How I got started
Back in the day, I had no interest in Hot Wheels cars; my grandfather on the other hand was a full-blown collector. He probably had thousands of cars stored away including rare treasure hunts and convention cars. When he passed away we were tasked with going through the massive collection he had grown, and I would definitely say that the experience put a spark inside of me for Hot Wheels. Seeing tons of the best Hot Wheels premium cars around really opened my eyes to the beauty they could obtain over the typical one dollar cars. After that, I would always eye the Hot Wheels section when shopping but didn’t quite have the desire to build a collection yet; that was until I saw the first Japan Historics set in Walmart one day. That was the first of many sets I would buy, and it was the first time I felt a strong desire to drop money on some “toy” cars. If my grandpa taught me anything it was that Hot Wheels gained value, so like anyone who wants to make tons of money for little effort, I hopped on eBay to see what my cars were going for. This is where things changed for me; while scrolling through the cars that had sold on eBay through “completed items” I came across a car that sold for a whopping $45. Upon closer inspection I noticed that it was a custom, and immediately knew what I had to do. A few days later I was drilling and stripping paint off of a ’56 ford truck, soon to be posted up for sale for $20. I sold it within a week and suddenly a passion was born. Not long after, I found out that Instagram had a thriving custom community, so I dropped eBay and began building my own Instagram page. Check out some of my first customs below.
From rusty builds to widebodies
The custom game was a bit simpler when I really got into it. Wheel swaps, paint jobs and a bit of body work was pretty typical to see online, rather than complete builds with full engine, chassis, etc. I tried to add as much as I could to one of my rusty builds with miniature chains and tow hooks, but it wasn’t until I came across a widebody tutorial on YouTube that I really found my niche. My first attempt was pretty bad:
After seeing the works of @Masanong (a pretty well known Hot Wheels customizer on Instagram) I knew I had to improve and get on his level. Over time I got better and better at my sculpting skills with the help of the one or two YouTube videos available at the time, and a bit of trial and error; well a lot of trial and error actually. It took me a solid year to grow my skills enough to say that I’ve gotten it down, but as you can see, practice makes perfect.
Engines, transmissions and more
After somewhat mastering the sculpting part and seeing the work of @164artake, I knew I had to add more to my builds. Starting with my RX-7 build(the one shown above), I added a simple engine and opening hood(far from simple to me at the time)
From the Rx-7 build on, I have slowly honed in my miniature making skills to include things like working steering and LED lights in my cars. My GTR R35 build has definitely been my most complex build by far. Check out some of the features, or even the entire build video.
What the future holds
Now that I have mastered my Hot Wheels customizing skills, my only goal is to share those skills with the community. Anyone can learn to make some awesome cars, and I honestly believe that the path to mastering the game can be much faster for you than it was for me(considering the amount of available tutorials and such now). I plan on adding to that content by consistently making YouTube videos and posting inspiring content on Instagram and this website, so stick around and follow my work to see what I have to offer!
