Hot Wheels Legends Tour Begins 9th Season in Tampa

Imagine spending several years making or restoring the car of your dreams. You’ve toiled over the tools and parts, shaped or even “frenched” the perfect fender and taillights. You paint it to a lustrous shine. Finally, the day of your big reveal arrives and you show up at your local car show, or Cars and Coffee event, receiving rave reviews from all your friends. On your way home, you think to yourself, “Well, what’s next?” How about world-wide recognition as a “Hot Wheels Legend?” That’s right, your hard work can be immortalized as a 1/64-scale Hot Wheels replica, to be sold and collected around the world. But first, you must make the scene at one of the stops on the Hot Wheels Legends Tour.


By Mark Elias

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May 11, 2026

Imagine spending several years making or restoring the car of your dreams. You’ve toiled over the tools and parts, shaped or even “frenched” the perfect fender and taillights. You paint it to a lustrous shine. Finally, the day of your big reveal arrives and you show up at your local car show, or Cars and Coffee event, receiving rave reviews from all your friends. On your way home, you think to yourself, “Well, what’s next?” How about world-wide recognition as a “Hot Wheels Legend?” That’s right, your hard work can be immortalized as a 1/64-scale Hot Wheels replica, to be sold and collected around the world. But first, you must make the scene at one of the stops on the Hot Wheels Legends Tour.
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Nine years of legendary builds

Now in its ninth year, the Hot Wheels Legends Tour is back for another round. The Tour seems to have taken a firm hold in Florida. Previous events have occurred in Miami and Tampa, with this year’s event taking place in Pinellas Park, Florida. Over 150 custom vehicles entered, including hot rods, rat rods, restomods, off-roaders, drag racers and Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) examples. Besides the entries, other popular rigs were represented including life-sized versions of Hot Wheels mainstays like the Twin Mill and the Bone Shaker.


A life-size version of the 1991 Mazda Miata Hot Wheels car with Arizona Tea co-branding.Advertisement
One of the world’s most famous Porsche race cars, “Rexy” made a west Florida cameo appearance. Notice the gold teeth that are gained as the Porsche 911 GT3 R gets race wins.New sponsors for the nationwide events were also represented. AriZona Beverage, makers of AriZona Tea brought their customized Mazda MX5 Miata and Mobil1 showed off one of its sponsored race cars, “Rexy,” the world-famous AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R. Both have been miniaturized as popular selling Hot Wheels cars. As Rexy gains race successes, his owners have taken to awarding him with gold teeth for his open-mouthed “grille.”

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Jarod De Anda, host of the Hot Wheels Legends event.

Judging is critical

Unlike some car shows, which allows spectators to vote for favorites, the Legends Tour relies on local automotive influencers, as well as Hot Wheels designers, to find a Legend. The vehicles are evaluated on three key factors: authenticity, creativity and garage spirit. The winner moves on to the national semi-finals later this year for the opportunity to continue to the Global Finale.

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The judges looked over entries from local car constructors and hobbyist builders. Chris Scaruzzi’s Toyota-powered 1949 Jeep CJ-4 was custom-built using a twin-turbocharged 2JZ 3.0-liter engine from a Toyota Supra, with Tacoma TRD wheels and a Chevrolet Silverado front end. Scaruzzi showed a photo of the Jeep when he bought it, when it was basically, a skeleton; his restoration was impressive.

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Jon Lucas’s 1952 Studebaker pickup restomod also made an appearance. It featured a Farmall tractor nose to house the cooling system and power from a 350-cu.in. General Motors V8 with fully-functional “over the top” exhaust system.

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Speaking of over the top, that honor belonged to “Caddywampus.” Finished in piano black, it began life as a 1996 Corvette Grand Sport convertible. Fully massaged, it features a Cadillac front end, rear fins, an Oldsmobile V8 and a “Batmobile Sports Convertible” vibe.
Matt McEntegart’s 1979 Chevrolet “El Camino,” is a one-of-one widebody build. Sitting atop a C6 Corvette platform, the El Camino features massive 22” x 14” wheels tucked under hand-built widebody fenders and an ultra-low air suspension.Advertisement

Best of Show

Matt McEntegart took top spot with his fully customized and radically fabricated 1979 Chevrolet “Monte-Mino” SS. A one-off widebody build, it combines the look of a Monte Carlo with an El Camino. McEntegart started with a C6 Corvette platform and added massive 22×14-inch wheels, which tucked nicely under the wide body fenders thanks to an ultra-low air suspension for a ground-hugging stance. The interior is red and plaid, direct from the 1970s. Power is derived from a Corvette LS engine with velocity stacks.



From Tampa, McEntegart will take the Monte-Mino SS to the Hot Wheels regional finals. These occur across Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and North America. From there, four regional champions will compete at the global grand finale in November where one will be selected for Hot Wheels immortality.
A 1976 Jeep CJ “Jeepenstein”, complete with a Hellcat HEMI engineAdvertisement

The Energy and the Emotion of Hot Wheels

According to the Washington Post, the Hot Wheels brand is recognized as the world’s best-selling toy. Its parent company, Mattel, is widely considered the largest auto manufacturer, by volume, in the world. They produce roughly 500 million vehicles per year or around 16.5 vehicles every second. Talk about moving metal, or in this case, Zamac (Zinc, Aluminum, Magnesium And Copper), they produce more vehicles than all other major automakers combined.


Hot Wheels Designer Charlie Angulo poses with 17 year-old Hot Wheels collector and customizer Justin Gonzalez.Advertisement
Like real auto manufacturers, Mattel employs designers who toil over the look and emotion that the cars impart on their owners. One of these designers is Charlie Angulo, who is a Los Angeles native literally raised in the car culture. Angulo was introduced to the culture unknowingly while still in utero. His parents would take him to car shows before he was born. After his debut (!), he developed a love for art and cars that eventually carried him to the prestigious ArtCenter College of Design. That, and being raised in the L.A. car scene has certainly been a major influence in his life.

The Tampa Legends Tour stop was where we caught up with Charlie. We asked what he thought so far? “The temperature here in Tampa isn’t that hot, but the cars are definitely bringing the heat,” he said. There are a lot of really nice builds that I haven’t seen before, and a nice variety, too. There were a number of dropped trucks, which is a trend I am seeing,” he said. Getting the story behind the builds and actually talking with the builders is what inspires him.
A 1949-era Chevrolet 3100 pickup restomod, complete with turbocharged V8 and AirLift Performance suspension.Advertisement

Engineering vs. Design: A lot of give and take

There’s a lot of give and take that goes into a Hot Wheels design before the car is ready for production. One of Charlie’s latest is a 1967 Ferrari 330 P4. A Ferrari racing prototype, only four were built and three remain. “I love that car,” exclaimed Angulo. “I definitely put a lot of work into that one and wanted to make sure the details were captured because Ferrari has some of the most beautiful cars in history.”



The engineering department will be like, “Oh, we just have to thicken this thing up, you know, and as a designer, you’re thinking, you’re going to ruin the beauty of the car,” he said. So there’s a lot of back and forth trying to figure out ways to make it work without ruining the look of the car.”
A late 1950’s Chevrolet El Camino, complete with injected GM V8Advertisement




Mark Elias started in cars with his first Matchbox toys (A Jaguar D-Type and a Ferrari Racing Car) at the age of three. His collection has grown and laid the groundwork for his current endeavors. They have included photojournalism, corporate photography, car reviews, and photographing for various automotive manufacturers. He still shoots but also writes for industry journals and websites. He can be reached at melias.media@gmail.com.