Hot Wheels Legends Tour – NEC Birmingham

Event video production for a global automotive brand

Drone Motion was hired by Hyphen to provide video production for the Hot Wheels Legends Tour at the NEC in Birmingham across 2024 and 2025. Over multiple days of filming, we captured the UK leg of a global search to find the next real car to be turned into a 1:64 Hot Wheels die-cast model and inducted into the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends.  

Across the two years, our role was to tell the story of the event for social and digital, from the atmosphere on the stand to the live judging and final winner reveal.

Results and brand impact

The Hot Wheels Legends Tour is a major global campaign for Mattel, running across more than a dozen countries and drawing thousands of entries and millions of fans worldwide every year.  

In the UK, the NEC stop forms the live finale where a handful of shortlisted builds are judged in front of an audience, with the winner progressing to European and global finals. The ultimate prize is simple and huge: the winning car is recreated as an official Hot Wheels die-cast sold in shops around the world.  

Our job was to turn that energy into content that works hard online. Over the two days we covered:

• The Hot Wheels stand and the wider show environment
• The three finalist cars and live judging on stage
• Owner reactions, quickfire vox pops and crowd moments
• The announcement of the UK winner and their journey into the global competition

The final outputs included a hero highlight film, multiple social cut-downs in vertical and landscape ratios, and short pieces tailored for Hot Wheels, Hyphen and partner channels. The content helped amplify the UK stop of the Tour, driving awareness, entries and engagement around future years.

Event storytelling at pace

This was fast, run and gun production with high expectations.

Working as a small, agile team, we delivered:

• Two videographers on site across the full event
• A dedicated editor turning around finished pieces within two to three days
• Clean sound using wireless mics for presenters and contributors
• Footage structured for social media first, with a clear narrative arc from arrival to winner

Hyphen trusted Drone Motion to handle not just coverage, but story, capturing the community around custom builds, the atmosphere of the NEC show and the emotion of seeing a car get one step closer to becoming an official Hot Wheels model.

Why brands choose Drone Motion

Brands and agencies choose Drone Motion for event video production in the UK when they need:

• Compact crews who can move quickly without missing key moments
• Story-driven edits that do more than just montage B-roll
• Multi-format delivery for social, web and partner channels

The Hot Wheels Legends Tour case study shows how we support global activations with lean, efficient production that still feels high end.

Project overview

Client: Mattel / Hot Wheels (via Hyphen)

Location: NEC Birmingham, UK

Years: 2024 and 2025

Services: Event video production, highlight film, social media edits, on-site shooting and fast turnaround editing

Sector: Brand activation, automotive, live event

Watch the project

[2024 or 2025 highlight video embed and BTS imagery]

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