This comparison is mainly between the new Ertl Charger R/T and the Mattel Hot Wheels Charger R/T. The Ertl Charger Daytona is offered as evidence where Ertl came from. All three are pretty solid models. At a casual glance, the Mattel and Ertl Chargers each have their strong points. But on closer inspection, one clearly pulls ahead.
The Ertl car has a much better stance and a much more detailed grill. The grill is much more cleanly executed on the Ertl. While the hood shape is better on the Ertl, the Mattel hood fits better. The roof line of the Ertl seems to be more accurate. Of course to make the standard Charger Ertl had to retool an totally new body but they did a great job of keeping the Charger and Charger Daytona almost exactly the same in those areas which are shared by both cars. The tail panels are exactly the same on the Ertls except for the badges and the Ertl rear looks much better than the Mattel though even the Mattel looks nice. The Ertl wins because of back up light details and better looking tail light lenses and tail pipe tips.
One of the biggest criticisms of the Mattel Charger was the over exaggerated door scallops. The scallops on the new Ertl car won't exactly win any awards either. While the Mattel versions have a too pronounced leading eged, the Ertl scallops are too vaugely defined. This is quite odd as the scallops on the earlier Charger Daytona look the most correct of the bunch. The Ertl's have better looking wheels. A lot of people have complained about the new Charger's whitewall tires. I kind of like them for variety. Keep in mind too that many higher end Chargers were sold to older guys who, like it or not, still wanted whitewall tires. If I remember correctly, the Bullit Charger had whitewalls too.
The Ertls both win hands down in the engine compartment. The 440 in the Ertl Charger looks great with fine detailing on the air cleaner call-out badges. The Daytona's engine looks great too. The Mattel suffers mostly from a completely missing air cleaner top (what you see is really the air cleaner BASE) and chrome valve covers. The Hemi valve covers should be flat black. From this shot you can also see the Ertl's superior grill details. The silver paint and gill detailing on the center vertical section really define the grill on the Ertl. Ertl also wins brownie points for painting the engine compartment body color like Mopars should be. I don't know if this detail made it into the RE versions of the Ertls however.
The interiors are both pretty good, but the Ertl just has more detail and cleaner looking, real looking seats. The Ertl also has nice detailing on the console which is missing on the Mattel version. Ertl pulls away even more with the inclusion of door sill plates. Again, this may be a feature of the Ertl LE version not found on the RE Ertl. Geez! I need to get a RE Ertl Charger and clear this stuff up!
The overall body shapes appear to be pretty accurate. Both have acceptable silver paint simulating chrome trim though Mattel neglected to paint the wheel opening moldings. To be fair, the Ertl used here is the 3750 piece LE run compared to the RE Mattel version so there is a slight difference in price but the RE Ertls also receive this trim paint. The door sill paint on the Ertl adds a nice touch and shows the levels of detail Ertl is working into their newer offerings. The stripe on the Ertl is more narrow though I'm at a loss to tell which is more accurate to the 1:1's. Both sets of stripes are well done with clean lines and sharp "R/T's" incorporated in each. The Ertl has a nice detail on the gas cap with a small "fuel" decal while the Mattel has no such detail. The vinyl roof on the Mattel makes it unique and interesting to look at. The new LE Charger is the only one that includes the turnsignal lenses in the hood indentations.
To sum up, each model is fairly well done, but while the Mattel looks like an oversized Hot Wheels car, the Ertls look like fairly accurate replicas. The Mattel version could close the gaps substantially by incorporating an air cleaner top, correct valve covers and adding the missing body emblems (Charger - C-pillar, Hemi - doors, Charger R/T - grill, R/T - tail panel). But then the Mattel is a detailer's dream. We'll have to see how it turns out with a little detailing work.
One final shot of a great looking trio.
