Exactly HOW young were you when you saw those movies?
Anyway, fun story about legos: When I would play with them at my grandma's house, I would do this thing where I would make crappy-looking giant robots, but then take the legs from the minifigs and use them as joints. That way, my robots could have bendable arms and legs.
I, too had a ton of Hotwheels (and other off brand toy cars) as a kid. However, instead of using them for their intended purpose, I would arrange a death tornament in which I would send the cars colliding into eachother. The ones that flipped over lost.