Collectors item

For many men approaching 40, one of the highlights of their childhood -- and now their adulthood -- has been collecting Hot Wheels. The die-cast cars first roared on to store shelves in 1968 with a miniature version of the Chevrolet Camaro. Since then, 562 new models have been introduced and more than one billion Hot Wheels have been sold around the world.

Beech Bum camper

It takes about 10 months for a Hot Wheels car to roll off the assembly line. The first step involves getting up close and personal with the full-sized version of the car being replicated. Everything from close-ups of the grille to overhead and full-length views are captured on film, and exact measurements are taken from bumper to bumper. From here, the engineering department creates mechanical drawings that are transformed into a wooden model. Then a mould is made. What emerges is a 1/64th-scale version of the real thing.

Mattel, which makes the miniature motor vehicles, says there are more than 15 million boys, ages three to 10, who are avid collectors, and they boast more than 30 cars each on average. Adult collectors are much more serious. The average Hot Wheels collector owns 1,500 Hot Wheels vehicles and will fork over big bucks to add a car to the collection. Last year, a one-of-a-kind Hot Wheels went for US$10,000, while a charity auction brought the gavel down at US$4,600 for a four-car set.

With more than two billion cars in garages, toy boxes, attics, rec rooms and museums, the committed collectors try to lay their hands on each Hot Wheel in each of the various models, print designs and colours. Some of the original 16 cars that launched the Hot Wheels line 30 years ago are rare today. The Chevy Camaro was the first car in the '68 lineup but not the most popular. That distinction belongs to Chevrolet's Corvette. Neither are believed by collectors to be the most valuable. That honour goes to the 1969 Volkswagen Beach Bomb, which has surfboards sticking out the rear window but no slots on the side.

Financial Post (Canada) - Dec 22, 2000

sent in by Pete Frost