Cars, cars and cars

My first memory is of a toy car in my hand. My first gift (according to my parents) was a toy car. That means for 24 years, the only thing I’ve collected has been toy cars.

Today I’m going to talk about my favorites and some that I found for this post.

---

The dream of 99% of Cubans is to own a car. For any family on the island, having a car is a very distant dream (no matter how hard you work, it’s very difficult). Fortunately, my father has always held positions that have provided him with a company car. So I grew up surrounded by cars.

Since I can remember, my dream was to sit behind the wheel of those cars (ironically, I ended up in front of a patient), but cars never cease to captivate me. Before this, my dream was to have a large collection of cars, but not real ones, rather the famous Hot Wheels.

Hotwheels

It’s impossible that you’ve never heard of these toys.

Nowadays, they are no longer just “toys for kids”, but collectible items.

In their catalog, they have all kinds of cars, from classic racing cars to the most customized models you can imagine. They have collaborations with brands like Lego and Barbie (they belong to the same company: Mattel)

You can also go further by building your own tracks and letting the cars roll. I had two tracks; where did they end up? Not even I know, but I had a lot of fun with them.

The cars took quite a beating and flew more than a seagull several times.

_{Not a Hotwheels but a cool and iconic F1}

When I was a child (and even now), it was very difficult to find them in Cuba. As a kid, I would get those toys whenever my neighbor came back from vacation (he had emigrated with his family)

He would come back with several toys, which for me were very modern, and I loved spending time looking at the cars, especially the Hot Wheels. Even back then, I was fascinated by how closely those tiny cars resembled reality.

At the end of summer, my friend would leave me some of those cars, and my collection grew.

Other times, my dad’s friends would go on work missions, and the only thing I asked for were Hot Wheels—neither medicine, nor food, nor gum, just Hot Wheels; bring me Hot Wheels.

My dad’s friends, knowing little about toys, would bring me the first car they saw at the airport or in the supermarket. That’s how my “collection” began.

Before I knew it, I had several bags full of cars. In fact, one of my greatest hobbies was to take those cars out and set up a little parking lot. I would organize them by model and brand and rotate them.

I could spend hours building, organizing, and moving cars in the living room of our apartment. Visitors would come and see me focused on assembling my fleet; what times!

_{Made in Cuba :)}

Today, I don’t have many cars left from those days. Moves, the passage of time, and some donations have left me without any Hotwheels, and I only found a few cars that aren’t the ones I would have liked to photograph.

Still, when I can change my geographical situation, I will start a new Hot Wheels collection. Of course, I’ve already been looking at all the offers, and every day the idea excites me more.

I just have to decide whether it will be a complete collection of Hot Wheels, which are small and affordable, or replicas.

Did you know there’s a huge market for replica-sized cars? I discovered that recently, and I’ve been fascinated by the replicas.

Maybe it would be a good idea to merge both options. What do you think?

Of course, when I unleash my inner collector, you’ll see it here.

While searching for the Hotwheels that didn’t appear, I came across the cars you see in the pictures. For example, the wooden replicas of Cuban cars are from 2010. I won those in a football tournament.

The Formula 1 car is one of the oldest I remember. I can’t recall the year, probably around 2006.

The Monster Truck quartet was a gift from a friend of my dad’s when he came back from China in 2000; I remember these because I got them on my birthday, and I found the photo :)

I found very few :(, but they brought back good memories. If you’ve read this far, tell me a bit about your toys or if you have any curious stories about them.

Read you soon!

[dahpilot]

---