Polestar Raxe

Problem / Brief

"Your imagination is the limit." The 2024 contest brief was about dreams without the boundaries of reality: translate Polestar's design DNA into the ultimate Hot Wheels collectible, with no limitations except that Hot Wheels needed to be able to cast it at 1:64 scale. The winning entry would become the first Polestar model in Hot Wheels' 55-year history.

Research

While playing Hot Wheels with my five year old cousin around the time the brief launched, I asked him to draw his own dream Hot Wheels car. He drew a one-wheeler. When I asked why, he said simply that it was a T-Rex. It was a fair answer, at that age I wanted to be a T-Rex too. That sketch, credited in the deck simply as "my 5 years old cousin's interpretation," became the brief's real starting point rather than any mood board. The formal design rationale traced back to Polestar's own emblem: the northern-lights mark forms the outer shape of the body, doubling as the T-Rex's body, tail and head. The rider is conceived as morphosed with the vehicle in a T-Rex riding position, steering it like a motorbike.

Iterations

Development traced the one-wheel, centrally-seated layout back through the cousin's sketch's own proportions: an oversized single wheel, a short stubby stance, and a front end with real bite to it, translating "T-Rex" from a five year old's intuition into a proportion study that could work as both a rideable concept and a Hot Wheels-scaled collectible. The powertrain was kept honest to the brief's playfulness too: "Hot Wheels concept, kid powered, infinite hp, imagination performance hybrid." The concept was shortlisted from over 1,000 submissions to the top 10, earning a four-week coaching programme with both the Polestar and Hot Wheels design teams, and around two months of development in total.

Outcome

Named T-Rex Rider in the final deck: "an innovative and thrilling addition to the Hot Wheels lineup, inspired by the formidable and iconic Tyrannosaurus Rex. This concept merges the agility and ferocity of the T-Rex with cutting-edge design and engineering technology of Polestar, resulting in an exhilarating toy that pushes the boundaries of imagination and play." One wheel, one rider, a stance a five year old would recognise as his own drawing, built to satisfy the brief's dual scale requirement as both a full-size concept and a 1:64 Hot Wheels model.

Reflection

That was the moment I realised I'd outgrown wanting to be a T-Rex myself. Not the impulse behind it.