HW Xtreme Sports | Surf's Up

Hot Wheels has constantly reinvented itself to keep ideas fresh while maintaining its core interest in die-cast cars as its primary identity. There have been several castings that don’t solely focus on the “usual stuff” that would try to appeal to the general public, to catch them putting something that won’t appeal to their regular collectors. It’s an ongoing experiment that other brands don’t have the courage to dive into. Speaking of diving, the Hot Wheels team has produced a non-vehicle type casting that’s human-powered. It’s not even a bicycle, but it was produced before the ill-fated 2020 Tokyo Olympics that commemorate the inclusion of surfing as a sport. This is the introduction of “Surf’s Up.” It’s certainly one of the radical things from Mattel.

“Surf’s Up” is a die-cast wheeled surfboard with a figurine produced for the Hot Wheels brand. It takes inspiration from two other non-licensed Hot Wheels castings of the Skate Grom and Mad Splash, which are certainly merging into this Hot Wheels Original that you want to break out and enjoy the toy on the beach!

It was released four times in its debut year, 2020, and it was released twice in 2021. Then, after almost three years of absence, it was brought back again for 2024, which is the one you see here. The 2024 release is part of the subline of “HW Xtreme Sports," which also includes the Skate Grom, Wheelie Chair, Surfin’ School Bus, and the motocross bike named HW450F (formerly Wastelander).

The front of the card shows a surfer chopping through the waves, which shows the current graphic and colour of the product. Its brighter colours compared to the 2021 or even the 2020 debut year are refreshing in this shade of green. It shows that the new deco has that attraction to a random individual who might not be into Hot Wheels, but it gets your attention for its vibrant colours.

This sample of the product on the card is not the actual product that’s in the spotlight, but it gives you an idea of how Hot Wheels presents their product every year. The card art background will eventually get an update for 2025. But the Surf’s Up toy is not present for this year.

Surfing with Wheels

It’s surfing on wheels with a similar design to the Skate Grom while using the Mad Splash’s water platform. It’s all a matter of a combination of green colours while the waves in aqua match with the neon surfboard colour and the surfer figurine in green. The vibrant combinations of colours catch your eye from afar.

The details don’t stop there, as the surfboard’s graphic art is creative to match the way things hold together, despite that it’s just a new deco of Surf’s Up, it separates itself from its predecessors. It’s the graphic design of the board that looks personable to this iteration of the casting. The Tiki art with a dash of orange, black, and turquoise is certainly attractive to the eyes of this surfer from Hawaii.

Green Wave Rider

The Surf’s Up casting is made of two pieces: the surfboard/platform with the waves and wheels, and the green figurine. In every detail, you will see how the design went on the surfboard attached to the wave platform, where underneath you’ll see the only part with die-cast metal painted in white, and the rest is made of plastic.

The Green Surfer is removable as it’s only pegged to the surfboard. It’s entirely secure when you put the figurine on the board. There’s not much detail on the face, as it is a silhouette rather than a character, as you’d hope that would be depicted from the card art. But for the consolation, there’s a graphic “Hot Wheels” printed on the back of the figure’s shirt.

Hanging On the Waves

It didn’t nail the best part of capturing its vibe, as trying to emulate the card art, but it sure was fun taking it out to the beach. It’s one of the many Hot Wheels that you can never keep sealed on the card, and not appreciate it for the play value it is designed for. Unless you’re creative enough to take daring photography with it, the way it should be for those seeking some outdoor adventures.

“Surf’s Up” is a fun little toy that you can roll on the flat surface or take it out to an actual beach to be played the way it should be. The beach adventures for this little guy are certainly quite the wave from having an adventure in Batangas and now farther south in Davao Oriental, where the water is calmer and ready for a splash.

Acknowledgement goes out to Mach Diesel aka SMU Toys for this Hot Wheels toy, which he first used for his photography while here in the country, before he handed this one over to me. For more about Mach's toy ruin, you can follow him on Instagram at: @SMUToys!

"Surf's Up" was released under the subline for HW Xtreme Sports and was one of the toys given by Mach Diesel. Hot Wheels is distributed in the Philippines by Richwell/Richprime.