The Tyco Canned Heat #44 Kyle Petty Hot Wheels is a miniature radio controlled car manufactured by Taiyo Toys (Japan), and released into the US market in 1999.
Concept and Features
One of three Nascar miniature R/C models released by Tyco, the #44 Kyle Petty is perhaps the most recognizable and personally it’s my favorite as well, it just looks so darn cool!
Modelled after the #44 Nascar driven by Kyle Petty in 1997, it’s fairly accurate though I suspect it’s designed to look more like the real consumer Pontiac than the fibreglass shell representing the brand in actual Nascar racing. Those real life Nascars are far more wind-swept / aerodynamic since they don’t need to contend with various pedestrian safety requirements as consumer vehicles do.
Performance
As a 1/32 scale toy, this was never meant to be high performance to any degree, but they do run at a decent speed, and are heaps of fun dashing around indoors on a smooth surface. Just don’t expect it to be taking on any rough surface, jumps, etc, these are street racers only!
Recommendation
I’m a huge fan of these Tyco Canned Heat cars, especially the Nascars. As I’ve said, there’s just something so cool about them, the bright colors, life-like representation, maybe it taps into my inner 8 year old, as I’d have loved to own these as a kid.
As for collectors, just like the larger scale cars, the Radican and Canned Heat are popular and while it’s not hard to find sealed cars on eBay given they’re 10-15 years newer than many of the original Tyco R/C cars like Turbo Hopper, eventually these will become just as rare, and perhaps, just perhaps, they might increase in value.
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