The truck will be immortalized as a 1:64 die-cast model

The winner of the 2022 Hot Wheels Legends Tour was finally crowned during the virtual Global Grand Finale event held at Jay Leno’s Garage recently, and this year's champion was “Texas Toot,” the ultra-custom 1992 Autozam Scrum micro truck, built by Craig Meaux of Texas, America. 

As promised, Texas Toot will be immortalized as a 1:64 Hot Wheels die-cast vehicle and inducted into the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends. Meanwhile, the UK winner called "The Misfit", a 1963 Ford Anglia, was the only European entrant to reach the final ten in the Global Grand Finale.

Texas Toot started life as a stock Japanese import in 2020, before becoming this year’s Hot Wheels Legends Tour champion. This custom Kei truck features a fabricated five-foot hydraulic lift, Chevrolet 454 big-block, TH400 transmission, 12-inch drop reverse rotation FTI transfer case, 250 shot nitrous kit, train horns and massive custom welded 30"x15" wheels. 

Following this bucket list win, and in true challenger spirit, Meaux intends to use his passion project in burnout competitions, which he is sure to dominate in what Jay Leno calls his “superhero” truck. 

“The competition was strong in 2022, but turning a Japanese mini truck into a monster truck was hard to beat,” said Ted Wu, Vice President, Global Head of Design for Vehicles, Mattel. 

“As the first truck to be crowned since the inception of the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, we hope Craig’s passion project inspires builders and fans from around the world to set big goals and follow their dreams. I cannot wait to see what this super-sized mini truck looks like in 1:64-scale.”

Co-hosted by celebrity car enthusiast Jay Leno and motorsports ambassador Jarod DeAnda, the fifth annual Hot Wheels Legends Tour Global Grand Finale featured 10 incredible builds around the world and an array of judges who were tasked with choosing the entry that best represents authenticity, creativity and garage spirit. 

As part of this finale event, Hot Wheels announced the brand’s first-ever adult-facing campaign, “Where Legends are Made.”

Designed to further engage the global car enthusiast community, this campaign serves as an umbrella for the adult-facing activities Hot Wheels will launch in the future, expanding beyond traditional automotive into pop culture. 

This includes segments such as fashion, film, gaming, NFTs and luxury, while remaining true to the brand’s car culture heritage with builder activities such as the Hot Wheels Legends Tour – the world’s largest travelling custom car show.

To kick off this adult campaign, Hot Wheels shared a video featuring culturally relevant influencers from around the world who champion different categories of car fandom – exotics, muscle/hot rods, modified/drift, EV/future, motorsports, trucks/off-road and retro/classic.