The RLC sELECTIONs Series debuted in 2004 and was a first of its kind, allowing collectors at HotWheelsCollectors.com the opportunity to vote for 4 cars in a series and essentially vote each element of the casting to create a production model based on the popular vote. 2019 was the fourth consecutive year that there would only be 1 car in the series.
Hot Wheels Graphic Designer Steve Vandervate (also known as Van), created an additional topic in the HotWheelsCollectors.com forums requesting RLC members to put forward ideas to help decide the deco for the victorious '55 Chevy Bel Air Gasser. Numerous suggestions were proposed, but Van was unsure of which deco to choose; so an official vote was held to decide the theme that would don the 2019 sELECTIONs winner. There were five options presented, of which two were taxi cab themed. “Yellow Fever” jumped out to an early lead over “Dirty Blonde” while both taxi cab options combined were a distant third. It was evident that voting for “Dirty Blonde” was being driven by sales, or people with multiple memberships — as members posting in the topic clearly favoured the other designs. The poll was closed on the 9th of April, 2019 with the “Dirty Blonde” theme edging out “Yellow Fever” by a mere 4 votes. Out of nearly 18,000 memberships, only 567 had cast their vote in the poll on what would ultimately be the denouement for this release. Van then took the “Dirty Blonde” name and transformed it into what would eventually be seen on the final piece.
