2024 Polestar Design Contest Winner Sees Their Design Become a Hot Wheels Scale Model
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For the first time ever, toymaker Mattel will produce a Hot Wheels model of a Polestar vehicle. Unfortunately, you'll only see truck on the orange Hot Wheels track, not the road, because the Polestar TRX concept is the winner of the automaker’s 2024 Design Contest.
As a company whose CEO is a designer, Polestar likes to shine a light on highlight up-and-coming designers from around the world with its annual design contest. Now in its fourth year, the most promising entrants get one-on-one coaching from Polestar’s design team, and many go on to work with the company. Although some of the people who enter the contest are already professionals, like this year’s winner Shashank Shekhar, even for them it can be a huge opportunity.
“I'm thrilled to win. This will be the first design in my career to be produced, so it's a big deal for me,” said Shekhar. “I never thought that someday, something I have created would end up as a Hot Wheels car. It has been a great journey, and I've had an amazing time so far.”
His design, the TRX, is a big departure for Polestar. The automaker's designs are normally defined by their restraint, but the TRX is an expressive nod to the Dodge Deora — a classic Hot Wheels model that combined cab-forward pickup truck utility, with the low-slung hot-rodding aesthetics of the ‘60s. Reimagined for the 2020s, the concept vehicle features high-riding proportions with rugged off-road details (like underbody protection) and modern LED light signatures that are reminiscent of Polestar’s current vehicles.
It's that combination of old and new, as well as how extreme the TRX is, that ultimately impressed the panel of judges, which was made up of representatives from Mattel and Polestar.
In 2024, “we saw some of the most daring designs to-date,” said Juan-Pablo Bernal, a judge and the head of interior design at Polestar. “I can't wait to see what the ‘Polestar TRX’ collectible will look like in real life.”
Indeed, this year’s contest received more than 1,200 entries from around the world. In addition to the TRX, Polestar was so impressed with the designs that it highlighted two others. The runner up in this year’s contest was the Cyber Shaker (left), designed by Powei Chen of Italy, while Germany’s Roman Moor got an honourable mention for his design, the Polestar Track Toy concept (right).
However, only the TRX will make it into production as a Hot Wheels model that consumers can buy. Expect to see the pickup truck in stores in the summer of 2025.
