Michael Heralda

Designer

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Michael Heralda is a longtime graphic designer at Mattel who retired in June 2015.

Prior to joining the Mattel group, Michael Heralda was Art Director at Kransco/Wham-O Toys in San Gabriel, CA for eight years. He started at Mattel in 1997 with the responsibility of designing graphics for the 1998 Hot Wheels product line.

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Michael Heralda is a longtime graphic designer at Mattel who retired in June 2015.

Prior to joining the Mattel group, Michael Heralda was Art Director at Kransco/Wham-O Toys in San Gabriel, CA for eight years. He started at Mattel in 1997 with the responsibility of designing graphics for the 1998 Hot Wheels product line.

The very first Hot Wheels car Michael designed graphics for was the (#1 of 48) 1998 First Edition Ford Escort Rally. His last name can be seen below the number 8 (HERALDA) and his initials can be seen on the fog lamps (MH). One of Michael's favorite Hot Wheels (1:64 scale) cars is the '57 Cadillac Eldorado "Starfire". Years ago, when he and model makers were designing a special charity donation item for the annual "Dream Halloween" event, he also designed graphics for the Eldorado which became known as the "Heraldorado". He brought his design (in E-sheet form) to model maker Bruce Shultz (car customizer), and he graciously offered to prototype the Heraldorado on the condition that two were made—one for him and one for Mike. So now there are two Heraldorado’s in the world. The Heraldorado is pearl white with gold chassis, gold trim, white interior, clear windows, high gloss black roof, gold with Day-Glo orange and black flames on the hood, sides, and trunk areas. Special white walls and chrome hubs finish off the vehicle. A little known fact, Michael originally wanted the hubs gold, but it just didn’t happen.

"Show me a Hot Wheels or Matchbox vehicle that was produced between the years 1998 and 2005, and I will tell you if I created the deco—depending of course on the capabilities of my foggy 60 year old memory!" During his eight years with Hot Wheels, Mike has created over 2,500 (produced) Hot Wheels decorations as of 2005. He has many favorites including Toy Fair cars, Convention cars, Dream Halloween cars, Treasure Hunts cars, mainline vehicles, and well, pretty much all of them! There are certainly too many to list and way too many to remember!

In 2005, Michael was offered the opportunity to work on the Matchbox diecast brand, and he continued until June 2015 creating graphics for Matchbox vehicles. Adding another 1,700 Matchbox decorations to his Hot Wheels library, the original count of his works has grown to about 4,200 die-cast vehicle decorations in all. Mike believes that he will get to 5,000 before he retires.

Subject ID: 22117

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Subject ID: 22117