Turbo Boost: Hot Wheels To Release Limited Edition Knight Rider K.I.T.T.
When I was a kid, I was a huge Knight Rider fan. I watched the show religiously, I rocked an afro like the 'Hoff, I had the "Burnin' Key Car," and my most prized possession was my K.I.T.T. big wheel with the "spin out handle."
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So you can imagine how excited—and old—I felt when I saw that Hot Wheels is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Knight Rider by releasing a limited edition K.I.T.T. die-cast car. The die-cast will even have a working LED light bar just like the iconic feature found on the front of the 1982 Pontiac Trans-Am that played the starring role in every episode. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the car will feature the voice of William Daniels who voiced K.I.T.T. on the show.
Hot Wheels revealed the car in a series of tweets referencing the famous "turbo boost" function on K.I.T.T. that left millions of kids of my generation believing that a turbo charger would automatically allow any car to make massive ramp-less jumps on the fly. If only real turbos worked that way.
If you're a fellow Knight Rider fan and want to add this to your collection, the die-cast will be released on MattelCreations.com on July 22nd, 2022. It will also be available in person this year at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC). I'm definitely going to try to get my hands on one but I know my chances will be fairly slim.
If you miss the first drop online or can't make it to SDCC 2022, there's always the eBay route but be prepared to pay a very inflated price. Though, it's doubtful that the die-cast will command as much cash as the real deal.
If you miss out on this nifty piece of 80s car culture nostalgia, you might be interested in the new 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 LEGO set that is coming out next month.
Andrew Beckford’s passion for cars started as a middle schooler when his friend Richie explained how an internal combustion engine works. He was bitten by the bug and the rest, as they say, is history. He dug deep into the tuner scene and eventually wrote for Turbo Magazine, Import Tuner, Super Street. He covered car shows, feature builds, and reviewed racing games for those magazines in addition to covering motorsports including Formula Drift, Indy Car, and F1 for his personal blog. Eventually Beckford joined MotorTrend to cover the daily automotive news beat. Besides being a gearhead, Beckford has been a gamer since the ’80s and is a huge fan of the arcade racing games of the ’90s like Daytona USA, SEGA Rally, and Ridge Racer. Beckford’s a movie buff as well, especially comic book films from DC and Marvel. When car culture crosses over with gaming and entertainment, rest assured Beckford is aware of it. In addition to serving as a consultant on a “triple A” racing titles, he’s reviewed major racing games such as Forza Motorsport, Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, F1, and more. He’s also interviewed blockbuster directors including Steven Caple Jr. (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) and Neill Blomkamp (Gran Turismo). His biggest profile to date was with Robert Downey Jr. on his love affair with cars and his show Downey’s Dream Cars on MAX. Beckford’s profile of Downey Jr. was the first print cover story written by an African American in MotorTrend’s history. Along with KJ Jones, Andrew Beckford also heads up MotorTrend’s celebration of Black History Month by spotlighting diverse voices in the automotive industry and motorsports. Beckford’s first car was a 1982 Nissan Stanza affectionately named “Stanley” by his late mother.
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