BY AMY HIGGINS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CROSBY TOWNSHIP - Fred Maschinot calls himself an addict. He's driven to Florida, to West Virginia and to Tennessee to get a fix. He spends $250 a week. .
His addiction: Hot Wheels.
Mr. Maschinot came from Melbourne on Sunday to turn his addiction to the Hot Wheels Cincinnati show at Stricker's Grove. More than 600 collectors - many reliving childhood memories or playing out hot rod fantasies - joined him to trade, buy or race their treasures. .
Toy company Mattel Inc. introduced Hot Wheels in 1968, the height of baby boomer adolescence. Many of the children who played with and raced Hot Wheels in the late '60s and early '70s have fished them out of attics or dug them up from the bottom of sandboxes to pass to their own children. Or to live vicariously through them.
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TO LEARN MORE
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The Hot Wheels Cincinnati club meets at 10:30 a.m. on the third Sunday of the month. For more information, call Jay Yaeger at 922-8490 or Dave Wynn at 752-6994, or see the club's Web page at:
http://members.aol.com/hwcinti/home.html
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According to the Harry L. Rinker Official Price Guide to Collectibles, Hot Wheels are the No. 2 baby boomer-era toy, bested only by Barbie. And as with Barbie, boomer nostalgia has given new Hot Wheels a new life for a new generation.
"Everything from my childhood has come full circle - Star Wars, Kiss and Hot Wheels," said Mike Cravens, who added he's amazed the same 99-cent cars he played with in the dirt with are now worth as much as $100. "I probably ruined about a thousand dollars' worth of them."
Family affair
Mr. Cravens now scours Hot Wheels shows, Internet markets and department store toy aisles with his son, Steven. The 6-year-old said his favorite thing about the cars is to race and "to crash them up."
But some of the older cars he takes great care to keep in cases. "Mine, I kept in a bucket," Mr. Cravens said laughing.
Before Hot Wheels made a full comeback, Tony Farley used to laugh at a friend who collected and dealt in them. But once he bought some seven months ago, he admitted he, too, was hooked.
Mr. Farley, of Louisville, said his fascination is more with the cars themselves than the nostalgia. Each is different, and collecting offers a competitive challenge to get as many varieties as possible. Or at least more than everybody else.
If Hot Wheels collecting were a contest, Mr. Maschinot is well on his way to winning. His addiction has netted him well more than 3,500 cars.
"When I was a kid, I didn't have nothing," Mr. Maschinot said. "We was poor. Now I have something."
Paul Cooper explains the hobby he shares with his children this way: "It has everything to do with cars."
Mr. Cooper, of Independence, said he grew up in an era of muscle cars. Collecting $1 Hot Wheels is a way to live out the hot rod fantasy without the expense.
He spends the alternate weekends he gets with Trey, 14, and Megan, 12, either at Hot Wheels shows or fixing up the cars they have.
"I wouldn't be doing it if it weren't for the kids," he said. "It's something to do together."
Jay Yaeger got back into Hot Wheels when his kids got old enough to enjoy them, too. Almost three years ago, Mr. Yaeger and some friends started the Hot Wheels Cincinnati club, which staged Sunday's annual show. The club's monthly meeting includes an hour of open trading and selling.
But for Mr. Yaeger, the fun comes from spending time with his kids and reliving his own childhood. He doesn't know, and doesn't care, what his 1,200 cars are worth.
"When people do it as an investment instead of a hobby, it takes the fun out of it," he said. "It wouldn't matter if people offer me $10,000 for them. They're not for sale."
