Salina ? Derek Moline was shopping at the Salina Target store earlier this year when he spotted a Hot Wheels car on a shelf.

The car looked very similar to one he had helped build at his workplace.

Turns out the car, which was purple and lime green, had been painted to replicate the 1931 Chrysler four-door sedan Moline and the other employees of Bright Built Hot Rods created and entered in last July’s Hot Wheels’ Paint Your Ride Contest.

That old Chrysler, the Rat Rod Reborn, took second place at the competition, costing Bright Built a chance at the grand prize: having a Hot Wheels car made in the Rat Reborn’s image.

While still at Target that day, Moline called his boss, Keith Bright, co-owner of Bright Built Hot Rods and told him what he’d found. Bright said he was surprised about Rat Rod Reborn being replicated, but then he remembered something he had been told at the 2008 contest.

“When we left, Larry Wood, a Hot Wheels designer, told me the Rat looked like a Hot Wheels car, so he would probably make one,” Bright said. “We e-mailed Larry and asked him if this was our car,” said co-owner Kathleen Bright. “It sure was. It’s been so exciting to think we have a true Hot Wheels car.”

The Hot Wheels version of Bright Built’s car was named Shift Kicker.

Although a representative at Hot Wheels couldn’t confirm the number of Shift Kickers produced, the little cars have been sold at such retailers as Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target and Walgreens.

Knowing that they’d created something worthy of being made into a Hot Wheels car has been a morale boost for the Bright Built employees.

“It’s different now,” Moline said. “Now you feel like you’re driving a toy.”

The Brights said they are excited for their guys.

“They deserve all of the credit. We just financed it,” Kathleen said. “It turned out to be more expensive than we thought, but (it was) worth every penny.”

The search for more of the Shift Kicker cars began soon after Moline discovered the Hot Wheels replica. “We had everybody in the country looking for the car,” Kathleen said. “They haven’t been that easy to find.”