Matchbox will sell an eco-friendly Tesla Roadster toy, and you’ll probably be able to buy one before the real thing

• Mattel will sell a Matchbox Tesla Roadster made from 99% recycled materials in 2022.
• It's part of Mattel's green push toward more sustainable manufacturing and more toys based on EVs.
• It could very well beat the actual Tesla Roadster to market.
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Tesla fans tired of waiting for their Roadster may finally have something to go in that empty spot in their garage come next year – but they'll have to make some sacrifices.

Mattel, the maker of Matchbox toy cars, announced on Thursday that it will start selling a 1:64-scale Tesla Roadster in 2022. The miniature electric supercar may very well hit the market before the real thing.

The introduction of a die-cast Roadster is the first step in Mattel's plan to make all its cars and packaging out of recycled, recyclable, or bio-plastic materials by 2030. In its move toward environmental sustainability, the company is also launching more toy versions of electric vehicles and it's adding EV charging plugs to its fuel station play sets.

Mattel built the Roadster out of 99% recycled materials and had it certified as a carbon-neutral product by purchasing carbon offsets.

The full-sized Roadster, for its part, was revealed in 2017 with a target launch date of 2020, but it hasn't materialized yet. Tesla now says it will enter production in 2022, but it hasn't specified when the first examples will be in customers' hands. Given the delays the Roadster – and other future Teslas like the Cybertruck and Semi – has faced, it's possible the supercar won't arrive in 2022 at all.

Whenever it does hit streets, the $200,000 Roadster is poised to offer up some very impressive specs. Tesla says the four seater will be able to hit 100 mph in 4.2 seconds and travel 620 miles on a charge, more than any EV currently for sale. And Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said he wants to add rocket boosters so the Roadster can hover short distances.

But if you don't need your Roadster to do any of that and you're tired of waiting, the Matchbox version may be the way to go.