Best Motorcycle 2014: First Look: Hot Wheels Corvette Stingray Concept & '69 Corvette...

Hot Wheels Batch M must be the American classics batch.

Well actually, almost every batch from Hot Wheels has its share of American classics. Muscle is a Hot Wheels staple, so this is no different. But with the real (67 Camaro, Dodge Charger Daytona, a Challenger, as well as these two Corvettes), and the made-up (The Mig Rig), this batch screams Saturday afternoons at the track. Another Batch M model, the Honda S2000, also screams "day at the track", but more in a "driving sideways" manner.

So let's jump into our look at these two Corvettes. Corvette is enjoying its 60th Anniversary this year, and Hot Wheels is doing all it can to help celebrate. Corvettes have been everywhere in the Hot Wheels universe, culminating in the 8-can Corvette set hitting Walmarts as we speak. We have seen old Corvettes, new Corvettes, pretty Corvettes, and ugly Corvettes, and this duo here embodies that.

The prettiest Vettes? How about the '62 that showed up as a Super Treasure Hunt this year? Or the '55 that debuted in the Boulevard line last year, and shows up this year as part of the 8-car set.

The ugliest? Well that can start with the Stingray Concept we are showing today, and can easily go through the late 90's - early 2000 Corvettes that were kind of cheap-looking.

There is one other category. The coolest. While the First Generations were lookers, and the second generations the most suave, it is the third generation Vettes that are too cool for school. Call them porno vettes, mustache vettes, 70's vettes, they are vettes that will punch you in the face just for the heck of it, and then you thank them for the privilege. I love the audacity of the third generation design-wise, and that is why Hot Wheels Corvettes from that era are my favorites.

And they keep getting better. When the 69 Vette debuted in 2006, as a ZL1, that instantly became my favorite Corvette casting. Then the COPO was released, and that claimed the pedestal. That is until it was violently displaced by the Greenwood Corvette, my favorite over-the-top Vette. Thankfully Hot Wheels is releasing the Greenwood in the mainline this year, and we hope to have photos soon.

(In case you were wondering what our favorite Corvette models are...)

But back to the models at hand. There is the Stingray Concept. Hooray. There are queues there that led to the much better looking second-generation Stingray, so at least there is that. The '69? Lookin' good. The 5-spokes work very well, and the design understated. I still like it better in its ZL1 clothes, but this one looks nice.

Looking for any of these models we've discussed? Find them here:

Hot Wheels 69 Corvette