A TOY car enthusiast has amassed the world’s most valuable Hot Wheels collection – worth over £800,000.
Bruce Pascal, 55, from East Coast, US,was only seven years old when he received his first Hot Wheels car – and has been hooked ever since.
Bruce’s passion for the iconic model cars blossomed and soon he was tracking down the world’s rarest models.
The commercial real estate agent now owns over 3,500 of the miniature toy cars, – including 175 unique prototypes that were never released to the public.
He admitted: “I have spent hundreds and thousands of dollars, buying and acquiring some of the rarest items. But in the end most of them ended up as pretty good investments."
With the collection valued an excess of £800 million, it comes as a surprise that Bruce has never thought about selling it.
“I must say when you tell friends that you collect Hot Wheels, you don’t get the same reaction as when you tell them that you collect artwork or you collect baseball cards," he said. “My goal in life is to elevate the hobby so you get the same level of appreciation.
“But many people look at me with bewilderment and say, ‘You collect those toy cars that I played with when I was a kid?’
“And I proudly answer, ‘Yes, I do!’”
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Hi most valuable Hot Wheel car is the pink Roller Beach Bomb – which is worth a whopping £120,000 on its own.
Bruce explained: “This pink Roller Beach Bomb was one of only two made in the colour pink, which was an attempt to sell toy cars to girls.
"It didn’t do too well because boys bought them and smashed them with their hammers!
“Today this is the finest example, and the most beautiful pink Roller Beach Bomb there is.”
For Bruce, it doesn’t just stop at toy cars, he transformed his office into an exact replica of the Hot Wheel President Mattel's office from 1970.
“At my old house, I had a small office that I really didn’t pay much attention to, but I realised how much time I spent in my office with my Hot Wheels hobby.
“So when I moved, I hooked up with a great architect, Wingate Hughes and I asked him to design me an office that looked like the residence of Mattel in 1970.”
“So for me it’s exciting to go into a Hot Wheels room that looks like a real Hot Wheels room!”
Preserving the history of Hot Wheels is also equally important to Bruce and his dream is to build a museum for the "greatest boys’ toy of all time".
He added: “It’s incredibly important for me to preserve the history of Hot Wheels. It’s the greatest boys’ toy in the history of the world. There’s so much involved in its production.
“My dream one day would be to build a museum to talk about the greatest boys’ toy of all time. And I wouldn’t mind splitting it up with collectors of the Barbie doll."
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