Hot Wheels Production Code?

have you ever had this feeling when you saw the cars in hw rack but wasn't sure whether those hw car was from the new wave or from the old wave? well just flip over and find the the 3 characters code printed at the bottom of the cars. these 3 characters code can actually give you some clue.



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you'll notice the code started with an alphabet and followed by 2 numbers. well the alphabet actually represent the year the car was produced, and the 2 numbers represent the week number in that year the car was produced.

example:
C09 = Year 2010, week number 09 in that year.
C05 = Year 2010, week number 05 in that year.
B18 = Year 2009, week number 18 in that year.
A33 = Year 2008, week number 33 in that year.

99.9% of the cars that came in the same wave will have the same code printed at the bottom of the car. for example the cars that came in gangster grin wave is C09, ratbomb wave is C06, chevroletor wave is C04, camaro wave is C01 and etc. the exception here is the TH$. if you have a chance to score TH$ on the rack, you'll notice the code for TH$ is actually earlier than the rest of the car that came in the same wave.

back to the first pic i posted above, the nerve hammer code C09 mean this car came in gangster grin wave. more example below:

stockar that came in 2010 chevroletor wave - C04.

VW fastback that came in 2008 drift king wave - A33.


the current gangster grin wave that hit our shore is C09. so the next wave that hit our shore will have the code number that's higher than C09, eg C10, C11 or C12 etc... this information is very usefull for me cause i do not actually remember all the cars that came in the wave. so if i wasn't so sure what cars that's hang on the rack (especially in 7E outlet :p ), i just flip the cars over and look at the bottom code.

this code mechanism only started in mid year 2008. so you'll see those cars that produce before mid year 2008 will have no code at the bottom of the cars. that's also explain why the code A is = 2008. :D

i hope you find this information usefull and happy hunting! :)