If you've ever owned or played with a Hot Wheels car, you owe Elliot Handler a debt of gratitude. Handler, the "el" in Mattel and creator of Hot Wheels, died last Thursday in his Southern California home. He was 95.

In 1945, Handler, his wife Ruth, and friend Harold "Matt" Matson founded Mattel (named for Matt and Elliot); Matson was quickly bought out. Starting with picture frames, Handler started a side business building doll houses using scrap wood. The Handlers were a formidable team: With Elliot's ability to create fun toys and Ruth's marketing savvy, including turning to the new medium of television to get the word out, Mattel quickly grew. Their first blockbuster hit was Barbie, in 1959, which almost single-handedly landed Mattel on the Fortune 500.

And then, more relevantly for readers of this blog, came Hot Wheels. Launched in the fall of 1967, Hot Wheels eschewed the higher-detailed, more model-like qualities of competing brands in favor of increased playability: fast-rolling wheels, axles and bearings; an emphasis on American cars and models that American kids could relate to; candy Spectraflame colors applied over a polished metal body that sparkled even in the dim light of the toy aisle. It didn't take long for Hot Wheels to dominate the die-cast section. They influenced generations of kids and collectors then and today, nearly four and a half decades on. Today, Hot Wheels is one of those names, like Kodak, Kleenex and Xerox, where the name is so dominant that it defines its category.

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