Hot Wheels' SDCC lineup usually means cars, but this year's Top Gun anniversary release swaps wheels for wings. The Hot Wheels Top Gun 40th Anniversary Set launches July 23, 2026 at 9:00 am PT, available both at San Diego Comic-Con and through Mattel Creations for 35 dollars, confirmed directly through Mattel's own official product listing.
Rather than a single die-cast car, this set recreates one of the film's most recognizable moments: Maverick and Goose inverting their F-14 Tomcat over an enemy aircraft during the movie's famous flight combat scene. It is part of Mattel's broader "Fandom in the Fast Lane" SDCC 2026 collection and marks the 40th anniversary of the original Top Gun film.
This guide covers what is confirmed about the set directly from Mattel's own listing, what makes the included aircraft worth a closer look, and how to think about protecting a display piece that does not fit Hot Wheels' usual carded formats.
The following is confirmed directly from Mattel Creations' own official product page:
Mattel's own listing also notes a purchase limit of 2 per customer, and the license is confirmed as manufactured under agreement with Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation for the F-14 Tomcat trademark, alongside Paramount Pictures for the film rights.
The set's more novel piece is the MiG-28, which Mattel's own listing points out is a bit of movie trivia as much as a die-cast model: there is no real aircraft called a MiG-28. In the original film, the "enemy" jet was actually a repainted F-5 Tiger standing in for a fictional adversary. Mattel is marketing this as the first-ever Hot Wheels take on that fictional aircraft, giving longtime Top Gun fans a piece that has never existed in Hot Wheels form before, movie-accurate fiction and all.
Most Hot Wheels anniversary sets are built around a single vehicle or a themed multi-pack of unrelated cars. This release instead recreates one specific, well-known scene from the film, with both aircraft mounted on a shared stand rather than sold or displayed separately. That framing gives the set a clearer narrative hook than a standard vehicle release, similar to how LEGO's more premium licensed sets increasingly lean on scene-accuracy rather than generic character or vehicle models. For Top Gun fans specifically, having the F-14 and the fictional MiG-28 posed together in the inverted flight configuration is the whole appeal, rather than either aircraft being a standalone pickup.
This set is one piece of Mattel's larger "Fandom in the Fast Lane" collection at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, a lineup of specially designed collectibles spanning several of Mattel's brands rather than a single Hot Wheels-only drop. Positioning the Top Gun set within that broader collection reflects a pattern Mattel has leaned into more heavily at recent conventions: rather than treating SDCC exclusives as a purely Hot Wheels event, the company spreads anniversary and franchise tie-in releases across multiple brands under one umbrella, giving attendees and online shoppers a wider range of exclusives to chase in a single event window.
The original Top Gun released in 1986, making 2026 its 40th anniversary year. The film's most enduring sequence remains the inverted flight scene this set recreates, where Maverick and Goose fly upside down directly above an enemy aircraft to snap a photograph as a show of skill and nerve. That moment has become one of the most referenced scenes in the franchise, revisited in various forms across Top Gun: Maverick and the broader marketing around the films. Building a Hot Wheels display piece specifically around that scene, rather than a generic F-14 model on its own, gives collectors a version of the moment that a standalone die-cast jet would not capture on its own.
Since this set ships in a premium soft-touch box with a built-in display stand rather than a standard blister card, it does not fit EVORETRO's mainline or carded Hot Wheels protector categories directly. The closest fit in the catalog is a protector case built for Hot Wheels premium releases, which are generally boxed rather than carded, similar to how this Top Gun set is packaged. As with any non-standard release, it's worth measuring the actual box against a case before assuming a guaranteed fit, since Mattel has not published exact external packaging dimensions ahead of the July 23 launch.
If you are planning to protect or display this set once it launches, this EVORETRO product is a practical starting point:
July 23, 2026 at 9:00 am PT, available at San Diego Comic-Con and on Mattel Creations, per Mattel's own listing.
An F-14 Tomcat and a first-ever MiG-28 model, both ZAMAC die-cast, mounted on a shared display stand.
No. Per Mattel's own listing, there is no real MiG-28; the film's "enemy" jet was a repainted F-5 Tiger.
Yes, Mattel has capped orders at 2 per customer for this release.
The Top Gun 40th Anniversary Set gives Hot Wheels collectors a genuinely different kind of SDCC exclusive: a scene-accurate aircraft display piece rather than a standard car release, built around one of the film's most recognizable moments. Whether you're a longtime Top Gun fan or just after the novelty of the first-ever MiG-28 model, having a display plan ready before the July 23 launch makes sense given the format's departure from Hot Wheels' usual carded releases.
Keep an eye on Mattel Creations' official channels for stock updates as the July 23 launch approaches.
For more on recent Hot Wheels SDCC exclusives and protection options, these guides may also help:
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