Polestar and Hot Wheels launch die-cast car design contest

Polestar is organizing another design contest in 2024, and this time the stakes are higher than ever. The brand teamed up with Hot Wheels, and the winning design will get turned into a die-cast model that will join the toymaker’s catalog and end up in stores all over the world.

Like the previous editions, the 2024 contest encourages participants to look toward the future. Polestar wants entrants to “be as imaginative as possible and push the boundaries of performance and design,” though the design needs to be turned into a 1/64-scale toy with relative ease. Designers need to create both an exterior and an interior design, and they’re asked to imagine the vehicle’s immediate surroundings.

Anyone can participate in the contest, whether they’re already working as a designer or studying the subject, and the finalists will work one-on-one with members of Polestar’s design team to fine-tune their entry. Winning the contest comes with numerous perks beyond bragging rights and the coolness of owning a Hot Wheels car you designed: Polestar notes some of the previous winners work for its design team.

Last year’s winner, a concept car called Synergy, was displayed at the Munich auto show and at the Hot Wheels Legends Tour’s stop in El Segundo, California. It’s an electric, single-seater supercar that represents the work of three designers: two worked on the exterior, one created the interior, and the trio spent six months combining their ideas into one car. Fittingly, the Synergy looks like a Hot Wheels car.

Polestar will accept entries from March 5 to April 16. It plans to reveal the winner in the fourth quarter of 2024, meaning the car could join the Hot Wheels catalog in 2025. In the meantime, Hot Wheels is working on turning the winner of the 2023 Legends Tour into a toy. The judges selected a 1990 Mazda MX-5 Miata built out of a shed in New Zealand and fitted with an extensive list of visual modifications.