Tooling Talk: Pharodox

Another new segment? Oh yes, this is another new segment. I have a bit of an eye for detail, and one of the things I like to document is tooling changes, and this is where I cover the multitudes of tooling changes that have occurred over the years for a certain casting. This one in particular might please the young’uns (don’t worry, other non-fantasy castings will come soon). This is the Pharodox, a car meant to be a stylized depiction of a futuristic pharaoh on wheels.

The Pharodox was designed by a guy you may be familiar with: Fraser Campbell, a British designer based in Hong Kong. Campbell’s first design was a ridiculous land speed record car known as Maelstrom, with a single seat and twin engines. Campbell mostly designs fantasy castings, with some of his more notable designs being The Gov’ner, ‘Tooned Lamborghini Countach, Lotus Esprit, Cockney Cab II and Fish’d and Chip’d.

The first edition of the casting was done up in the colors you see above. Take note of the windshield and base; those will come in handy later. The base of the casting is metal with a rotating drum in the middle featuring a “hieroglyphic” of the Hot Wheels logo; supposedly this was to substitute for the cut-out Hot Wheels logo (used from 2005 to 2006) which is absent on this car. This base has only one rivet, hammered into the rear of the car; the body slots into a tab at the front. My example, as shown in the header image, also has this tooling.

Minor updates to the tooling were made in 2011, in keeping with Mattel’s new policies regarding child safety; these mainly involved the addition of the “1186 MJ, 1, NL” on the base. This tooling was used up until 2013.

In 2014, however, the tooling for the casting was changed. Most notably, the base gained an extra rivet and the rotating drum was removed. The base font also changed to the Arial-style font used from 2013 to 2018, and the copyright date changed to 2014 to reflect the tooling change.

In 2016, the tooling would be changed again, and this would be a major one; the windshield for the Pharodox was shifted forward and the design modified. The design for the base was also modified slightly, now no longer featuring the additional contours on the sides. 

To reflect the second tooling change of the casting’s copyright date on the base was changed again, this time saying “2014, ‘16”. The frontal “triangle” part to represent a mouth was also closed off. The rotating drum was not added back.

So that just about covers all the tooling changes for our Pharodox. I intend to do a real life casting next; probably the Custom ‘69 Chevy.