Collector Spotlight August 2008: Charlie

A.k.a. "Mondo Customz" at HWC™

08-18-08

Collectors, prepare to be envious. Not in a “Wow, he’s got a lot of Hot Wheels® cars” kind of way, but more like, “Wow, I want that dude’s life!” You see, this month’s Spotlight is focused on Charlie, age 41, from Pembroke, New Hampshire. Oh, New Hampshire’s nice and all, but that’s not the reason our green-eyed monster has reared its ugly head. It’s because Charlie makes his living customizing Hot Wheels® cars. Let us repeat that: Makes his living customizing Hot Wheels® cars! Meet the luckiest man on Earth and find out how he does it in this month’s Collector Spotlight.

HWC: How long have you been collecting, Charlie?
C: I’ve been collecting for 20 years now. Just seeing the new cars on the pegs and online brought back a lot of awesome memories of when I was a kid, and I was just compelled to start collecting again. My first vehicles were the classic Redline® vehicles from 1968. My dad bought them for me before I was born and I still have them, but not in their blister packs.

HWC: You now have over 7,000 Hot Wheels® cars. How do you display them? And how do you keep track of them?
C: Yes, 7,000 is a lot of Hot Wheels®, especially when I thought I only had about 1,000 before I counted all of them. Some are tacked on the walls, some are open on shelves, and most are in the closets waiting their turn to be displayed. I have no special way of keeping track; I just put a whole bunch of the same car in a regular box (sometimes different series, but same type of car) and I just put a number on the box with how many are contained in the box.

HWC: What do your friends and family think of your collection?
C: My friends and family are very supportive, but some just don't understand and say I need a real job and to stop playing with cars because I'm a grown man now. I respond that what a man does and how a man makes his money does not define who or what he is, by any means.

HWC: What’s your fondest Hot Wheels® memory?
C: Finding my first Treasure Hunt at a brand new Wal-Mart. I was so excited to find it that the stocker went to the back and wheeled out 14 more cases for me to open -- and it was my birthday that day, too!

My second fondest Hot Wheels® memory was when I won first place in a story contest and won a Toy Fair car. I don't know if Mattel held the contest or just one of our fellow members, but it was about all the cars made that year for HWC™. All the cars’ names had to be used in the story and a lot of people had some really good stories. I never would have thought in a million years that I would win that contest, but I did -- first place. I won the Toy Fair AcceleRacers™ Hollowback™ in a clear plastic case.

HWC: Do you have any advice for beginning collectors?
C: My advice for beginning collectors is to stay out of my way when I'm coming down the aisle because ME WANNUM TREASURE HUNT!!! No, just kidding -- I would never do that. But I would say that collecting can be fun, and it can be expensive, too. But if you want to be a successful collector, just be a happy one who appreciates them. Buy only what you like, and don't try to collect every single Hot Wheels® ever made just because you think you’re going to cash in one day and make millions.

HWC: When we asked your profession, you answered “Customizer Extraordinaire, Musician & Funky ala Punky Die-Cast Shaman.” Can you please explain?
C: I used to play in a band that was one step away from being signed by a major record label, but we lost our drummer. My band’s name was The Fleshy Headed Mutants, and we were the original pioneers of Metal/Rap. I was the front man/lead guitar player and I wrote all the songs, and it was all great while it lasted. Our band was way before its time. Go to that my-something-space website to hear. You know where.

Anyway, I noticed a bump on the back of my head that kept me in pain every time I would play live with the band or when I listened to loud music. I had it checked out, but there wasn’t anything they could do to it because it's been there for so long. I rarely ever feel it now, but it does come back now and again.

So I had to find something to do for work -- that I knew how to do -- and that was pretty much nothing. I was a musician all my life, and now I am forced to work for the man??? For peanuts??? No way!!! That’s when I started customizing. For the past seven years, I’ve been customizing as my 9-to-5 job -- but really, it's more like 24-hours-a-day sometimes because of all the custom orders I have on a weekly basis. People say I'm the Customizer Extraordinaire because that’s pretty much all I ever do. You can knock on my door at any given time, and you will always catch me working on my customs.

The shaman aspect of all of this is my journey to spiritual enlightenment throughout the past 13 years. I'm not talking about religion, just my own evolution. Consciously using cause-and-effect as a tool of knowledge to gain wisdom, and then realizing that all our relationships with people are literally our stepping stones to our spiritual evolution. So what does that have to do with Hot Wheels®? Nothing. Just thought it sounded good.

HWC: So more about customizing. How many have you done?
C: Literally hundreds of thousands. YES, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS! I have done many customs for charity events, and for the kids in Iraq and Afghanistan to be delivered by a few friends of mine in the military. I have literally made thousands of those for the kids in the Middle East, and my customs have sold all over the world.

HWC: The work in the pictures you sent us is amazing… did you do the art?
C: The art I use for my customs is from me, my friends, the Internet, or from artist Barbara Jensen. I recently received two awesome e-mails complimenting my work from none other than Steve Gilmore of Ford Motor Co. (designer of the Gangster Grin) and Felix Holst (director of design at Matchbox) for his ’53 Hearse Caddy.

HWC: What process do you use to create your customs?
C: I have a 12-step process that I list on every auction page I have online so people can see how much work goes into making my customs. My “black with flames” cars are a super-secret, so I can't give out the family recipes for those customs. I can tell you that I do my own flames, but I can't tell you how. And I do airbrush them sometimes. I only know of two customizers who do flames with the same process I use. Took a long time to figure it out -- that’s why I can’t give out any secrets. But if I can figure it out, so can you!!! Good luck!

HWC: Do you have any other hobbies or collections?
C: Baseball cards and autographed sports memorabilia. I will always cherish the 8”x10” photo signed in person by the late Joltin' Joe DiMaggio. It's an old original sepia photo of DiMaggio hitting a home run, signed in silver ink pen by him (the only one in existence).

I also like taking my Jack Russell terriers to the terrier trials where they can compete. They race across a big pond and they go to ground, meaning that they are judged on how well they find the scent of an animal underground. It's like putting a mouse in a maze, only this one’s for dogs. They also do time trials on different races and obstacle courses. All three of my Jacks have won first place in show, and I'm a very proud doggy daddy. Sorry, folks -- I have no kids. I love kids, too -- just as long as they are not mine!!! I'm a big kid, and I want all the Hot Wheels® to myself!

COLLECTOR QUICKSTATS:

• MODEL/COLOR 1:1 SCALE CAR OWNED: “A black 1999 GMC Yukon and a silver 2005 Subaru WRX.”
• FIRST HOT WHEELS® CAR OWNED: “The Twin Mill®.”
• BEST HOT WHEELS® CASTING OF ALL TIME: “The ‘55 Chevy® Panel. It's just the perfect package for a Hot Wheels® car, and the pull-out motorcycle is just the icing on the cake. Perfect for customizing, too.”
• LATEST, GREATEST HOT WHEELS® RELEASE: “Ultra Hots™. Just the idea of bringing them back is really cool, and the line of cars are wicked awesome, too! If there is a next series of Ultra Hots™, they need to have even more detailed paint jobs. Then this line will explode off the shelves.”
• BEST HOT WHEELS® CAR IN YOUR COLLECTION: “I love them all equally like they’re my kids. They are like tiny little time machines to me that never lose their nostalgic essence. Like certain songs you hear hold memories of a certain time or place, so do Hot Wheels® -- for me, anyway.”

We're always looking for our next collector to spotlight. If you would like to be considered for the Collector’s Spotlight, we’d like to hear from you:

1. First answer the questions found here: Spotlight questionnaire
2. Include some photos! Jpg images at 700 x 500 are the best
3. E-mail your answers and images to us at gary.barnum@mattel.com

You could be in the spotlight!