30th August, 2026, Kolkata, India.
Hamleys did it again. Their second event is over, and it got a positive response, making it a “success.”
The event took place across 11 cities in India. The major cities were Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Delhi, and Kolkata.
With social media posts flooding Instagram, Reddit, and WhatsApp, it’s clear that most collectors are happy.
However, it wasn’t a clean win. The event surfaced more problems than the first, and Hamleys needs to address them before the next one.
In this post, I’ll walk through what went wrong and what Hamleys can do better next time.
A partial success, but on the right trajectory
Hamleys’ first event gave collectors a dedicated space to hunt Hot Wheels in India.
It was new and, truth be told, not many people had high expectations of Hamleys. That’s because Hamleys is known to do B2B deals even while having customer-centric retail stores across India — which made no sense for a retail outlet.
With low expectations, the first event saw a fair share of collectors showing up.
However, the second event raised collector expectations. Most collectors know that it is their best chance to grab chases, STH, and other rare collectibles.
But it led to chaos.
Here’s why.
Lack of crowd management
Hamleys failed at crowd management.
Let’s see what happened in Kolkata.
Here, malls open at 9 AM — but collectors wanted to have the first shot at rare collectibles.
Collectors started reaching the venue 5 hours before the event started; with the first collector arriving at 5 AM.
This means that everyone had to wait a few hours before they could get in.
However, when the gates opened, everyone rushed; causing chaos.
Many fell during the rush, and a few got injured (one collector dislocated their shoulder).
Two entrances (front and back) further made things worse, as two different groups reached the Hamleys front door, arguing over who was first.
Hamleys failed to predict this.
I arrived later and heard these stories firsthand from collectors still waiting in line.
However, I got the chance to speak with the event manager, and they assured me that the next event would have a proper management system in place, which would take care of collectors arriving as early as 5 AM!
Less Variety of Stock and Quantity
The second event had noticeably less stock than the first, at least in Kolkata.
For example, there were no Formula 1 premiums on offer.
I found that they had less stock of most SKUs, especially hyped items.
Fast & Furious boxes were limited, but it was a surprise that they also had a lower quantity of Boulevard sets than Ferrari Enzo.
The Chase Problem: Solve It Hamleys
The chaos at the start of Kolkata’s event was due to collectors wanting to get their hands on Fast & Furious Chase.
If you were in the top ten, you were almost guaranteed a chase.
“Almost” because the first few people took two chases with them, not one.
That’s a good thing, right? Nope, it isn’t.
This is the root cause of all the issues.
Two issues stood out.
- Collectors fought like kids to be first in line.
- Even with a two Hot Wheels limit, the first few people get the chases, leaving nothing for others.
The solution? I have two of them.
- Limit one chase car per person.
- Random chase box drops throughout the day.
Let me explain the first point.
Chases are rare — rare enough that prices spike instantly in the secondary market. Mattel knows this. In fact, chases are the key reason most of the Hot Wheels market is so hot.
By limiting 1 chase per person, others get a better chance.
Random box drops throughout the day create excitement and give late arrivals a genuine shot.
Additionally, this approach can solve more problems:
- It limits collectors from bringing other non-collectors to grab as many chases as well.
- Ensures fair distribution with a luck-based approach.
The random timings can be decided by the management and should not be shared with the collectors.
However, this doesn’t mean that early arrivals should be left out. In fact, they should always have better chances as they are reaching the venue earlier and standing in line for hours.
So, priority access is still a meaningful reward for arriving early, but they should only get the chance to open 50% of the chase boxes — with the rest dropped randomly throughout the day.
Of course, the simplest solution of all would be having enough stock for everyone.”
What’s Next for Hamleys
Hamleys is on the right path.
Crossword tried to ride the wave of hype Hamleys created, but failed miserably as they had no stock (the first event). I’ve heard they did great in the second event (topic for another day).
Hamleys will continue to do this, with the chance that the event cycle is set to become much shorter next time (as told by Hamleys manager).
So, what do you think about the Hamleys event? Do you think what they’re doing is good for their brand and the overall collectors community? Share your comments below.
