Howard Rees

In 1967, while on vacation in California, Howard Rees was driving past Mattel and decided to stop and visit a friend who was working there. Coincidentally, Ira Gilford, the Hot Wheels® designer at that time, had quit earlier that day and Rees was offered the job. Rees relocated from Detroit to sunny California to become the only Hot Wheels® designer. He designed Hot Wheels® cars for the next two years, first finishing some of the models that were started by Ira Gilford. 

Rees can be given credit for being the reason that Larry Wood started working at Mattel. It seems that Howard and Larry, who had known each other from working at Ford, met at a party in 1969. Larry had recently moved to California and was working at Lockheed designing airplane interiors. Howard mentioned that he was working at Mattel designing cars. Larry told Howard that he had always loved drawing cars and was envious of his job at Mattel.  Howard had decided that he wanted a change anyway and asked Larry if he wanted to apply for that position because he had been talking about transferring to the Space Toys - Action Figures department at Mattel.

All of the cars designed by Howard were originally issued in 1970 or 1971, but some of them were re-issued in later years with either the same name or under a new name. These include the Mantis which in 1973 was changed to Double Vision and in 1984 was changed to Speed Seeker. Also The Demon (Prowler & Li’l Coffin) and the Jack Rabbit Special (Sand Witch) were later changed. Cars that Howard customized and re-proportioned include the Carabo (Show Car), The Demon (Show Car originally done by Darryl Starbird), Classic Nomad, Porsche 917 and the Spoilers series which he did with Ira Gilford (Light My Firebird, King Kuda, Boss Hoss, TNT-Bird and Heavy Chevy)