Cool is Cool is Cool: The Hot Wheels 8-spoke Real Rider Wheels, aka fake watanabes aka fake minilites...

It was fun to watch the internet explode last night as word got out that Hot Wheels was releasing a Datsun 510 Wagon Super Treasure Hunt.  In our minds, this Super is darn-near perfect.  A great color with a great livery, along with the logos of some very important JDM names.

But what tops it off are the wheels it sits on.  Those, in official Hot Wheels speak, are the 8-Spoke Real Riders, introduced in 2011.  They serve a wide array or purposes, and signal many types of styles and eras.

There was a time when I shied away from Real Riders.  I like seeing cars roll, and the Real Riders of yesterday seemed to deter that from happening.  They were bulky, awkward, and play-value killers.  That has completely changed now.  Not only is there a wide array of styles, they actually work well on the models.  And they resemble all kinds of real rims.

There is the Exotic Real Rider, which resembles the 5-point rims used on Ferraris, the GT Real Rider, which adorns the Toyota 2000GT Super and many other cars from that era, like the Ferrari 250 GTO, and a wheel that is close to my heard, the Dish Style Real Rider, which resembles the wheels used on the speed demons of the Bonneville Salt Flats, which is only a hop, skip and a jump from the Lamley offices.  In fact, if you want to see something interesting, just check out the wheel guide at South Texas.  There are a lot of wheels available to the blue brand.

But back to the 8-spoke.  It seems to us the creation of this wheel was to serve two main purposes: to resemble the Minilite wheel used on many a vintage race car, as well as resemble the classic Watanabe rims from Japan.  Look them up, and you will see what we are talking about.  Some examples:

You can see why we like this style of rims.  Whether large or small, on low profile (but not too low) or meaty tires, these wheels really work on the right vintage car.  (And some current cars.)

So we picked some of our favorite 8-spoke-RR-wearing models that Hot Wheels has released in the last few years.  There are many others, so feel free to share your favorites with us as well on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or right here...

Enjoy.