Twinmill
Years of Production:
1969 to 1970
Country of Origin:
US Only
Casting Variations:
Body at Front of Cockpit
Interior Colors:
Dark and Light Interiors
Tinted Glass
Color Chart
Other versions of same Casting:
1973 Twinmill
1976 Twinmill II
1977 Super Chromes Twinmill II
Discussion:
Featuring a pair of monster blown V8 engines in front of a swooping space ship cockpit, the Twinmill is the most recognizable of the four concept
cars designed by Ira Gilford for Hot Wheels' second model year. Since then, the Twinmill has become one of the "iconic" Hot Wheels cars.
The Twinmill casting appeared four different times as a redline and persists to the present day with dozens of variations in several different scales.
Twinmill in Lime
The Twinmill was made for about two years and was very well received by kids and collectors alike. It was released in a myriad of paint colors.
Almost all Twinmills were made with bearing type wheels but late run cars with capped wheels are known, even a few with a mix of the two types.
The vertical tail light bars on the rear are split with half on the body and half on the base. The orange paint is usually omitted on the base portion.
Twinmill Side View
The body and base of the Twinmill is split in the middle and each part was fully painted. On some rare examples, the base and body are mismatched!
Base of the Twinmill
There are minor text differences among production Twinmills, but ALL original redline Twinmills were made in the USA.
Any other country of origin will quickly identify a reissued version in spite of the 1968 copy right date.
Cockpit "Plateau"
The border of the cockpit in the front has a distinct "plateau" which is absent on the later run cars.
Un-Spun Twinmill
Unpainted and un spun bodies are occasionally found, usually from a former employee..
Twinmill Rainbow with Dark Interior
The two different interior colors, light and dark, seem to be fairly evenly distributed among the different paint colors with the light interior more prevalent.
Colors
An assortment of color variations.
Prototypes:
A preproduction version of the Twinmill is known from approximately 15 examples in a number of colors.
"Cut Fender" Twinmill
The primary difference is the shape of the rear fenders which are significantly reduced from the production version hence the term "Cut Fender".
"Cut Fender" vs. Production
A super rare "Cut Fender" Twinmill with Two Different Colors!
Full Size Twinmill
The real Twinmill! Mattel had a full scale Twinmill built as a show piece for the SEMA auto show in Las Vegas. It has undergone several paint iterations.
"Legends" 1/24th Scale Twinmill
The "Legends" series of iconic Hot Wheels included a highly detailed collectors version of the Twinmill in 1/64th and 1/24th scales.
Photos and info credits: Ted Gray, Dan C Taylor
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1968 |
1969 |
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1972 |
1973 |
1974 |
1975 |
1976 |
1977 |
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Spoilers | |
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Alternate Colors | |
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