HOT WHEELS CATCH FIRE WITH TOY FANS; COLLECTORS FLOCK TO TOY CAR CONVENTION.

Byline: Teresa Jimenez Daily News Staff Writer

Collectors on Sunday lined table after table in the Holiday Inn ballroom with Hot Wheels cars - the kind you, or maybe your brother, rolled around with in the dirt, making garages, roads and construction sites for them.

And there were certainly kids among the several hundred people who packed into the room to get a look at the mini race cars, tractors and sedans.

But make no mistake about it - this collectibles exhibition was for the big kids, the 30-, 40-, 50- and even 60-year-old kids who still love Hot Wheels.

``I did this when I was 8 or 10 years old, but then I stopped. You know, you outgrow it,'' said Scott Kawasaki, 36, of Simi Valley. ``But once a collector, always a collector. And now, instead of buying one, I buy two - one to put out and one to keep in the package.''

With age comes strategy. Collectors know where to shop for their cars, what makes a car special enough to create envy in other Hot Wheels fans and when to sell a popular item.

Some collectors make daily trips to area stores, hitting Target when it opens at 8 a.m. before heading to work, Kawasaki said. But Kawasaki said he limits himself to three-times-a-week visits to Toys `R' Us, just down the street from Amgen, where he works.

``You run into the same people all the time at the stores - Target, Kmart, Toys `R' Us,'' Kawasaki said. ``I've also made friends with people on the East Coast even though we've never met, just by exchanging information on the Internet. It makes it a little more fun. Since they're far away, you don't have to beat them up the aisles.''

Kawasaki even got his brother, Kurt, 27, hooked on collecting. They both said they have so many cars they haven't attempted to count.

``I have boxes and boxes,'' Kurt Kawasaki said.

The stories don't surprise Larry Jimenez, 40, who began putting on the shows at the Holiday Inn last year because he figured local collectors needed a place to gather in Ventura County. Sunday's show was the fourth, and Jimenez said he's been trying to host them about every three months.

``It's almost an underground situation,'' Jimenez said. ``Most people who go to the store and buy Hot Wheels don't know anything about this, about how people collect them. Anytime you go on vacation, you have to go to toy stores, Wal-Mart, mom-and-pop stores. You want to find what you think is rare.''

Often, the subtleties make the difference. Jimenez pointed to a Hot Wheel with the name Street Cleaver, a yellow truck with an attached crane. If it's all yellow, it sells for around $2. But some have a flame painted on. Those are special. Those sell for $6.

Dick Faulkner, 61, of Santa Monica has been collecting Hot Wheels for 20 years with an almost unexplainable zeal. ``It's just a hobby, something to do,'' Faulkner said.

That's a modest response from a man Jimenez described as the person with perhaps the largest collection in the country. Faulkner has about 15,000 Hot Wheels, making him a popular guy with Mattel toy company. Faulkner said he's been in commercials for the company and has friends there.

``I specialize in oddities. I have cars from around the world - India, France, Mexico. They're limited-production cars,'' Faulkner said.

It's a full-time job, Faulkner said.

He spends three days a week doing research. When he isn't doing that, he's driving up and down the coast, as far north as Canada, looking for rare finds.

Faulkner gives the example of the Beach Bomb, a Volkswagen van that never reached stores but was given to the designers to take home. Faulkner found and bought one for $800. A few years later, he sold it for $4,200.

So what does Faulkner's wife think of his hobby? Faulkner said his cars have been banished to a room off the garage.

``She tolerates this - that's why they're by the garage. I only have some in the home,'' Faulkner said.

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4 Photos

Photo: (1--Color only in Conejo edition) The 1969 Hot Wheels ``Beach Bomb'' was never for sale in stores, but collectors have paid up to $4,200 to own one.

(2--Color only in Conejo edition) Buzz Anderson of Solvang looks over his Hot Wheels collection, valued at $3,000, at an enthusiasts' show Sunday in Newbury Park.

(3--Ran in Conejo edition only--Color) Hot Wheels fans peruse the vehicles on display at the collector's show Sunday.

(4--Ran in Conejo edition only) Robin Thornton checks a price while son Zack enters a raffle.