After nine years there, during which time he introduced the Speed Champions line, Callum moved to the US to work as Hot Wheels’ design manager in late 2022, his eclectic collection of classic cars slowly following him over.
He enjoys early access to new sports cars and supercars – an essential privilege when Mattel’s own design process takes 12-18 months and its toys launch in close alignment with the products to which they pay tribute.
Piecing together a Hot Wheels car isn’t simply a case of shrinking a real one down to a 1:64-scale mould; the design team must dig deeply into the character of the car they’re making to successfully work its proportions around their stock wheel sizes, all while keeping the end product irresistibly affordable.
“Making a perfectly accurate 1:64-scale car for $1 is a big challenge,” affirms Callum.
The designers increasingly utilise AI and 3D printing, the latter quickly popping a metal die-cast prototype into their palms, ready for rigorous testing on those iconic orange tracks. “We make sure they’re capable of doing a loop-the-loop so we know they’re all totally capable on track,” says Callum.
“It’s not always tough work, then. “All designers are striving to hold on to that five-year-old’s joy and creativity,” he smiles. “We’re trying to not grow up as much as possible.”