hotwheels elite stradale and 308

got these yesterday, I like the blue stradale.
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Those look really nice! I'm glad I waited for the TdF Stradale!

I'm looking forward to picking up one of the 308s as well...I'm just trying to decide which one is the most accurate.

 

Can you please take a photo of black 308 out of the box

 

Thanks for posting but I thought the blue CS was supposed to be without the stripe.

 

Very nice Stradale in that colour.

 

I picked a Stradale Elite about a month or two ago and have very mixed feelings about it. Mattel has totally shattered any hope for finding logic in the way they make models.
So, they have upgraded and corrected the dash, which on the old model was just a regular 360 dash. There are totally new door moldings for the interior, which are a huge improvement.
Now here is where it gets weird. The old seats were total crap. So HW realized that and made a completely new mold for seats....that........are.........still very, very wrong for a CHS. I don't get it. Why spend money, developing a new part which is just as wrong as the one it was suppose to correct?!?! Same applies about the mirrors. This was one of the bigest complaints about the old model and HW apparently listened, acted and.....F...ed up all over. The addition of the diffuser detail in the back is great, but the sills in front of the rear tires are still standard 360. Then comes the shock to me personally. Mattel decided to replace the front grills with photoetched ones, which look way worst and more inaccurate than the plastic ones on the original release. Same goes for the rear window. The new windows are way thinner and nicer, but the mold for the rear bonnet has not been changed and it result in the rear window being flat and sunk in. One last thing. What is with all the Elites having the flat black on the windows painted on the out side? It creates an edge and it looks really bad.
Over all the Elite CHS is an improvement over the original release but only marginally. Definitely not enough to justify the price hike.
On the other hand I just received the 250LM from Elite and it is definitely worth its money.

 

I may be wrong, but I think the management and all the employees of Hotwheels need to go to a training on how to replicate good looking models. If only the management from AutoArt's Team or KYOSHO can visit the company over to where these Hotwheels Elite are made and produce and kind of help them out a little bit. That would be a dream come true.
Just look at some of AutoArts 1:18 models. They may not be exactly perfect, but the quality is there all the time. It's what I call total satisfaction of owning models from AutoArt. So what do you think is the difference between AutoArt & Hotwheel Elites company? Why are some Elites are better looking than other Elite models? Why is that when you look at every 1:18 model produced by AutoArt you get total satisfaction? Management team perhaps? Employees take great pride on making AutoArt models? Maybe AutoArt employees get paid a lot higher than Hotwheels employees? Or maybe some Hotwheels employees don't give a ****. I don't know.

 

That Stradale looks nice, is the stripe on the car just like the one on the old model? (A sticker?), my old one started to peel from two sides, I managed to put it back on but I was thinking of completely getting rid of the stripe and painting the model black with gold rims. I just don't have time for something like that now, and I really like the TDF colour a lot.

As well, as I was reading Lucky's post, you break down the model great, and I just kept thinking these are all 'money saving' tactics. Using parts from the standard 360 instead of making the molds for the Stradale, and hiking up the price to $90, it's just more money for them in the end.

Also, to comment on Hawaiian's post, Mattel is a giant company making everything from scaled cars to baby toys, so to them these models are just another product for sale. AA for example is almost exclusively models (aside from some accessories), where the bulk of their funds come from, so they need to go that extra bit to compliment the model, and in turn satisfy the customer for repeat business. Of course I'm not including the whole idea of licensing.

 

+ 1 AutoArts and Kyosho both make incredible models. Some Hotwheels Super Elite are very good but priced higher than both Kyosho and AutoArts.