by Garth Meyer
One day in 1956, the football coach at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., confiscated a “Hot Rod” magazine from a player who wasn’t paying attention.
He went home and threw it on the kitchen counter.
His 14-year-old son picked it up. The boy had never before seen the publication. He would not be the same again.
Larry Wood, now of Redondo Beach, grew up to design Hot Wheels for Mattel for 50 years, and later this month, will be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Mich.
Induction is reserved for select individuals whose work has helped shape the automobile market.
“This year’s class continues to recognize the breadth of contributions to this industry,” said Sarah Cook, president of the Automotive Hall of Fame. “The group includes trailblazing innovators and leaders who have left an impact globally on the automotive industry.”
Wood started on “Hot Wheels” in the second year of the toy line, when Mattel was housed in a six-story building in Hawthorne.
“That was a real shock” he said of the news that he would join the Hall of Fame. “Who would’ve thought that a toy designer would get inducted to this? These are famous car designers. They were my heroes growing up.”
Building hot rods by age 20 – modifying old production cars to his liking – Wood first worked as a sheet metal apprentice after high school for Pratt & Whitney in Hartford, Conn., before acceptance to the automotive design program at Art Center (Pasadena).
Wood had responded to one of its “Draw This Car” application ads in “Hot Rod.”
At Pratt & Whitney, “It was the first time somebody graded me for something I did with my hands,” he said. His high school had no shop classes.
Art Center was not as expected.
“They didn’t let me draw a car for two years,” Wood said. “First, you had to learn perspective, colors, different mediums, lettering.”
The students, as did the industry then, used colored pencils and chalk, no markers yet.
After finishing at Art Center, Wood began his car career as a designer for Ford in Detroit, spending weeks drawing grills, bumpers and door handles. He parked his 1963 Corvette in the back lot.
He left town on Jan. 6, 1968.
“In the winter, garages are cold,” Wood said. “My rule is I have to be able to ride my motorcycle on New Year’s Day.”
His target since Art Center was to go back to Southern California, and he got there byway of a job working on the interiors of L1011 airplanes. A design firm based in Detroit gave him his wish.
One night, living in Burbank, Wood went to a party in Hawthorne hosted by a former Ford co-worker. He saw the man’s kids playing with little cars on an orange track. Their father was one of three Mattel designers on the project.
Wood had never seen the toys before. It was the year-old product line, “Hot Wheels.”
Wood’s friend was looking to move off the assignment to design space toys, and recommended Wood for his job.
Wood got it, and when he started, Mattel wanted a car in a week.
Hot Wheels was an answer to the British Matchbox – from a company dominated by Barbie.
“It was 90 percent women when I got there,” Wood said.
It was the start of 20 years as the sole Hot Wheels designer.
The first car had a turbine engine, which Wood had drawn at Ford – a concept to put on the wall.
Soon he was doing 6-12 Hot Wheels cars per year – including one Japanese model in five decades, the Datsun 240Z.
He would first sketch the design, then once it got approval, draw all views and details. Then the model shop would make a sample at four times’ scale, followed by decorations in the “tampo” process – a pad to pick up artwork and place and transfer images onto the car in bright “Spectraplane” paint.
The front-end of the cars would have to be high enough to go through the charger on Hot Wheels’ 360-degree track loop.
“It was the perfect job for me,” Wood said, from which he retired in 2019, and now spends part of every day in his Long Beach warehouse full-size car shop. “I would’ve stayed but everything was being done by computer.”
He remained out of management.
“The first thing I would do as a manager is fire me as a manager,” he said.
At the end, Wood still used pen and paper, and then gave the sketch to computer guys to convert.
He is now a frequent participant in the Ruby’s car show Fridays on the Redondo Beach waterfront in the summer – arriving in whichever car is nearest to the doors of his shop. Last week it was an orange ‘51 Woody.
The Automotive Hall of Fame Induction & Awards Ceremony is held July 20 at The Fillmore Detroit.
Founded in 1939, the Automotive Hall of Fame has honored 755 awardees from around the world.
And Wood remains a subscriber to “Hot Rod.”
“Still get it every month,” he said. ER
