The Best Christmas Eve. Twice.

On a snowy Christmas Eve a long time ago, my parents let me choose one gift from under the tree to open. 

Only one.

They pointed to a box covered with bright red, Santa-patterned wrapping paper. I tore it open. Inside was a dazzling, giant Hot Wheels Collector's Case – a black racing wheel with a red stripe. It was made by Mattel.

I could now keep all of my Hot Wheels cars in one place. It had become a moderately impressive (24) collection housed in a series of makeshift shoe boxes.

Mattel was the only toymaker in the world that mattered to me. Between the sleek, mid-century futurism of Hot Wheels' first cars and Major Matt Mason, Mattel's NASA-inspired line of Space-Age toys, my imagination soared. My three younger sisters were equally enchanted by Barbie, also made by Mattel.

I continued to build my Hot Wheels collection. I added more cars, tracks, SuperChargers and, eventually, books and comics.

One Saturday morning I had set up a massive track that covered our full basement. Turns, banks, loops, hills, jumps and chargers. Everything.

I called up two friends to see if they wanted to join me. They declined. Little League practice was heating up.

So, I hung out with my cars. Alone.

Now I suppose I could say I was sad playing by myself. But I was mesmerized by the intricate design of my tracks and the mad number of cars I could keep flying around the room, watching all the sparkling, die-cast colors zoom by. I was beyond happy.

After a while, sadly, other adventures called me. My cars gradually disappeared, one by one. My younger brother gladly inherited what was left of my collection. But I never knew where my Hot Wheels case went.

Until this Christmas Eve.

My mother, now here with us in semi-quarantine in our house on Cape Cod, sent me off to the basement in search of a particularly large box. I found it after a long search.

After I brought it upstairs, she reached into it. And out came my giant Hot Wheels Collectors' Case.

"I saved them for you," she said, as she passed the black case to me.

Sometime back in the 1970s, she told me, she took each car that had been abandoned, wrapped each one carefully in a paper towel and returned them to the case. They had vanished. And yet, here they were again.

"I just thought you might want them," she said. She was right.

.....

Last year, Mattel invited us to work with them on their 75th Anniversary.

Another gift.

Mattel began in 1945 in a garage in California. It was as a collaboration between Ruth and Elliot Handler, and Harold “Matt” Matson—designers and engineers—whose collective focus on creativity and innovation would forever change how kids play.

Hot Wheels was born when Ruth and Elliot challenged their design team, which included a General Motors car designer and a rocket scientist to create a toy car that was cooler and performed better than anything on the market.

So they did just that.

Hot Wheels is now the best-selling toy brand in the world. Among countless innovations, Mattel has also created specialty versions modeled after everything from Spider-Man to Darth Vader to the Batmobile. The company estimates that “10 Hot Wheels cars are purchased every second.”

But if there is a more recent sign of Hot Wheels’ influence in our culture, it came from a surprising source – Elon Musk. He shot a Hot Wheels car into space. (That's it, centered on the dashboard.)

Over the last 75 years Mattel has grown into a leading global toy company and creator of franchises beloved by children and families around the world. Home to iconic toy brands—including Barbie, Fisher-Price, He-Man, Thomas the Tank Engine, American Girl—and Hot Wheels, thank you—Mattel has helped shaped global culture through the power of play.

That all said, our inner kids were insanely giddy to be invited to help develop the special identity to honor the anniversary of this beloved brand.

In digging through the company archives, we came across their early logo—featuring “Matty” Mattel. It was on all of their toys, including smack in the center of my Hot Wheels Collectors' Case. Our San Francisco team had fallen in love with the symbol's imaginal spirit. What better way, they thought, to honor Mattel’s legacy than to reintroduce the world to a point in time when Mattel first captured our hearts, our minds, and, most importantly, children’s imaginations?

A huge thanks to our wonderful partners at Mattel, including Laura Trombo, Jamie Dunn, and Chris Down. They were as creative, inventive, thoughtful, and wonderful to work with as we imagined anyone at Mattel could ever be.

And bravo my gifted colleagues at COLLINS in San Francisco, including Louis Mikolay, Ben Crick, Yeun Kim, Mackenzie Pringle, Victoria Thomas, Karin Soukup and Neil Jackson. They turned history into fuel.

But most of all, happy anniversary, Mattel. You've been toymakers—and joymakers—for over seven decades.

Especially for one eager kid on a snowy Christmas Eve.

More images from our work with Mattel can be found on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJEOjrehKO8/