Brand Snobbery

Take a look at this picture.

Do you notice any difference in these cars?

You will be surprised to learn that the answer is yes!

To my 5 year old son, there is, a big one!

{This goes beyond make, color, and style}

You see, though they are both made out of die cast metal and plastic bits, and though they can both be found in almost any store, for $1 at that, the difference is HUGE.

One is Matchbox and the other is Hotwheels.

Which is the superior product to my 5 year old?

Hotwheels takes the cake!

{I think that black car is way cooler, IMHO}

This brand snobbery happened upon us a few months ago.

Ethylwolfe experienced the sheer pleasure of receiving a cereal box toy.

His first one!  He couldn't fathom how it was possible to receive toys from cereal.  Why is it in there?  Will  I get a toy every time I pour a bowl of cereal?  Does every cereal box come with toys?  The questions went on and on and I could not wait for that particular brand of cereal to stop putting those toys in their boxes.

His prize that started the obsession was a blue, cheap, plastic car that came with Hotwheels stickers.

He was fascinated that there were flames, and I also happened to sing the Hotwheels theme song every time I saw it or the cereal box...I'm sure that didn't encourage him one bit.

"Hotwheels leads the way!"

{Yell that out in a very gnarly, slightly manly, 80's heavy metal voice, 

air guitar it if you're in the moment}

So it began.

Ethylwolfe emptied out his large galvanized metal pail of cars and separated them all.

There were 3 separate categories:

1.) Pixar Cars toy replicas

2.) Hotwheels

3.) Matchbox and no names

I'll leave the Pixar cars out of this discussion because they aren't in competition with the other cars.  They are cool all on their own, and are played with in an entirely different way.

{Oh and have you seen, Hotwheels came out with their own Toy Story cars...I guess I know what I'll be buying in the coming months...}

 After his class distinction, Ethylwolfe was very upset to discover that his Hotwheels pile was minuscule compared to his matchbox pile.

I think he had maybe 4 Hotwheels at the time.

And I didn't even buy them, Aunt Eitak mailed them to him over a year ago...

{I know, I know, I let him down, how could he have so many matchbox and so little Hotwheels?  I guess I thought Matchbox was the better brand, I don't know how I let the ball drop on this...}

 His collection has grown to 11 and he loves them.

What can I say, spend a buck and make a kid very happy and watch them run off and spend hours playing with their toys again.

Every day he plays with them and not so much with the "others".  

I gave him his cool, retired, 'Cars' lunch tin that P&K got him last year for starting Kindergarten, to store them in.

{I know what you're thinking "why not put the 'Cars' cars in there instead of the Hotwheels?"  Simple...they don't fit.}  He was very excited when I told him he could store them separately in the tin.

Who knew that such a similar product could be so different?

A while ago, he asked if he could get a Hotwheels race track.

The other week, he and I started up a new daily routine of practicing reading and writing in a different way.  I've seen an incredible difference in just 8 days.

So I told him, after he does his work for 30 days, I'll buy him a Hotwheels wall mounted track!

He's thrilled, to say the least.

{So am I, that track is AWESOME!}

{Oh, and he's motivated, that's always a plus!}

How do we get to be this way anyways?  We all have our particular brands that we prefer over others.  Clothing, food, cleaning supplies, diapers, etc.  Sometimes it's a superior brand, but is it always?  I know that when we first started shopping at Costco it was hard to buy the "Kirkland Signature" brand over others, even though my husband assured me it was either the same brand and Costco had the company print their logo on it, or it was better...or my money back.  Can't argue with that, but sometimes it's still hard.

Why is that?

What are your favorite brands?