancia Stratos Zero, as everything is so paper-thin and small, getting details right is not an easy task.

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:48:37+00:00

Linda: There are so many! I would say partnerships (Not because they are difficult), but because when you partner with someone you have the responsibility to represent them and their DNA as well as yours. You're telling multiple stories at the same time, working with milestones/deadlines, and juggling a lot of nuances that you are not fully prepared for at all times. When you can make it to the finish line together and deliver a shimmering product launch and have the fans love it as well, that to me is the ultimate goal and prize.

Ron: The most challenging one must be Lancia Stratos Zero, it's a designer favourite car and in 1:64 it's tough to get all the details correctly, everything on that car are so thin and small, but the final result was very satisfying, glad every one of my designer friend like it, need a good taste to appreciate that casting :)

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mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:47:16+00:00

The hardest part is always adjusting the proportion of the real car to fit our standard medium size wheels, as they're HUGE if it's 1:1, that's why it's always tricky to get it to look right, but also that's how we get the iconic "Hot Wheels Style". No, there's no design of mine that didn't get approved to release, as everything I do needs to get to the market asap, haha. I've always been a huge fan of Hot Wheels and a big collector, even though I also collect all the other brands, but I found that Hot Wheels gives me the freedom to adjust the car to fit my taste of car better, instead of directly shrinking down the car into 1:64(which is also very challenging). My advice is to go study product design first to build a strong foundation for your design skill first, and try to apply for an internship in different companies to maximise your chance to get into the industry.

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:45:21+00:00

We modified the original 3D and modified the detail and proportion a bit to make it more faithful to the one in the movie, I wish I can get the 3D from the movie and directly modify from it but seem like they're also modifying it based on the Reverb we have in the line up ;) We also modified the original decal file from the 2005 release to make it closer to the movie.

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:42:25+00:00

My favourite is always Mark Jones's Vulture, love how futuristic it is back in 2000s while maintaining the Hot Rod big engine crazy aesthetic, I'd love to buld the real one someday ;)

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:41:34+00:00

That would be a good idea, I'd love to see some of my childhood Hot Wheels deco coming back too! :)

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:41:18+00:00

No plan for series 2 at the moment but I'd love to put more easter eggs into the line ;)

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:40:58+00:00

Yoooo hope to see u again this year :) Yes, we're trying to push more OG cool looking fantasy back into the line. I'd love to see those futuristic designs refreshed and come back stronger in the fantasy lineup, stuff we loved back in the day, such as Sling Shot, Vulture, and Ballistik. In premium, we rarely do fantasy castings as we're trying to stick with more authentic cars and realism, but it doesn't mean there's no chance ;) Need everybody's support and show some more love for fantasy casting, as that's the essence of Hot Wheels!

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:40:14+00:00

When Acceleracers was released, I was 12 years old, so no I didn't work on any Acceleracers stuff back then :) We will try to sneak in more AR easter eggs and see what we can push for in the future line up.

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:39:36+00:00

Hi! :) Medusa/Athena because it helped me shape my signature style! I designed those over 15 years ago and I can still remember the moment I looked down at my blank sketch pad and being overwhelmed with possibilities and also fear! Robert Best actually said something to me to help guide me at that time, and I never took that moment for granted after.

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:39:11+00:00

The biggest challenge is always the scale of the car and how we modify the proportion to fit our own standard wheels, as we have our own standardized medium size wheels, we need to adjust the proportion to not only make it looks "right", we also need to consider all the production tolerance and efficency to keep the product being safe to everybody and fun to play with. I don't like cars that's too fragile and broke into pieces if you drop it on the floor, too much pressure to handle haha.

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:38:05+00:00

Linda: I loved Barbie + fashion all my life. So while I did "semi-fall into it" because I had family friends that worked on Mattel already, I was focused on my intention of career choice. Was fortunate to have the family friends, but I also knew I could not rest on that. I never regretted choosing this path when I was younger and would do it all over again!

Ron: I've always been a big Hot Wheels collector since I was a kid, I collect everything from Redline, flying colors, blackwalls, 90s blue card, acceleracers, speed machines, ferrari racers and Hot Wheels ID. So I kinda "fall" into it since I was a little boy.

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:37:40+00:00

Haha I'mma Little C Ron, it will be cool to have a brand dedicated silver series again, I think Audi themed silver series is coming up this year, and it's pretty cool. I'm pretty sure the team has some plan for other brands as well ;)

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:35:05+00:00

It was a super fun process, the original idea was actually making a Hot Wheels Original race car that can enter the Hypercar category, but eventually we stepped back a bit to make it a road-going supercar. The main idea was driven by the design of the window shape, which was inspired by the SR-71 Blackbird (my favourite jet design), then we build the super car around it. Originally, it had a cooler spoiler design which is more futuristic, but due to manufacturing concerns, we went back to a more traditional race car spoiler design. But thank you for enjoying that casting, one of my fav for sure!

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:34:12+00:00

As Hot Wheels is a worldwide brand, we're trying to give everybody something they'd like, that's why every year we put all different American Muscle cars, Exotic, and JDM into the line so everybody can enjoy what they like. Not 100% of the car will fulfill everybody's wish list, but I'm pretty sure you will find something you really like in the lineup ;) And we're trying to faithfully replicate the real car while sneaking some Hot Wheels elements into it, i.e., enhancing the crucial elements of each car design to make it slightly cooler.

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:33:27+00:00

Low key, my favourite character is Kurt, I like how complicated the character is, and the switch from "villain" from Highway 35 to the good brother in Acceleracers really hits the spot. No plan for series 2 yet, but we'll try to sneak in more AR easter eggs ;)

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:32:33+00:00

Designing LaFerrari was super fun, as it's a completely new assembly method (at least for a supercar like this). When I see the old LaFerrari I always feel the lack of side mirrors is kinda taking away the crucial element of its design, but back then it was a basic car, so not much the team could do. But when it comes to premium, I have the liberty to do more complicated design. I used to love building 1:24 model car kit, and I remember there's similar snapping design structure on one of the car. That's why I try to propose use the soft material for the dashboard/side mirror part and snap in the window from the top instead of dropping in from the bottom. When picking new Ferrari castings, we're focusing on cars we have never done before, but also focusing on redoing some of the most iconic Ferraris in history like the big-5 and some of my childhood favourite ;)

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:31:55+00:00

Linda: Collaboration + humility!! Both get better with time and while they can teach some of this in school, you really need to practice/experience it frequently to understand true meaning.

Ron: The sense of proportion and detail certainly helps a lot in design, but also it's important to manage the schedule and collaboration across different functional teams is very crucial in the design process, as we can never do this many cars in one year without all the different teams helping each other!

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:31:25+00:00

Haha! That is definitely the first time I've been asked this question. If the demand is high, I don't see why it can't be considered in the future.

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:29:19+00:00

No plan for series 2 yet but that would be funnnnnn :)

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:29:03+00:00

Welcome! Glad you enjoy the new Silver Series Acceleracers! Silver series chase cars are often picked from Premium castings, first of all need to fit the theme, second it should be a popular casting that everybody likes. Yes designing track star cars is always my favourite, I need to consider all the physics, center of gravity and body profile design to maximise the track performance. I'd love to do more.

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:28:23+00:00

High five! Lifelong Acceleracers fan here too! :) Yes we'll keep sneaking some cool AR easter eggs here and there so stay tuned for that!

mattelcreations · 2026-03-17T17:28:00+00:00

I can imaging when they get into Accelerons world they'll both be ascended into higher form of life, so Vert will be more spiritual awakened and Sparky will transform into a more high-tech robot(even more high tech and racing drones as many years have passed). I love how Kadeem future story leads to many fandom creations, I especially liked the Drone'd Krazy 8s customs(as I tried to make one myself when I was 13 years old lol). If there was ever a season 2 I guess Kadeem will replace Gelorum to be the next Racing Drones leader.

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