How do you organize your hot wheels?

AbbyNormal Monday, 2/3/2025

So exactly a year ago I had zero hot wheels. Now I have a bunch scattered about my track workbench and other surfaces. And a good number are of course in cute little Plano boxes. But it's all just kind of random. To add to the problem I spent some serious coinage in January on more cars . Found several good deals on eBay for full sets of hot ones and ultra hots.

I see the drag race guys with long rows of Plano boxes, bolted to the walls and organized by weight. Is that how everyone does it? Right now I have clearly a mix of three types of cars - road racing cars, dragsters, and of course, the off-road rally/GTR cars. And of course, then there are cars that are just collected because they're collectors. Do you all just mix those up in the cases or do you have separate categories. Asking for a friend.


Discussion

I have those long rows of Plano boxes along my track but I don't organize by weight.   I do categories like  Fantasy cars, Indy cars, Pro-stock cars, Funny cars, Trucks & Off-Road cars.    Also I have some specific groups like Mustangs, Camaros, Corvettes, Cougars.  I also have  Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth as 1 group.

Dutch


  • Cool! Most of mine are put away still on the card. A few are out on display on my television stand. — Benjamin_37
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alva1370 2/3/25

Lol, organize. Good one.

Seriously, I have many of my cars in random cardboard boxes. I used to be a mechanic, I have several toolbox drawers with only cars in them. Some drawers have cars mixed in with tools. My Plano boxes have all grown legs, I have one Plano box left. My next move is Home Depot buckets. Any "special" cars I own are in the toolbox drawers.

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dr_dodge 2/3/25

plastic bags everywhere, (cars and other stuff)
a big treasure chest case, (100's of new carded cars)
boxes, the floor, the walls in the media room (~100 of new/vintage carded)
on (seemingly) every damn'd near any shelf of the house
2-4 in a tool box in the shop, too (um "reference"??)
a bag of fireworks fodder cars (20) outside,
4 black bags of yard sale track. assy's bldgs, etc
a box with 5 boosters, and 2 to repair, every flavor
and then there is
the bags (5 big ziplocks) of drilled car remains,
I feel I should hide them, bury them
a massive graveyard of a serial driller

it goes forever!!!

(not crazy this is normal...for a 65 year old guy)
nope not crazy at all
I trust the majority vote in my head

dr 

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StrayDog 2/3/25

Organizing them takes away from time building them. I have 3 huge bins of carded/ loose/ in the bubble cars, cars all over the work space, and some piled on the floor by the work space. Those are "potential racers". The other 2 bins in my basement work area are "non-racers"/ Gaslands cars.

When I need a car I go digging, or if I'm feeling lazy will just go out and buy a new one (or 6)


  • and throw the other 3-5 in the corner, like me — dr_dodge
  • Exactly! How else will it be there the next time I go looking for a car, not immediately see it, and to get a few more? — StrayDog
  • yup, my plan, OH What in this bag??? xmas again...lol — dr_dodge
  • Yes, I can lose a new car in less than 24hrs. — alva1370
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Kingjester 2/4/25

I have two bins, one where I keep licensed cars and the other where I keep fantasy cars.

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SpyDude 2/4/25

I organize by:

-classic/muscle

-JDM/import

-trucks/vans

-junkers (usually rusted axles / bent wheels)

-current projects (in plastic bags)

-wheel donors.

i keep everything in five-gallon buckets for ease of stacking and storage. I'm currently on bucket #19.


  • Wow! #19! — Dutch_Clutch_Racing
  • This is similar to how I stack and store mine. Euro race cars, American Muscle, cars to work the wheels from, etc. I keep mine in shallow cardboard boxes that I take from the grocery store after they take the energy drinks out and shelve them. — LobotomyScam

With nothing lol. I have my old vehicles (1,000+) in two big plastic bins. My "collection" (cars I collected to keep nice before I started modding) is in a homemade showcase. The pieces of cars I've took apart are strewn over a makeshift desk in the garage and a desk inside. I am always losing pieces... Now I got to go find the windshield for my GTR El Camino!

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AbbyNormal 2/4/25

Ha ha ha you guys are hilarious and now I feel a lot better about the chaos I have. Everyone has their own level of "organization" that they reach. The struggle is real


  • The voices inside my head won't let me go to sleep if the cars aren't organized....they're relentless and almost have as much control over me as my 12 yr. old female Doberman. She can make me do ANYTHING! — Dutch_Clutch_Racing
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GspeedR 2/4/25

(loose cars) I'm currently using 5 Hot Cases (@120 cars/case) for my 'racing collection' which includes all of my vintage HWs, JLs, and MBX. Other cases include NPAs, RLC, HOs & UHs, IDs, and wheel swaped  premiums. Then I have 6 Jammers cases for various segments (JL repros, Accelleracers, Modern MBX, ect.). I have other smaller padded cases that house my vintage Corgis and Kenners. And I have 1 36 car 'convention case' that holds my "gate keepers"....the front line of GsR microracing.

My packaged cars are boxed up by genre, mostly in HD copy paper boxes which hold up to 150 cars/box. Genres include Domestic prototype/race, Domestic real world, American muscle/rods, European imports (by country, 2 separate boxes), Asian imports, Trucks vans SUVs, and Fantasy (2 boxes). That's 8 boxes total, most filled to capacity. And finally, I have approx. 120 FTEs, Race Aces, HSRWs in package stored in 2 separate Hot Cases.

64 qrt bins, shelves stacked un godly high, all over my work bench, on PC table, waiting for the Plano fairy to drop off a truck load of those very nice containers & tons of cardboard boxes... LOL ..  

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