Mattel Inc. showed off its ‘Hot Wheels Life-Sized Darth Vader Car’ ahead of the San Diego Comic-Con that starts on Thursday.JeffreyMoustache/The Associated Press
Hot Wheels has gone to the Dark Side for this year's annual Comic-Con pop culture geek fest in San Diego.
The hottest ride this side of Tatooine - a full-size working "Vadermobile" - will be on display at the Mattel booth at the San Diego Convention Centre, starting Thursday. The sleek black car can hit a top speed of 130 km/h and, according to The Associated Press, the dashboard inside resembles the interior of Darth Vader's helmet and will make the Sith Lord's distinctive heavy breathing sounds.
The Star Wars Hot Wheels die-cast car collection debuts at Comic-Con and the Darth Vader car - a 1:64 version of the full-size ride - is encased in a replica Darth Vader lightsaber and will sell for about $40 (U.S.) Other toy vehicles in the lineup are modelled after Han Solo, Yoda, R2-D2 and Chewbacca.
"We've been trying to partner with Lucasfilm and Disney on this property for a long time," Doug Wadleigh, Mattel's senior vice-president of global brand marketing for boys and entertainment, told AP. "It took us time to get them to understand how Hot Wheels and Star Wars could be married together to create a unique opportunity within the vehicle space. It blows me away to finally see it come to life in such a beautiful form. It's gorgeous."
The Star Wars car collection won't be sold in stores and only in limited quantities at Comic-Con and Mattel's online collectors' site.
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Darren McGee