Speedy delivery: Hot Wheels stamps created by Postal Service

Here are 10 more reasons for sending snail mail to your friends, relatives and cohorts: the U.S. Postal Service is issuing a series of stamps honoring the 50^th anniversary of Hot Wheels. 

This is a major first for the little Mattel cars that made childhood worth living for generations of boys and girls; never before have Hot Wheels cars been so honored by the Post Office.

The 10 Hot Wheels stamp designs will debut appropriately at a major street-rod and custom-car show, September 29 at the Goodguys Summit Racing Lone Star Nationals in Fort Worth, Texas, where there will be a first-day-of-issue ceremony at 10 am.

This also will be the initial chance for buying a 20-stamp sheet of the Hot Wheels designs.

The 10 toy cars represented on the stamps are some of the wildest from Hot Wheels’ vast ensemble of tiny vehicles, such as the Twin Mill double-engine Corvette, the Rocket-Bye-Baby rocket-powered car, the Purple Passion custom Mercury, the toothy Shark Buster and the evil-looking Bone Shaker hot rod. 

“Each stamp features the name of the vehicle shown in one of the top corners and the words ‘USA’ and ‘Forever’ in one of the bottom corners,” according to a USPS news release. “The iconic Hot Wheels logo appears in the top right corner of the panel. The back of the panel displays the Hot Wheels 50th anniversary logo.”

The story of Hot Wheels is described in the news release. 

“Hot Wheels was born when Mattel co-founder Elliot Handler challenged his design team, which included a General Motors car designer and a rocket scientist, to create a toy car that was cooler and performed better than anything on the market,” the release says. “Mattel soon introduced its iconic orange tracks, which provided children unlimited ways to test out stunts and racing skills. In 2011, Hot Wheels was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.”

The stamps were created from images by photographer Len Rizzi, who depicted them racing along the orange Hot Wheels track. Each sheet of 20 has the stamps arranged diagonally, with two stamps of each design.