About Me first

             And here is where it begins. A journey through my personal collection as well as a trip through my adventures in Hot Wheels collecting. I will start off by providing a little about me and the hobby. I am now late into my 40's. I started in this hobby early in my teens and have been continuously collecting Hot Wheels cars for around 30 years. Some years were heavy collecting, some years not so much but I was always keeping my eye on the pegs. I have a passion for cars that centers around classic cars. I am constantly intrigued by the almost art form of an industry that we surround ourselves in every single day of our lives. The Mattel company found a way to connect with that like no other had yet. To this day, a toy can be purchased for spare change that can ignite a passion for cars and design like very few things can. I got hooked when I started noticing Ferraris and muscle cars that I dreamed of owning someday were immortalized in the 1:64th scale toys.

           In the beginning, my early teenage years, I was approaching the time to have the responsibility of a car. My friends at the time drove Mustangs, Chevelles and Chargers. I was captivated by these machines that roared through the streets and even sat passenger to some awesome street racing. The stage was being set and I didn't even know it. The car featured in my first blog and shown above was my first collectee. Into my 20s I realized that this was a hobby I could afford even when times were not the best financially. It was always easy to find $2 and purchase a toy that would spark dreams and thoughts of what I could achieve. Couple dollars here and there provided hours of dreaming about what it would be like to drive one of the magnificently casted cars of my dreams. My daughter then got into the hobby and we would go peg hunting together. Later a son is born and well, more peg hunting but now as a family. Into my 30s I start to realize some of these dreams just aren't going to make it into my real garage but I can still have them to dream about. Into my 40s and my collecting is now refined to castings that I really enjoy and some of the castings of cars that I still dream about or have had the chance to own and drive.
        Now I pass this information and joy to my grandson and I hope to have him involved in this blog venture as well. As I progress, you will see a feature called Rebels thoughts where I intend to let him give a 40 year gap in age take the stage to tell us what they think about the car itself. Together, we have begun to take out the old totes and look through the older gems together. I then thought we would share this take on older cars for fun and maybe help spark someone else's passion.
        I am no Hot Wheels expert but I do have enough years around cars to have some educational information. I intend to have some fun with possibly a different perspective on casting reviews and what they really mean for the automotive industry, the toy industry and how they relate to each other in our personal lives. We will review mostly older castings but will incorporate newer castings when they are significant to one of those facets. The reviews will be loosely based on a couple different criteria:

     1 - The significance of the casting to toys and then to the real world.
     2 - The overall quality of the casting (from my perspective)
     3 - A 7 year olds view of the casting overall. (This will be interesting)

         I am partial to a couple of real life brands (Ferrari and Dodge) but will try to keep that bias reserved for comments and light hearted banter. Please have fun with this information and any additional information you would like to add, please provide in the comments. They are welcomed, just keep it cool so we can have some fun along the way in a great hobby and I would like to keep this family friendly so we can pass this information to a younger generation of collectors and enthusiasts.
      Note: All cars pictured are from my personal collection. They are not for sale (unless noted otherwise), I am doing this for information not for revenue (with exception to adds that I may have links to on the blog post). No outside sources will be used for photos. If you have any additional pictures or variations you would like to add, please post them in the comments (I love seeing other versions I may have never seen). If you like the blog, please leave us a comment. If there are any castings you would specifically like spotlighted, leave us a comment. I may not have an exact version but if I have a similar casting, I may feature an alternative casting to still have it featured. We have several on the waiting list so lets get to it and go for a ride.....

Thank you,
 May all your Hot Wheels hauls be blessed by the Super Treasure Hunt wizards.