The End Of Hot Wheels Pop Offs

There were only a handful of models made to be "Pop-offs" in Hot Wheels history. The first one I know of was the Mini Cooper from the 2000 First Editions. They are a neat idea. They do not have the standard rivets holding every component together. Instead they are clipped together and the body can be taken off of the chassis.

The Pop-offs were different, they had to be specially detailed throughout the interior because when the body is removed, everything is visible. I also liked the idea that every time they came out with a new variation, you had an increasing number of combinations of tops and bottoms to fit together.

And now, it seems Mattel has decided to remove the "Pop-off" ability of these models. I have 2 examples from this year where the clips have been replaced by standard rivets. I have to say I am surprised that this feature has been taken away; and disappointed too.

The following pictures show the 2010 Race World Earth Scion XB with clear green body (Right). Beside that is a previous variation, the 2005 First Editions X-Raycers version of the same model (Left).

Here is the previous model, popped off - pretty cool.

Something different with the green one...

Old one on the left, current one on the right... Hmm, no clip - no way to pop it off, its just a normal car now. :(

You can see the clip on the red one, missing on the newest version.

The next set of photos shows the 2010 Hot Wheels Performance Ground FX in yellow. Beside that is a previous variation of the same model.

 What it looks like under the skin

The new one (yellow) with no clip

My disappointment confirmed - no clip.

All Time Favorite List - 1999 First Editions #18 - Turbolence

What is this one all about? To me it could be a few things. It has the stretched lines of a salt flats racer, attempting to break a land speed record. It could be a pre-war endurance racer or maybe a prototype from some past era. In reality it is a great piece to be able to conjure up those images for me. And it has a solid feel too. This is one of the increasingly rare models with die cast top and bottom. It feels heavy and rolls great. I think the colour and tampos for this First Edition model are well done too but now I'm curious... what do you think? What does this model remind you of?