It’s been five years since I did a thorough inventory of my collection. I know that my collection has grown since then, but it has also evolved, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the numbers and compare to five years ago.
I still think of my collection as having three main categories: Vintage, Novas and Impalas. But in recent years I have sold off a lot of my more recent items and have focused more on the vintage stuff. I’ve also tried to narrow the brands I collect. Currently, the collection stands at 1,477 items (up from 951 five years ago). Here’s how the collection breaks down.
993 Vintage
In my collection, “vintage” is essentially anything 1995 or before. These 993 items include my childhood collection and a bunch of almost entirely loose cars with a focus on blackwall-era Hot Wheels. The oldest items would be a few late-1950s Lesney-era Matchbox cars and I have a few items that blur past the 1995 date. For the most part, I’ve narrowed this category to include only brands that I had when I was a kid; Hot Wheels, Matchbox (England-cast), Tomica (Japan-cast), Husky (and by extension Corgi Juniors), Playart and Majorette (French-cast). This category has nearly tripled in size from a total of only 397 five years ago.
I have 52 cars that I’ve managed to hold onto from my childhood. They include 18 Matchbox, 9 Hot Wheels, 7 Tomica Pocket Cars, 5 Zee Toys, 6 Husky, 4 Playart and a single Majorette.
The remaining 941 Vintage cars break down as follows:
Hot Wheels – 602 (up from 219 five years ago)
Matchbox – 178 (up from 53)
Budgie – 3 (up from 0)
Corgi and Corgi Juniors – 31 (up from 14)
Husky – 14 (up from 1)
Johnny Lightning – 1 (up from 0)
Majorette – 46 (up from 7)
Playart – 14 (up from 1)
Road Champs – 3 (down from 4)
Shinsei – 1 (unchanged)
Tomica – 53 (up from 4)
Welly – 1 (up from 0)
Yatming – 2 (down from 9)
Zee Toys – 1 (down from 11)
196 Impalas
This category has shrunk from a total of 262 five years ago, largely due to the fact that I sold off most of my M2s and other brands, narrowing the focus to Hot Wheels and Johnny Lightning. Also, for whatever reason, many of the Hot Wheels Impala castings haven’t been released with new variations in recent years.
Hot Wheels – 91 (up from 85 five years ago)
Johnny Lightning – 62 (up from 59)Corgi – 3 (up from 2)
Greenlight – 5 (down from 14)
Jada Toys – 5 (down from 21)
M2 Machines – 4 (down from 15)
Maisto – 3 (down from 11)
Racing Champions – 2 (down from 6)
Revell – 20 (down from 22)
171 Novas
Despite focusing on Hot Wheels and Johnny Lightning and selling off many of my other brands, this category shrunk only slightly from 188 five years ago as Hot Wheels continues to crank out variations of the existing Nova castings. Matchbox even entered this category for the first time when they released the 1979 Chevy Nova casting in 2021.
Hot Wheels – 120 (up from 85)
Matchbox – 1 (up from 0)
Johnny Lightning – 40 (up from 38)
Auto World – 1 (up from 0)
GMP – 1 (unchanged)
M2 Machines – 3 (down from 27)
Maisto – 2 (down from 10)
Racing Champions – 2 (down from 3)
Universal Hobbies – 1 (unchanged)
109 Miscellaneous
This category only grew by 1 item in five years as I sold off a few brands and tried to be disciplined in keeping a focused collection. The 105 items here include 19 Hot Wheels 30th Anniversary models from 1998, Batmobiles and Mystery Machines, NASA-themed items including 3 Hot Wheels Action Packs, 17 2005-2006 Hot Wheels Classics and a few other odds and ends.
Hot Wheels – 82 (up from 78)
Matchbox – 8 (up from 4)
Johnny Lightning – 6 (up from 5)
Bauer – 1 (unchanged)
Ertl – 2 (up from 0)
Jada Toys – 4 (unchanged)
Majorette – 2 (up from 0)
Racing Champions – 1 (up from 0)
Revell – 1 (down from 2)
Unknown – 2 (unchanged)
My Collection by Brand
My collection is made up of at least 25 different brands, down from 41 five years ago. Being well-represented in all of my categories, the Hot Wheels brand still dominates with 904 items. Matchbox has moved up to second place (from third five years ago) due to steady growth in my vintage category. Johnny Lightning drops to third with 109 and I’ve added quite a bit to vintage brands like Tomica, Majorette, Corgi Juniors and Husky.
Hot Wheels – 904 (up from 476 five years ago)
Matchbox – 205 (up from 75)
Johnny Lightning – 109 (up from 102)
Tomica – 60 (up from 11)
Majorette – 49 (up from 7)
Corgi (includes Corgi Juniors) – 34 (up from 13)
Revell – 21 (down from 24)
Husky – 20 (up from 7)
Playart – 18 (up from 5)
Jada – 9 (down from 31)
M2 Machines – 7 (down from 42)
Zylmex (Zee Toys) – 6 (down from 11)
Greenlight – 5 (down from 14)
Maisto – 5 (down from 22)
Racing Champions – 5 (down from 18)
Budgie – 3 (up from 0)
Road Champs – 3 (down from 4)
Ertl – 2 (down from 6)
Yatming – 2 (down from 9)
Unknown – 2 (down from 12)
Auto World – 1 (down from 3)
Bauer – 1 (unchanged)
GMP – 1 (unchanged)
Universal Hobbies – 1 (unchanged)
Welly – 1 (up from 0)
The Race Case Chevy 