My personal history with Hot Wheels

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Hot Wheels. These were a much more recent fascination of my dad's in 2011-2016 or so he decided to get into collecting - at first it was Hot Wheels brand cars. And at first I thought it was a cool hobby for him. But being as he did things either all or nothing, Hot Wheels were the same and quickly became an unhealthy hobby. And it branched from Hot Wheels (.99 cents a piece) to Johnny Rockets (3.00 a piece) , M2's (6.00 a piece), and the larger die casts cars (anywhere from 12.00 and up). He was into hotwheels when one of the more recent "Batman" movies came out and I remember he bought many sets of the "Batman" collectible cars. These were expensive because it had a semi loaded up with cars that all had something to do with Batman. Now I'm not picking about either "Batman" or die cast collectors, but dad didn't like "Batman" to begin with so I could never figure out why he would want a zillion of the same expensive "Batman" car sets. I also remember bailing him out several times. He insisted that my mom not renew their home owner's insurance - because it was more money that he could spend on hot wheels. Then he started in on car gas. I remember times when he would run the car on fumes, putting only $5 or so per time in so that he had more to spend for hot wheels. Then he started in on the grocery budget. Of course his temper was so scary that my mom just went along with everything. So I stepped in and made sure that they had food money. I watched as my friends as they went on trips, and bought fun things. In the meantime my dad would yell at me for suggesting that he cut down on his hobby. "It's my only hobby" he would wail. or "I don't even smoke". I told him I was happy he had a hobby, but that he needed to be responsible and pay his bills first. "I don't even like this one" he declared, holding up a hot wheel. "I just want a lot of something!" - and sure enough, he does have a lot of somethings. 70+ of the same car in hot wheels of certain ones. The 2 car garage at my parent's place is mostly full of tote boxes of Hot Wheels. There is only 1 car in there, rest of the space is mostly Hot Wheels. Not to mention the office room. I have been working in there and it feels great to de-clutter. Shelves upon shelves, plus other little toy cars, in their packages , stapled and pinned to the wall. It looked as crazy as it sounds. He had toy cars, in front of other toy cars, in front of stacks of toy cars in front of the actual office supplies. It feels healing to pack those up. I don't know how many he has. thousands. Photo: Pixabay User : kamal1118