Re: Hot Wheel Collectors

Nothing wrong with Hot Wheels. I have some myself. But I WILL certainly agree
that their collectors make action figure collectors look sane by comparison.
Now, if you want something to make you feel a bit better, consider what a
friend of mine did once at a Toys "R" Us when he was on the road:

He collects Hot Wheels cars, but not with the same sort of obsession as some of
these freaks. So he was in a TRU at once end of a considerable Hot Wheels
display, and here was some nutcase at the other end of the display plucking out
every single one of one particular car. So my friend, just to piss him off,
finds one of these cars and takes it for himself.

The guy went ballistic. "Mine! That's mine! I buy all of those! Give it to me!"

So my friend did -- after crumpling the card. The guy went even more nuts.
"That's store merchandise! You can't do that! I'm going to get the manager to
throw you out!" So he sets down his stack of cars and heads to the front of the
store.

A few minutes later this wacko returns with the manager, who makes my friend
leave for "damaging store merchandise", adding that the space-case "is one of
our best customers."

My friend quietly leaves without a fuss. Why? Because while the nutjob was gone
getting the manager, my friend took his stacked stash of Hot Wheels cars and
scattered them throughout the back of the store. Hid a few in the diaper
section, hung some among the action figures, took a couple over to the
preschool aisle, tossed one or two in carts, whatever.

The last thing he heard on his way out the door was a high-pitched scream from
the back, "WHERE'S MY [EMAIL PROTECTED] CARS!?"

......

Then there's what I pulled one day after Thanksgiving a few years ago at a
Target. Got there early just for the heck of it. Apparently they were having a
sale on Hot Wheels five-packs, something like half-price or lower. Problem was
they'd forgotten to put any out.

So this hapless Target clerk is carting one of those big red push carts loaded
with shipping cases of Hot Wheels five-packs to the die-cast car aisle.

He never made it.

The collectors descended on this like piranha on a wounded cow. I think the
clerk was lucky to escape with his life. I headed for the music section. The
way corrugated cardboard was flying around, I wanted racks to duck behind.

When the dust settled, all that was left was a mess of cardboard and two
five-packs with dinged corners. I picked them up, headed to the "6 items or
less" aisle, and in full view of at least a dozen collectors with armloads of
five-packs -- tossed these two into the Toys For Tots bin. You could sense the
outrage over the deed.  :)