Categories: Decorating & Design

Hot Wheels Displayed on a Tight Budget

Whether you spend a dollar, several dollars, or even 25 cents (say at yard sales) for your diecast vehicles, you may be the type that would rather save on your display methods. Even at today’s prices, you can take care of over 200 vehicles for under $16. I’m talking under 8 cents per vehicle! Although a number of my cars are on other available surfaces, most are displayed on shelving purchased at Wal*Mart from the Plano company. Example: a 4-tiered unit 22″ wide, 14.5″ deep, and about 48″ high comfortably displays 14 cars across and 4 deep per shelf for a total of 56 vehicles per shelf or 224 total. Older versions of the shelving neatly support only 208 vehicles because of room taken by the connecting posts. I prefer them, though, since they tend to have lips to prevent car roll-off. When necessary, I use thin strips of balsa wood taped to the newer shelves to protect against roll-off. In choosing shelving, once you’ve measured your available areas, pay attention to the various shelving units available. Some larger ones can give even more value! I do recommend, though, avoiding less deep shelves. They force a tighter situation front to back, and, depending on your lower wall molding, can sometimes create a precarious situation for some of the cars in back.

For me, the most interesting and organized system to display the vehicles is to have all in one column essentially the same color. I do happen to combine certain colors like gold with brown, grey with silver, and pink with red. Adjoining columns are never the same color. Otherwise, the cars are organized by type. Hot rods are found on certain shelves, fairly recent styles (since ’90) sit on others, while ’50’s through ’80’s models are elsewhere, as are pre-’50’s. Some shelves have vans and suv’s; others boast trucks, jeeps, water-inspired vehicles, aircraft, motorcycles, or busses, etc. There are a few exceptions to this style categorization. I keep my state vehicles, mainly from Matchbox in 2002, separate. There are special displays for patriotically styled miniatures, as well as my Coca-Cola collection, plus blue Hot Wheels Racing versions. These groups happen to be seen in venues different from the basic shelving described above. In particular, my Hot Wheels Treasure Hunts stay in their packages and are thumb-tacked to the wall. And, let’s face it, if you already have some surfaces or even curio cabinets available, you may very well wish to use them. Your ideas of organization may turn out to be totally different from mine. Therein lie chances for your own creativity.

For the sake of honesty, I must point out that my system requires much planning and revision as more cars are added. What happens if I have versions of a vehicle in blue, white, and gold, and then I pick up a black one–but there is no black column adjoining the others? There can be quite a bit of reorganization that involves many cars and perhaps several shelves. Some do Sudoku; others, crossword puzzles. I do vehicles!

I have tried to provide ideas for making your diecast collection systematic, interesting, and relatively inexpensive. You may, on the other hand, save even more money by keeping all your vehicles in their original packages, dropping them into corrugated boxes, and selling them for a profit down the road. Whatever, here’s to your enjoyment!