The pointy pickup-ish thing you see before you is the Polestar TRX and, sadly, it’s not an upcoming, less loathsome Tesla Cybertruck rival from the sporty electro offshoot of Volvo.
No, it’s the design that’s been selected as the winner of this year’s Design Contest, which is an annual, erm, design contest run by the manufacturer. The last couple of editions have seen Polestar say some nice things about the winning design and, in the case of last year, build a full-size model. This year’s winner, though, Indian designer Shashank Shekhar, gets an arguably much better prize: his design is actually going on sale… as a 1:64-scale Hot Wheels toy.
Yep, this year’s contest was run in collaboration with Hot Wheels’ parent company Mattel, with the grand prize being the winning design’s immortalisation as a toy designed to be launched off big orange ramps at great velocity.
The TRX is said to be “a bold interpretation of Polestar’s normally subtle design philosophy,” while its cab-forward proportions, as well as those bed-mounted surfboards, strike us as a very cool nod to the Deora, a heavily customised 1965 Dodge pickup truck that became one of the very first – and still one of the most iconic – Hot Wheels toys in 1968.
Polestar TRX – rear
Ted Wu, a man with the unwieldy job title of Senior Vice President and Global Head of Design of Vehicles and Building Sets at Mattel, said: “It was a pleasure for Hot Wheels to collaborate with Polestar for this innovative design contest. This year’s winner accepted the challenge and was inspired by both Hot Wheels and Polestar, bridging the two brands together.”
The competition’s runner-up was the Cyber Shaker, a snouty sports car with the vibe of a classic sports racer from the future, while the Polestar Track Toy, a racer with some very clear Group C influences, received an honourable mention.
Polestar Cyber Shaker, TRX and Track Toy
It’s the TRX, though, that will appear on supermarket shelves, with the die-cast toy version set to go on sale next summer. Would it earn a place among your collection of models taking up an increasingly concerning amount of space on your shelf/desk/dining table/floor?
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