Speed over to your closest toy aisle and look for the Kei Swap — a new Hot Wheels car with ties to TCNJ.
Designed by Matt Gabe ’05, lead packaging designer at Hot Wheels, the car is a throwback to the ’90s and was created from nearly start to finish by Gabe.
A lifelong appreciator of cars, he’s had the Hot Wheels gig since 2009, designing the look of both large-scale playset packaging and individual die-cast car packages for the brand. Last fall, he was recognized as the guest of honor at the 38th Annual Hot Wheels Collectors Convention in Los Angeles.
Here, we get behind the wheel with Gabe as he talks about his toy car creation and his time as a graphic design major at the college.
Q: Start our engines, what is the Kei Swap all about?
A: I usually do the artwork for HW packages, but the design team knows that I’m a bit of a car guy. The team wanted to do a small ’90s Japanese van and asked if I would be interested creating an original Hot Wheel. I have a special place in my heart for small Japanese cars, so I said ‘yes’ before even knowing what goes into designing a car.
After a good amount of help from our design team, I worked with our in-house sculpting team to make the drawing into a 3D digital model. Then it was time to decorate. The car is part of a mini-collection called “Art Cars,” but the only direction I was given was to pick an art style and design my van around that. After a little brainstorming with the graphics team, we landed on ’90s pop art. I started with a red exterior and pulled some inspiration from Trapper Keeper binders and the intro from “Saved by the Bell” — SUPER ’90s. I also wanted to give the van a reason for having the graphics on it, so I decided to make it the shop van of a design shop. I lent my name to it and added “MattGabe! Designs” to the front doors.
The interior of the van is filled with extra details I wanted, too — an extra set of tires, a boombox (with my initials on it), and a BMX bike.
Q: Tell us about the process of going from a design on paper to casting an actual car.
A: The process was a lot of things. Exciting, stressful, but mostly very fun. After the team fully approves the design of all the individual pieces, we give the approval to “cut steel” and make the molds. After the molds are made, they produce a small run of cars to confirm that the finished product looks good.
The next steps are designing the package, coming up with a name, and writing copy for the package — all of which I offered to do. In fact, I did almost everything myself aside from going to the factory and running the machines. But I did offer to do that, too!
Q: We hear you were the guest of honor at the 38th annual Hot Wheels Collectors Convention. Tell us about that.
A: The HW Convention is an annual gathering of Hot Wheels superfans of all ages that takes place over five days in October. People come from all over the world to attend, and I’ve met so many fun and interesting people over the last few years. There are custom car contests, coloring and drawing contests, seminars about collecting, autograph and Q&A sessions with Hot Wheels designers, a charity auction, and a sneak peek at upcoming releases with the Hot Wheels team. The guest of honor is always a Hot Wheels team member who has had an impact in the world of HW. I was genuinely shocked when I was asked to be the guest of honor this year, as it is usually reserved for the car designers, not the packaging team.
Q: Take a lap around memory lane. What was your time at TCNJ like?
A: My professors, classmates, and Holman Hall were the glue that held it all together. Professors Chung Sum “Fanky” Chak and Anita Allyn instilled a strong foundation for my graphic design skills. I was also had an on-campus job as a graphic designer for the Art Gallery, creating booklets and mailers for art openings at the gallery. The hands-on experience of creating art and prepping it for actual production gave me a leg up in design work. Lots of late-night shenanigans with friends in the art studios and computer labs of Holman Hall were had while designing logos, magazines, and posters — and sometimes there were chair races in the hallway!
And quick shoutout to my high school graphic design teacher (and TSC alum) Lloyd Taylor who first got me interested in design and photography and opened the door to a career path I didn’t even know existed!
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— Corinne Coakley ’25 and Emily W. Dodd ’03
