The original Hot Wheels were made by Elliot Handler. Handler discovered his son Kenneth playing with Matchbox cars and decided to create a line to compete with Matchbox. He suggested the line to his wife Ruth Handler, but she was unenthusiastic, as well as Mattel’s directors. Hot Wheels were originally conceived by Handler to be more like "hot rod" (i.e.customized/modified or even caricaturized or fantasy cars, often with big rear tires, superchargers, flame paint-jobs, outlandish proportions, hood blowers, etc.) cars, as compared to Matchbox cars which were generally small-scale models of production cars. He began producing the cars with assistance from fellow engineer Jack Ryan.