Ever since the Hot Wheels Corvette came out it seems to have received (in my opinion) a fair amount of tough criticizm. While I had mine out to detail it recently, I thought I would do a side-by-side comparison against the Revell model which everyone seems to think of very highly. Here's what I saw. To be clear and fair to both, the subjects photographed have been detailed by myself prior to doing the comparison.
The bodyshapes look very similar overall. The differences show up in the front fenders most. Each has it's good and bad points. From the top the Mattel has more crisp lines but from the side I think the Revell is more crisp. Both are great castings and have good paint. Mattel wins in the tampo catagory. Their emblems have a black edging which helps firm up the look of the emblem. I'm not sure the shape of the letters "CORVETTE" on the tail is correct on the Mattel though. Mattel did use more color on the nose and gas cap emblems that Revell didn't. Neither one detailed the fender gills. Revell painted the "holes" though. I tried to paint and chrome foil the gills on the Mattel with not-so-great results. I was so disappointed with my work I've bought another copy of the car. When I can figure out how to do it better I'll give it another try. Not willing to risk such a mess on my red Revell, I left those gills undetailed. The Mattel definitely loses on the taillight comparison. The Revell has correctly incorporated the backup lights while the Mattel has all red taillights.
The engines are hard to compare since they are different engines. The Revell seems to have a little more detail but some of the small items are chrome while I believe they may not have been in the 1:1s. I detailed the master cylinder on the Mattel but I did no detailing on the Revell. I just now noticed both could stand to have the underhoods painted black. The Revell has no details on the underside of the hood but the Mattel does. Nice ducting on the Mattel. The Mattel definitely wins on the design of the hood hinges.
Looking head on you can see the biggest difference between the two models. The Mattel sits up noticably higher due to it's larger tires. They look a tad oversized for the scale. The Revell wheels have some detail paint and overall look better. I detailed the Mattel wheels, they come just all chrome. They detail easily with good results though. The Mattel seems to have a much thicker front fender in the top-of-wheel-openning to top-of-fender section. I'm not sure which looks more correct. Taken individually they look pretty accurate. Correct size could be somewhere in-between. When I drove a 1:1 '70 Corvette I was surprised how prominent those front fender bulges were from the drivers point of view. Maybe the Mattel is more accurate after all. I think the body color piece of body work found under the center grill on the Revell is more accurate. On the Mattel it is black but I'm sure it should be body color. The Revell has better looking turn signal lights. The side tampos for the side marker lights are a toss up. The Mattel seems to have more accurate placement but the Revell surrounds the lens with a bit of silver to simulate the bezel which the Mattel does not.
The interiors are
pretty similar at a quick glance. The Revell, though, has a better
look in the center console gauges. They sit in sunken holes. On
the Mattel they are just pasted on a flat spot in the console.
The Revelle doors have chrome window cranks but the Mattel does
not. Both could be painted up a little to add some much needed
details there. I do like the Mattel's warning label on the console.
