The breakout star of Star Wars: The Last Jedi wasn’t Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico, it was those half-bird-half-pug creatures called Porgs that endeared themselves to Chewbacca, and audiences. So is it any surprise that one of Hot Wheel’s forthcoming San Diego Comic-Con exclusives is a Porg that’s commandeered the Millennium Falcon? Give this bird its own backstory movie.
Kids have been smashing up Hot Wheels vehicles from the day they get their second toy car, which is what led Mattel to create its Battle Rollers line. We have an exclusive look at the latest instalment.
Instead of wheels, each vehicle has a large metal ball bearing underneath allowing it to freely roll in any direction – making head-on collisions easier to stage. And instead of perfectly replicating real cars, the Battle Rollers are designed to look like caricatures of popular Star Wars characters and ships.
The scene with a Porg piloting the Millennium Falcon probably ended up on the cutting room floor while The Last Jedi was in post-production, but for $US10 ($14) plus postage you can soon recreate it on your desk, all day long. The Porg Battle Roller will be available at San Diego Comic-Con, but for those who can’t make it to California next month, it will also be available from MattelShop.com starting at 3AM AEST on June 27 next week.
But given it’s a Comic-Con exclusive, it will only be available in limited numbers, so you might not want to actually use it in your next Hot Wheels demolition derby.