Collector Spotlight December 2008: Chris Walker

A.k.a. "Night Stalker" at HWC™

12-12-08

If you love Hot Wheels® customs, you probably know Chris Walker, a 37-year-old graphic designer from Manitowoc, Wisconsin. An avid collector for over 20 years, Chris has customized more than 4,000 Hot Wheels® cars, had his work featured at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, and travels the world meeting his fellow collectors! Learn more about Chris and find out the surprising member of his family who is his lucky charm in this month’s Collector Spotlight.

HWC: First, the basics… how long have you been collecting and what got you started?
CW: I started collecting 21 years ago and haven’t looked back. I noticed they started looking really cool around 1989 and very soon after found the Purple Passion® and Mini Truck. I was into mini truckin’ at the time and thought those were the coolest. I bought those two every time I saw them, no matter how many I had at home.

HWC: What was the first Hot Wheels® car you had?
CW: I can remember when I was younger, the first one I got that wasn’t a hand-me-down was the Second Wind. Speed Racer was popular then and I thought that car was what made the world turn for me. When we played cars with other boys in the neighborhood, I would have to have that one. I would sacrifice all my other picks just to have that car. Then Mattel went full circle and created it again to go with the movie. That was a real treat for me.

HWC: How many Hot Wheels® cars do you have and how do you display them?
CW: It is about 2,500. They seem to be in every spot in the house. I have scaled back a bit to concentrate on the various quality stuff I want every version of, and most of them are in boxes. But I have four Giovanni cases on my wall that have special give-away cars I got from others at the events, some of my favorites from childhood, and newer favorites that Mattel just hit the bulls-eye with.

HWC: What’s your best Hot Wheels® memory?
CW: For me, it is the events, since I get to bring my whole family and meet some fantastic people from all walks of life. To pin one down, it would be when I got to go to Foose Design and present Chip Foose with a custom Hot Wheels® hauler set that had his logos on the side. My family was there, and everyone got to meet Chip Foose. My mother-in-law is a huge fan. So I kinda got a few brownie points for that one. It was a day you couldn’t put a price on.

HWC: Sounds like collecting is a family affair.
CW: For me, I couldn't imagine collecting and being a part of this hobby without my family. I always bring my wife, Marcia, and my two boys, Jordan (age 7) and Dante (age 9), to everything. Jordan knows Chip Foose by first name. It is hilarious. My mother-in-law, Cathy, also enjoys coming along and being a part of it all. I usually send her and my wife to the convention dinner events so they can do their own thing without the guys around. What's funny is that Cathy always wins the free car at the dinners. She has been my lucky charm.

HWC: Do you belong to a collecting club?
CW: I belong to the Milwaukee Hot Wheels® Club. The club is geared towards families, so besides the usual sales tables, the kids can race on track. They build up points all year and win a trophy at the end of the year. They also have prize drawings and a Christmas party at the end of the year. It's a lot of fun. I find myself standing around talking so much that everyone is putting their cars away to leave before I get a chance to buy anything. It happens like that every month. That's my favorite part, seeing friends again.

HWC: You’re known for your customs. How long have you been doing them and how many do you have?
CW: Been doing them and model cars all my life. But I started full-speed serious into it in 2003 when I saw that there were others out there that did it, and that there were people that actually liked to see customs. Before that, I just thought it was something silly only I did to waste time -- LOL! Most of my early works were very simple and cheesy by all standards.

I would say since 2003 I have probably chopped, painted, or customized around 4,000 cars to one degree or another. Most of them were repaint and decal jobs. Every once in a while, I will create something that is chopped up to the point it is no longer recognizable. My favorites are the ones I had to build from scratch from sheet plastic and resin, or even full displays around the cars. I love the presentation of a great custom display to go along with the cars.

HWC: What do you think is your best work?
CW: WOW, that’s a real tough one. I think that changes as the months go by. I have fond memories of them all at different times. Right now, it would have to be the 1:25 scale Bye-Focal® on the lighted display I built a few years back for the Larry Wood World Tour. It had lights and a turntable. In the middle was a custom large-scale Bye-Focal® built from plastic, about seven inches long, complete with see-through hood and twin motors. To me, that was one I built where I stood back and looked at it, and it really made me feel good. Overall, the 1:25 scale cars I built were some of my favorite work of all time. It was a subject nobody had done to that degree ever. The coolest thing about them was getting a chance to see them in the Petersen Automotive Museum in the Hot Wheels® display. It's a great feeling. That’s what customizing is all about to me. I love to put a smile on my face or others who love the same thing. And being able to have my work displayed in a venue such as that was the cherry on top.

HWC: Very cool! Tell us more about the 1:25 scale cars and the Petersen Automotive Museum.
CW: I made a series of custom-built 1:25 scale replicas that were about eight inches long and accurate with all the details, down to the wheels and chassis of their Hot Wheels® ‘60s counterparts. When I built them, I made a deal with Mattel where they would acquire a few of them. They ended up using some of them in their Hot Wheels® display for the Elliot Handler 90th birthday party at Mattel in 2006. Later that year, when Mattel re-arranged the Hot Wheels® display at the Petersen Automotive Museum, they added a couple of my 1:25 scale vehicles in their display case. It was a great day to see those in there alongside such great and historical automotive icons of our generation. I couldn't put it to words.

HWC: Do you have any other hobbies or collections?
CW: I collect anything Rat Fink and Ed Roth-type stuff. Revell made a lot of Ed Roth wacky cars in model kit form in the ‘60s. But many great ones were missing. So I have been using plastic and resin to create many of the ones that Revell didn't make. I also buy the Japanese robot toys -- Mazinger Z, Grendizer, Macross, etc., and I’m very involved with my two boys collecting Star Wars. They have all the vehicles from 1977 to today, except for three. We open everything so they can play with it. I never got the Star Wars vehicles when I was younger, so I made them out of cardboard and tape. Very cheesy, but that might be where the creativity started. Who knows? So I am kind of re-living that though my kids. The latest project I’ve gotten involved with where I use my art was starting a skateboard company, Urban. That has been a lot of fun. Having two boys helps out a lot in that department.

HWC: Last question. We’ve heard rumors of you working on something called the "Bugmarine." Care to share?
CW: The Bugmarine is a top-secret project that is hidden away in archives. It’s a stealth amphibious VW project. It may surface very soon. I am still waiting on Congressional government funding.

COLLECTOR QUICKSTATS:

• BEST HOT WHEELS® CASTING OF ALL TIME: “Without a doubt, it would have to be the ‘67 Camaro. It has just screamed ‘Hot Wheels®’ all through the years. The original ones in the Spectraflame® colors really have that pizzazz that I like in the whole line.”
• BEST HOT WHEELS® CAR IN COLLECTION: “That’s a tough question. I have prototypes, but if I had to pick a production car, the VW Drag Bus would do it for me. I am a VW fan and love the custom dragster look. And I love vans. It’s a winner for so many reasons.”
• LATEST, GREATEST HOT WHEELS® RELEASE: “For me, it is the Dream Van XGW. It flew under the radar and had that cool look to me. The little door on the side that opened was cool. It had that ‘60s-‘70s wild show-rod look that most of the big-named custom car builders were creating. I am a huge fan of that. I wish they had made more of those.”
• MODEL/COLOR 1:1 SCALE CAR OWNED: “The Scion xB. The Xbox! I have it custom painted silver with an orange top and 17" rims.”

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!