Marriages crumble over toy car obsession

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Toymaker Mattel may never have intended to break up marriages, but that reportedly has been happening among U.S. collectors of its Hot Wheels classics.

The Los Angeles Times said Thursday mostly men over the age of 30 have been spending fortunes on Hot Wheels "classics," with some collections valued at more than $1 million.

Ross Anderson, 52, said it was the spending and the household disruption caused by his need to display his treasures that cost him his marriage.

The Solvang, Calif., resident, a freelance legal writer, said that when his wife filed for divorce in 1987 she cited his hobby as a reason.

He had about 1,500 Hot Wheels items back then. His collection of about 12,000 vintage toys today includes about 8,000 Hot Wheels pieces, Anderson said. "It just gets in your blood."

"It's a chance to own all the cars we could never afford as kids," said David Lopez, a collector in San Jose. Lopez, 52, said his collection of 3,000 pieces was fueled by a desire to have the childhood he missed while growing up in a migrant farmworker family.

The record price for a Hot Wheels toy is nearly $70,000 for a one-of-a-kind, hot-pink prototype of a VW bus model, called the Beach Bomb.

The toys were first introduced in 1968.