Hot Wheels
For awhile, if you wanted tiny cars to zoom around, Matchbox was the only game in town. Then, in 1968, Mattel set fire to the game. Hot Wheels were the trailblazing rock and roll to Matchbox’s jazz. Inventor Elliott Handler’s goal wasn’t accuracy but style. He used customized, impractical aesthetics to achieve these goals, resulting in wheels that were appropriately hot.