Hot Wheels Supercharged Shark
When Hot Wheels needed a kinetic and interactive revamp of their classic miniature Shark Car, they asked our team at IDEO to develop a chomping, amphibious RC car with great performance and styling. We took an existing 1:10 scale RC car and heavily modified it with custom sculpted shells, actuators, and mechanisms in order to handle both land and water. A final sizzle video was created for the client to showcase the features of the toy to internal stakeholders and the manufacturing team.
An existing 1:10 scale RC car was heavily modified to include toy-grade components. We swapped the brushless motor for a brushed 550 12T motor and the conventional steering was replaced with a rear-steer setup to give the shark a swim-like motion.
As soon as the breadboard was assembled, we did quick tests to make sure our solutions for waterproofing and buoyancy held up. We sealed all the electronics in a waterproof compartment and rand the drivetrain through a shaft filled with grease to prevent water incursion. The steering servo was also waterproofed with plenty of grease and sealant.
We used pink foam to help the shark float in the water and paddle-boat style wheels to propel it in the water. We iterated through multiple designs, altering the diameter and depth of the paddles before arriving at something that performed to our liking.
We used the sculpting tools in Fusion 360 to realize the organic shape of the mechanized shark. We were able to rapidly iterate through many shapes to work around the mechanical components of the RC heart of the model and test motions before committing to long print and machining times.
The main shells of the shark were SLA printed, sanded, and painted to match the colors the Hot Wheels team was after. The engine blocks and belly of the shark were milled foam pieces that were sprayed with metallic paint.
The Shark released in October of 2020 to positive reviews and stayed very close to the design intent we created years earlier.