In the five decades since they first rolled off the toy line, Hot Wheels has maintained their popularity. In the late 1960s the co-founder of Mattel, Elliot Handler, was looking for a way to improve the diecast car toy market for kids. He felt the toy cars of the day were too realistic to really capture their imaginations, so he hired a designer from General Motors and a former rocket scientist to help him create a diecast car that would be faster, sleeker, and just plain cooler than anything else available at the time.

Source: Johnston Sunrise