* Additional Information on CIPSA Redlines *


Rarity

As of December 2005, only fifty-seven (57) bonafide CIPSA made redlines were confirmed. Two years later the count has risen to just over 150 pieces and still only one blisterpack is known.
These numbers alone make these cars among the rarest of all Hot Wheels, especially since many are in poor condition.

Based on the information in the CIPSA Catalogs and list on the back of the only known CIPSA Blisterpack, I believe that there
were three different waves of CIPSA production of diecast redlines.

First Wave
The six panels on this catalog page show cars and sets which date from 1970. It specifies four castings and illustrates them in the various track sets.
Although not shown on the catalog page, I believe that the Snake and Mongoose Funny cars were produced in this time frame.
The McLaren has been found in track sets as well.


Second Wave
The bottom panel on this catalog page show eleven cars, all from the 1971 or 1972 model years.
Second Wave cars show the most stark and intrigueing differences in paint and interior colors. Every casting that has surfaced from this group
shows a unique color and the stark white interior. All of the "mustard yellow" cars are in this grouping.


Third Wave
The back of the CIPSA 1973 blister pack lists ten more castings, almost all from the 1973 model year.
I believe that the cars in the third wave originated as overstock from Mattel.
Some of the overstock was supplied in the form of complete, assembled pieces while others were supplied as loose parts.
Some cars are indistinguishable from the standard 1973 HK made pieces, coming from both the regular product line and what appear to be surplus Shell Promos.
Others are indisputably composites of HK made metal parts and CIPSA made plastic parts.


Commonalities

Some of the characteristics of the first wave cars include:

* Black Interiors
* Normal looking rivet spins
* Hand painted highlights
* Metal Flake paints in unique colors

Some of the common traits of Waves 2 and 3 include:

* Odd colors of paint, alot of mustard yellow enamels
* Crude spin jobs on the rivet/posts
* Unusual wheel combinations

Country of Origin

All CIPSA redlines show Hong Kong or US as the country of origin on the base of the cars.
My speculation is that Mattel supplied CIPSA with surplus stock of various raw castings and the tools for making the injection molded plastic parts.
CIPSA made the plastic parts, then assembled and packaged the cars themselves.
The poor quality of the "spins" suggest that CIPSA had only "makeshift" tooling for final assembly of the cars.
If the base has a "Hecho in Mexico" symbol then it is NOT a CIPSA, those were made by Aurimat in the 1980's.

Wheels

The wheels on the CIPSA redlines are usually the second generation two piece capped wheels.
My Rear Engine Snake even has capped wheels in front in lieu of the normal dragster wire wheels.

An exception to this generality is the Jet Threat and Sand Witch castings which have 1973 style through hole wheels.
The through hole wheels are even more peculiar in that the hot stamped red line is a metallic red vs. an enamel red color
and the shape of the wheel is different.



Metallic red hot stamp redline vs. normal enamel looking redline.
The shape of the CIPSA wheels is different as well, being flatter and not convex.

Another exception is the Odd Job which (as I recall) has through hole blackwalls.

My speculation is that Mattel provided an initial supply of the capped wheels and axles and when those were exhausted,
CIPSA began making their own through hole wheels. Since they were on their own for hot stamping, they used whatever they had available,
eventually omitting the hot stamp process leaving the wheels as blackwalls such as those found on the Odd Job.

Interiors

The stark white interior is diagnostic of many CIPSA cars but it is by no means universal.
However, all of the known CIPSA interiors are different from the normal HK coloration.

Paint Colors

The paint colors found on CIPSA produced cars are unique to CIPSA.
The "mustard yellow" enamel found on four different castings. It is quite distinctly different from any HK color,
appearing orange next to a HK yellow but looking yellow against the HK orange!
The funny cars castings have similarly odd purple and green metal flake colors as well as enamels.
The Jet Threat is red and is lightly lighter than typical HK red.
The Bugeye is medium to dark blue.
One of the Sand Witch's is light blue.
The Rear Engine Dragsters are found in yellow, brown/red, green and blue.

Packaging

Not too much can be said about the packaging of CIPSA cars as there is only one known example of a
CIPSA blister pack to have survived. The physical size and shape of the card in unlike any Mattel card.
The blister is thicker and has some molding marks on the front. The list of ten castings on the rear of the
Superfine Turbine card certainly suggests that those castings would have been produced on a similar card.

I suspect that some cars, such as the Snake and Mongoose Funny Cars amy have been "set" cars, released only in
track sets. As such, they may never have been sold in individual blister packs.


Mexican Diecast Website

Even the Mexicans know that CIPSA cars are unique. The following link takes you to a web page
discussing the fact that the CIPSA produced cars never made it into Tomarts.

Mexican Diecast Website!

There is also a Mexican Hot Wheels club. This is a link to their website.

Hot Wheels Club de Mexico Website!