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04/16/04
“Three thirty in the
morning, “The ThunderRoller Chronicles” - First Edition #01 - An Introduction My name is Steve Sikorski, I also go by ThunderRoller on this web page and many others. The nick-name I use came from my favorite Hot Wheels (maroon colored big rig) and not the Garth Brooks song, but people always ask where it came from.. I can say I like them both, but not equally. That Hot Wheels semi just ROCKS! I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1971 and “grew up” there (somewhat). I moved to a small suburban town outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1983 called Burnsville and spent some of my early teenage years there. Those were the coldest three years of my life (hopefully)! In 1986 I moved down to Tampa, Florida attended high school and graduated from college; 6 years at USF. My dad has worked for IBM most of my life and he joked that it stood for “I’ve Been Moved”. I have been married now for 6 years to my wonderful and very understanding wife Michelle and we have a 9 month old daughter - she is my most prized “Treasure Hunt,” next to my wife of course. I can remember Hot Wheels cars back into my early childhood. My older cousins and my older brother had some Red Lines as well as some of his neighborhood friends. That’s how I got “hooked” for the first time. My earliest memories are playing with them in the den of my Grandmothers house. I can still remember the jewel like color and sparkle of the metallic spectraflame colors! We would set up the orange track she had at her house with the purple “C” clap, the purple connectors, the high bank curves, and we would hook up the super charger(s). She had some of the coolest carpet in her house. The cars would actually roll on it! It was dark green in color and very smooth with no “shag” or “height” to it. I can remember certain cars that we played with then. I wish I still had half of those little beauties today, but that was before my “collection” ever started. My first collection of die cast cars were not all Hot Wheels. I had some Corgi cars, some Matchbox, and even some hollow tin cars with really simple designs. I still have about 95% of my childhood collection consisting of 75-100 cars. Most are undamaged, played with condition we will call them. I did paint some with the model paints; even a redline Neat Streeter or smashed them with a hammer on the sidewalk outside to make them resemble “crash up derby” cars like I had seen on TV. Man, did we all do stupid stuff with our toys as kids or what??? I grew up with one older brother and one younger brother. We all had cars and almost all of those cars are still around somewhere! On any given day we would set up our orange Hot Wheels track in our house, with the purple “C” clamp, connectors, high bank curves and 360 degree loops. We used to start at the top of the landing on our stairs and make the first hill be about 3 feet high so they could make it through the loop and see how far the cars would travel on our course. Often times the course would be into the other room and under the dining room table. Wherever the car stopped, we would remove it from the track and place it next to the spot so we could see who’s car went the furthest and keep score. We did down hill races as well. We made really big drops from higher points on the stairs just to see if the cars could make it, some did and some never worked well. We sometimes took them outside, but mostly, we liked them running well. They still run well, even today. We bought most of our cars at the local Kmart were they had what seemed like just an entire wall of cars to choose from. We also frequented Target, Toys R Us, Kohl’s, and Woolworth's. It seemed very few stores carried any selection at that time. We made trades with each other and with certain friends who had the same kind of interests in “well running” cars. We had other cars that were just for looks and did not work well on the track. My older brother stopped collecting at an age where my interest was just peaking. My younger brother never had the interest in these as he had in “Go Bots”, “He Man figures”, or “G. I. Joes”. At different times my parents bought me a fold up play set and a parking garage and a handful of brand new cars that I could play with by myself. I still have these same cars to this day. At that time, those cars were what got me “hooked” for the second time. I really got into this hobby back in 1996. My wife and I were engaged at the time. We were frequently stopping at certain stores (Target, Wal-Mart and Kmart) looking for items for our first home. I kept stopping in the toy section. “Just looking,” I would tell her. One day I asked her if she thought it was silly if I bought some Hot Wheels cars. She said - “No, go ahead if you want,” and that’s what got me “hooked” this time. I remember the very first cars I bought for my “adult collection”. I had been looking at what was on the pegs this time and just grabbed a few of them. What got my attention was: an Orange GT Racer, a Race Team 57 Chevy, a Race Team VW Bug (Baja Bug), a Race Team Sol-aire with gold “Speed Wheels”, and some of the Space Series. The “green flag” dropped for me that day and thus begun my race of collecting Hot Wheels… By the end of the first month I had close to 100 cars. There were soooo many cars on the store pegs I didn’t have. I felt like I had to get them all, like if I didn’t I would miss out on something. It became an addiction for me, I thought about these things 24 / 7 / 365! This hobby became a disease. I could not find out enough information about the cars or hobby. I found other people that were into this hobby and they were all a big help. I found some secondary sellers and was shocked at the cars they had. I am still today shocked by what those guys have. At this point in my collecting, I had no focus - just BUY BUY BUY!!! If it had “Hot Wheels” on it, I wanted it! These days I collect certain cars and that’s it thanks to the help of my wife to get more focused. I cannot make a complete list of what I collect today, but I know what they are. I do not just buy what I like, but I buy what I want to buy. I no longer want to have everything. Storage becomes a huge issue very quickly. I have scaled back on what I collect, but I keep finding things that remind me why I am “in” this hobby. I will get more into those in future editions of “The ThunderRoller Chronicles”. Now that the introductions are over, and you know who I am, click here to read the first installment of “The ThunderRoller Chronicles”. ---ThunderRoller You may reach me at: ThunderRollerSS@Yahoo.com |
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