Review – Hot Wings X-114

While I was in Seattle last month I ran across the Hot Wings series of toy planes (official site, Amazon.com search*) and quickly settled on grabbing the X-114. A decent little toy plane; not as nice as the Matchbox Sky Busters*, but nice enough that the hardcore toy plane fans in the audience will want to take a look at the Hot Wings line.

3.5-Inch Wingspan

The Hot Wings X-114 is a little plane, fitting in perfectly with the Matchbox jets. I don’t think this guy’s to scale with other planes of this size, but the diecast metal body and size make it plenty durable and a good buy for the $2 I spent on it. The Matchbox Sky Busters* planes I own are a better quality, but this looks great and is a perfectly serviceable toy plane.

Minimal Colors

Cast in red metal, other than the wheels and the (plastic) propeller everything is tampo-printed or painted onto the toy. The tampo work is clean, but those white stripes on the wings are a bit faded and not as rich as I would have liked; some of the red is bleeding through in spots and the white has more a pinkish hue than I think the designers wanted.

I Prefer Sky Busters

While this may be my only interaction with the Hot Wings series of toy planes (official site, Amazon.com search*), I can safely say that I find Mattel’s Matchbox Sky Busters* planes are more entertaining and better-manufactured toys. This series is fine for those who want the planes not available in other lines, but if you have a choice between this and a Matchbox plane I suggest Matchbox first.

Competing with a company the size of Mattel is hard as hell, and in this instance Mattel is the clear winner. But that doesn’t at all make the Hot Wings series of toy planes (official site, Amazon.com search*) bad in any way. Quite the opposite; this is a fun little design. It’s just that the Mattel toys are better; better tampo work, better metal, and overall higher quality pieces.