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The ultimate Scalextric collector?

One man is such a fan of Scalextric cars he has amassed more than 1,200 of them, making him one of the UK’s biggest collectors.

43-year-old father and IT professional Colin Hughes started collecting slot cars back in 2008. He originally raced but they would get damaged. So he started to buy toy versions that he could keep in “pristine” condition.

“To me, it’s about the aesthetics. That’s why I collect them,” the All Saints Scalextric Club member explained in a YouTube video. “They are tiny little bits of art, I can lose myself just looking and thinking, yeah, that’s a really nice looking car.”

His favourite slot car is a sterling silver-plated Dodge Viper, of which only 300 were made. It was given to him as a wedding present from his wife.

Other rare cars in the collection include a Lotus Elise GT1 Road Car (number 560 of 1,000) and a Porsche 935/78 Moby Dick Group 5 (88 of 264). A tad more impressive than this writer’s ‘Mighty Metro’ set, then.

Defending the fact his hobby is a bit nerdy and that it had become an obsession, Huges said: “I am not one to hide behind geekism, I am who I am and I love my collection and I like it when people take an interest in it.”

American toy company Lionel Corporation was the first company to make slot cars back in 1912.

The video, titled ‘The Slot Car Collector’, was created by storage company Safestore UK as part of its #stuffisgreat marketing campaign.

Obviously a company that specialises in storing things will have a vested interest in hoarders and collectors, but the video is well worth a watch – if only for a trip down memory lane.

Video: The Slot Car Collector

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