First up, the core ID setup gets a bit of a rethink. The Smart Track set, with its sturdy USB-connected pieces, was a pretty cool piece of tech. (We even included it in our holiday gift guide.) But at $180, it was probably too pricey for a lot of parents. This year there’s a new $120 Core Track. It may cost $60 less but it carries all of the same functionality in terms of the race portal and the pump that propels the cars. The one concession you make for the price is that the assembled track set is a little bit smaller — not that I could tell at first glance. It’s still a nice swooping oval shape with a loop in the middle, so maybe that’s all you really need.

If you already have an existing Hot Wheels track setup, the brand now has more options to integrate the standalone $35 race portal into it. Last year’s race portal set came with blue clips that could be used to attach the portal to pieces of standard orange track, but it wasn’t exactly the most secure arrangement — it was a little flimsy, and it was easy to lose the clips. Now, sets from the Track Builder and City lines will include a special piece of track that the race portal can be slotted into directly. This is great if you’re not a particular fan of how the Smart Track set was laid out or its “kid-powered booster,” which even I always had a bit of trouble with myself (it’s very much about hitting a sweet spot). Some sets have a motor that propels the car forward without your constant intervention, and now Hot Wheels ID can work with those too.

What’s even more interesting is that having more places to plug the race portal in also means more variety in what you see on the screen of your connected mobile device. While we didn’t get a live demonstration, a representative told us that one piece that had molded plastic water nozzles on it would actually manifest as a car wash in the app — so you’d see your vehicle getting washed as it went through the race portal.

Of course, more cars will also become available for Hot Wheels ID in 2020, including the upcoming Tesla Cybertruck. (That’s in addition to the 1/64-scale RC Cybertruck also introduced at Toy Fair this weekend.) Like the other NFC-chipped cars, it will cost $5.

All of these products are set to roll out later this year, with the new Core Track core set due this spring. But you could just pick up last year’s Smart Track set from Amazon for $125 today — only $5 more expensive than the upcoming scaled-down version, making it a better choice right now if features are important to you.

Follow all the latest news from Toy Fair 2020 here!

The Hot Wheels Cybertruck R/C has all the details you would expect for a toy that costs a few hundred dollars, including rows of front and rear lights and the distinctive rear cover with a telescoping tailgate. Sadly, unlike the original, it’s not automatically activated — you’ll have to pull it out by hand. There’s also no RC Cyberquad ATV to tuck neatly into the truck bed. (Mattel is thinking about introducing one down the line, but nothing’s set in stone yet.)

It’s obviously too small to ride in but the inside will be fully designed with seats and a dashboard; the shell is removable so you can take a look inside (or pose your favorite action figures in the chairs). This is definitely designed for the Tesla fan, but even regular RC fans will find plenty to like about the Cybertruck. It’s capable of actual speeds up to 25 miles per hour which doesn’t make it the fastest RC out there but is still is nothing to sniff at. (That’s actually the speed limit in New York City, meaning that if you were crazy enough to take this thing out on the street, it wouldn’t hold up traffic by being too slow. But you probably shouldn’t.)

The Cybertruck uses hobby grade parts and a standard dial-based RC controller, so in addition to going fast it also turns on a dime. In a demonstration at Toy Fair we watched it gracefully navigate under a table and around the legs of passersby. There were moments I was sure it would crash and it didn’t.

If it did have a collision, though, the plastic construction seems to mimic its full-sized metal counterpart well, though I still wouldn’t throw heavy objects at it. Oh, if you’re fond of that botched demonstration from the reveal back in November, Hot Wheels has packed in a little treat for you there too — the Cybertruck comes with “shattered window” decals so you can emulate the look of Tesla’s little mishap on stage.

If $400 is still a little rich for your blood, don’t worry, there’s a 1/64 scale RC model too and it’s only $20. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of its larger sibling like the removable cover, and it uses a gamepad-like controller instead, but it’s still very fast (7 miles per hour, which scales up to 500 mph) and maneuverable — this one could stop close to the edge of a table without rolling off. And, since it’s the same scale as the majority of Hot Wheels’ vehicle line, it can be used on the standard orange track, so you can speed your car through loop-de-loops that owners of the real Cybertruck will only be able to dream about.

We don’t have a release date for either toy at this point but they are available for pre-order today on MattelCreations.com, with the release set for later this year.

Follow all the latest news from Toy Fair 2020 here!

Hot Wheels has done a lot over the past few years to reinvent itself as a brand that’s more than just little die-cast cars. We’ve seen remote control vehicles, augmented reality racing and even cars you build yourself. Now the brand’s next step is to go back to its 1/64-scale roots, but with a decidedly modern twist. Hot Wheels iD look like normal cars, but each carries a tiny NFC chip in the bottom that makes it possible to track each car’s race time and speed. Now, when kids claim their car is the fastest, they have the data to back it up.

On its own, a Hot Wheels iD vehicle looks like a regular toy car. And it races like any other Hot Wheels vehicle too: Just place the car in a pump launcher attached to a track and press the large button repeatedly to propel the car without sending it flying off the course. But the track itself is now packed with tech, most importantly an NFC reader that counts how many times each car passes over it. That data is sent back to the new iD app for Android and iOS via Bluetooth LE, calculating stats like the number of laps taken, top speed and total distance traveled.

You register the cars with the app by tapping the vehicle against the NFC reader on your device. Or, if your phone or tablet doesn’t have a reader, the “race portal” piece of smart track can also do the job. And the track itself is, in fact, smart: The thick, sturdy pieces connect to each other via USB, so they can communicate back to the app which pieces are being used and what the track looks like, as well as helping to guide kids through the build process step by step. Regular (read: dumb) track pieces from standard Hot Wheels sets can be attached as well, though the system won’t be able to import data on these. The app isn’t required to play with the cars every single time; the race portal will store the data in the meantime and simply transfer the next time it syncs with a device.

But the app isn’t only about keeping tabs on your collection and helping you build tracks. It will issue racing challenges for you to complete — make X amount of laps, or reach a certain speed — and then dish out rewards as you complete them. Rewards for what, you say? Well, in addition to the real-world play of the cars and track, there’s also a game in the app where you race virtual copies of your collection on virtual tracks. The rewards consist of power-ups that can be used to supercharge your cars in the game, as well as unlocking exclusive in-game content like additional vehicles.

It’s a fast-paced but otherwise basic racing game, where you steer by tapping left or right on the screen, with a dual tap activating the available power-ups. And it’s free to play, like a lot of mobile games kids are into. And, as in many of those games, it has in-app purchases (boo) and a cooldown period where you won’t be able to do anything. But, instead of forcing kids to pay up to continue playing, Hot Wheels iD sends them to the toys themselves. When someone plays with their cars in the real world, it recharges the car for more racing in the virtual world.

The whole idea is to make sure that kids continue to play with the toys even with all the cool features of the app. After all, the heart of the Hot Wheels brand is building a cool car collection. And Hot Wheels iD has plenty to offer in that regard: It will launch with eight vehicles to start, but eventually you’ll have 51 different cars to choose from, including real-world models like the Corvette C7R and Aston Martin One-77, along with fantasy designs like the Motosaurus and the Batmobile.

Unfortunately, amassing a collection won’t come cheap. Each NFC-enabled vehicle will cost $7, though they are better constructed than the $1 blister-packed cars you often find in bins at your local toy store. The Race Portal that lets you scan and track the cars will be sold on its own for $40 with two exclusive vehicles included. But if you really want to go the distance with Hot Wheels iD, the Smart Track set comes with all the USB-connected pieces plus two exclusive vehicles, and that will run you $180. It even comes in a box that was designed to be used for longterm storage.

You can pick all of these up at the Apple Store today, as well as download the iOS app in the App Store. Android users will get their chance at iD next month on Prime Day, when the app launches on Amazon and Google Play. People who’d rather buy this in a physical store will also get a shot when it reaches Target starting in the fall.