Hot Wheels has released a 1:64 scale replica of NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover which is set to touch down on the Red Planet next month.
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is a golf-cart-sized six-wheel rover that is designed to explore the dusty landscape of the Red Planet. In addition to the rover itself, the mission carries Ingenuity, a single-rotor helicopter the size of a shoebox that will be the first to explore the skies of another planet.
Although it does not feature Ingenuity at all, Hot Wheels reportedly worked closely with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to ensure the Perseverance model was a close approximation to the real thing.
The Perseverance die-cast is already available in stores and is expected to retail for just over $1. According to Hot Wheels parent company Mattel, the company released the die-cast just prior to the real-life rover’s touchdown so that kids could experience the historic event with it in their hands.
The release of the Hot Wheels Perseverance die-cast marks the return of the toy company’s “Space” series, which had been notably absent last year. According to the Hot Wheels Perseverance packaging, it is the first of five space-themed die-cast vehicles the toy company plans to launch this year.
The “Space” series in previous years have included a Tesla Roadster with a miniature SpaceX Starman figure, NASA’s Curiosity rover which touched down on the surface of Mars in August 2012, and even a number of Star-Wars-themed vehicles.
