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Hello all and welcome to the ZMODS HOT WHEELS WEBSITE. This site was created to share information on what I have to trade! (Website established on Dec 8, 2004)

Here is how I got into this addicting hobby.

I've always had a thing for cars. My father was a big inspiration for me in this realm. He was always into muscle cars and has always had one around. My grandfather was a car dealer for many, many years so cars were always part of our family interest. I was just a kid during the early eighties when I started noticing the Hot Wheels cars at the stores. Places like Zayres, Bradless, Child World, Toys R Us, Spags, Stuarts or the Fair (in the Worcester Ma area) had carried them. I noticed that these cars looked far more exciting than the other cars that were located on nearby shelves. I first started getting just the ones that caught my eye. I then started to find the same cars with different variations. This was pretty exciting since I could make a car lot of my own (in small scale) using the same castings with different option packages. I have a vast imagination which came in handy when I used to build roads and towns, in the dirt, at the front of my house. My collection started to grow as my toy towns grew. The more cars I found (no two were the same), the bigger my adventures got.

The years went by and by the time 1989 came around, my collection had grown to a few hundred. By now I was in a phase when I stopped playing with them and started collecting more and more. I started buying any cars at the stores in mass numbers every time I visited (including all variations).
I still opened the packages but they only got displayed for viewing or they got the occasional cruise around the block. I started buying them from people at the local flea markets and soon realized how some cars were more valuable or rarer than others. I tried to catch up on cars that I didn't have. This was an ongoing challenge. By 1991 my interests changed and the Hot Wheels were put in their cases and stored, while I pursued other interests.

From 1991-95, I was building model cars to the point of creating a collection of over 100+ built and un-built models. During this time span I had collected Hot Wheels here and there but other things held more interest.

....Not until August 1995 was when I started noticing a lot of new cars available. I am big into variations and this year, the cars had a ton of them starting with their new wheels. This was a big transition year for Hot Wheels. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Within a week, I collected a couple hundred of them from wherever I could. The fever had struck me good. This year brought us many new series cars, First Editions and especially Treasure Hunts. These special cars were like gold but were almost impossible to find. At first, I couldn't believe what these Treasure Hunt cars were fetching in price on the secondary market. I pretty much wrote them off my list until I found my first in Dec 1995. That is when I got lucky to find two 31 Doozie TH's at TRU. Now I needed to find them all. I am a completist and knowing that I wouldn't find every Hot Wheel car would get challenging at times. By April 1999 I finally caught up in collecting all the Treasure Hunts to that point and I was been keeping up until the end of 2006.

Keeping up with the output of different Hot Wheels cars that Mattel was putting out was manageable up until 1998. Then, they started expanding their First Editions list and Limited cars. All the way up to 2003, it was a challenge but I had help from a real good friend that I helped get hooked on to these cars in 1997 (84wildcard).

Then the 2004 cars started coming out. This was the year that pushed me to the edge for collecting. due to the huge, vast #'s of cars/variations that came out. I finished off 2004 with only a few variations missing. This was tough on me so I decided to start changing my collecting habits by focusing on just the mainline castings, in order to keep the collection manageable. This was to keep myself from getting too crazy with this addiction of mine. I kept this pace all the way thru 2006, collecting any old/new mainline castings wherever I could.

As for 2007, I decided to take the year off from collecting most Hot Wheels cars (unless it was a variation I need from 06 and earlier) since I have been collecting constantly since mid 1995! I only wanted to continue collecting the Classics Series 3, RLC and the Ultra Hots. I am a completist so I have been very busy in this hobby for over 12 years (plus collecting periodically in the 80's and early 90's). 

I collected at this current pace (since 2007) up until mid 2008. Then, I did some prolonged thinking about the direction of my collection and the direction of my real 1:1 scale car hobby, itself.  I wanted to focus more on my 1:1 scale cars and anything related to them. So, as far as die cast collecting goes, I decided to sell off most of my life long, 14000 Hot Wheels collection. 

 

I did hold some cars back......  for my new collecting criteria. The 5 segments that I am collecting now represent the 1:1 cars that are currently in the family (which makes it more personal to me and hold more meaning and value). They are: 

1970 Plymouth Road Runner, Satellite, GTX, Superbird casting based on my Fathers 1970 Road Runner (B-Body Mopar)

1967-69 Plymouth Barracuda based on my 1969 Cuda 340 Notchback (A-Body Mopar)

1982-92 Pontiac Firebird, Formula, Trans Am, GTA based on my 1989 Formula 350 and various past Firebird models that I've owned (F-Body GM)

1982-87 Buick Regal, Limited, T-Type, T, Grand National, GNX based on my 1987 Buick Regal Turbo Limited (G-Body GM)

Go Karts based on my daughters 2 seat go kart

 

I collect these models from any manufacturer like Johnny Lightning, Hot Wheels, GMP, Greenlight etc.. as long as they are realistic (no HW flip nose GN's or Jada etc.. "Tuner" looking vehicles). I also collect any scale versions like 1:18, 1:24, 1:64 etc... and any and all variations like White Lightnings, limiteds etc... just to keep the new collection the most complete representation as possible.

 

I am interested in these castings from these sources at this time (please let me know what you have if you want to trade/sell):

    Hot Wheels: 82-92 Firebird/Formula/TA/GTA, 70 Road Runner/Superbird, 67-69 Barracuda

    Johnny Lightning;  82-92 Firebird/Formula/TA/GTA, 70 Road Runner/GTX/Superbird, 67-69 Barracuda, 

    Greenlight (1:18 and 1:64 scale):  82-92 Firebird/Formula/TA/GTA, 70 Road Runner

    Ertl/Hwy61 (1:18 scale): 67-69 Barracuda

    GMP (1:18 and 1:24 scale): Turbo Buick, 70 Road Runner/GTX

I HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR VISIT.  Sincerely; STEVE ZALIMAS ( a.k.a. "SLZ" or "SLZ1973" on the forums)

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