Hot Wheels x Top Gun 40th Anniversary Set

A Top Gun 40th Anniversary Set will be one of three exclusive Hot Wheels items for the 2026 San Diego Comic-Con and Mattel Creations.

The set includes an F-14 Tomcat over a MiG-28 held in place by a stand with the Top Gun logo. It comes packed in a soft-touch display box decorated with graphics inspired by Maverick’s helmet.

Learn more at Mattel Creations.

Top Gun is a 1986 action movie directed by Tony Scott and starring Tom Cruise as naval aviator Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. After being accepted into the U.S. Navy's elite Fighter Weapons School, Maverick competes against the Navy's top pilots while learning valuable lessons about teamwork, responsibility, and confidence.

The movie featured real U.S. Navy aircraft, including the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, and became one of the highest-grossing films of 1986. Its flying scenes, soundtrack and memorable quotes helped make Top Gun one of the most popular aviation movies ever made.

One of the movie's most famous scenes happens when Maverick flies his F-14 upside down just above an enemy Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-28 during a close aerial encounter. Goose takes a Polaroid photo from the back seat while Maverick holds the plane steady and gives the other pilot the bird.

The "MiG-28" seen in Top Gun was fictional, as no real aircraft by that designation exists. The filmmakers actually used modified Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter jets painted black to portray the enemy fighters.

The success of Top Gun helped increase interest in naval aviation and even boosted U.S. Navy recruiting. It was followed by the 2022 sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, which brought Tom Cruise back as Maverick nearly 40 years later.