HW Art Cars | 1967 Austin Mini Van

When you talk about the Mini, a few things come to mind. It’s either it reminds you Mr. Bean owns a lime green two-door hatch or if you are an old-school film nut you might have a deep recall of an old 1960s heist film titled “The Italian Job.” There are actually two versions of the movie that very few would have remembered The Mini is prominent in both its cinematic appearance. But either way, the Mini is as iconic as its brand name for a small car that was originally manufactured originally by the now-defunct British Motor Company, and later acquired the rights to spinoff as its own brand now owned by BMW. Hot Wheels, an American die-cast brand would produce variations of the car until today.

If you are a very specific die-cast car collector regardless of which brand has produced a similar model of the mini and its various iterations you might not even care how it is presented in its cool liveries to the outrageous ones you’ll simply pick it up and add it to your ever-growing Mini collection.

Hot Wheels has been one of those die-cast car brands that would produce the British iconic car, and expanding its iterations from the classic well-known hatchback to the modern ones that BMW has been producing since the 2000s. But one can’t simply stop there to just put out the old and new versions of the same model.

Artsy Fancy Mini

In 2015, Hot Wheels’ mainline basic assortment introduced the “HW Art Cars” segment that includes five models comprised of two licensed cars and three Hot Wheels Original castings or commonly known as unlicensed vehicles not tied-up to a licensed car brand. The three Hot Wheels Original includes the Bread Box, Hiway Hauler 2, and Mad Manga.

The other licensed car is the 1953-1957 Volkswagen Beetle, which is a ‘regular’ Treasure Hunt. But the Austin Mini Van, a variant of the Mini was the one that stood out since the Beetle was hard-to-find to acquire if you’re a casual collector and getting interested in a theme. There have been three colour variations of the Austin Mini Van. The third variation is a US Walmart Exclusive.

Personally, the easiest variation to get was the Metalflake Dark Red with the livery appearing to be hand-painted by a child to look like an art project based on how the deco would appear as it was presented as part of the HW Art Cars. The secondary colour is the Metalflake Dark Blue, which has taken me almost five years to acquire until a recent local die-cast collector meet-up happened and found one.

British Panel Van

The Darker Red has similarities with the Darker Blue having a shade of the same yellow plastic base. But the interior as well as the body is obviously different. The chosen wheel design is the same albeit the colours are different. The Darker Red version sports a colourful paint job while the Darker Blue just has plain white on all four wheels.

The Darker Blue version emphasized the Union Jack flag, which appears to be hand-painted on the roof due to the panel van’s body colour. Unlike the Darker Red version, which becomes more of an art car than a representation of what British Pop Culture representation of the Mini would look like.

It is still an art car that you’d want to get to complete at least the regular HW Art Cars, but the Darker Blue version simply takes the look and colour of the Union Jack flag and tones down the colours of the wheels that match with the white interior.

Overall, it took some time to find the Metalflake Darker Blue version. I would have just lost hope in getting it back. I almost got too close to acquiring it back in 2018, but when I went back to where I saw it the car was gone. The slight change of colour clearly makes the casting interesting for its design.

This casting of the 1967 Austin Mini Van is difficult to find, and it only appeared only two years in the mainline basic assortment. The rest of its succeeding releases after 2016 has been through the premium range having licensed art of properties from DC, Warner, and even featuring the Beetles painted on them.

It is a rare variant of the Mini that you don’t see on the pegs quite as often as its original Mini variant. But if you find one basic or premium pick it up because it is part of the British popular culture that is now a novelty that you only see in car meets/car shows or in your collection, every single day, and sometimes in your workspace is truly a must-have into you ever growing Mini Collection.