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Mike Zarnock's Interests
General
When I’m not hunting for
Hot Wheels or writing about them,
I like to relax by working on my house and around my grounds.
I also like to take my wife’s Corvette out to the local car cruises and car shows, when we can find the time,
we spend a lot of our car time together.
They are a great bunch of people that I'm proud to call my friends!
All in all, I enjoy anything to do with cars, real or toy. You can learn more about me by going to my website www.MikeZarnock.com
Music
My taste in music is pretty diverse. I like old country like Eddie Arnold, Jim Reeves, Buck Owens, Conway Twitty, Faron Young, Sammy Kershaw and the like, all the way to early British Punk and Alternative. I like some pretty obscure bands too like, A Drop In The Gray, Smithereens, The Brando's, Paul Kelly and The Messengers, Mason Rufner, Georgia Satellites, Steve Forbert, The Band,
Amy Winehouse, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and of course,
The Stray Cats. Brian Setzer is one of my favorite performers. And by the way, you can listen to me singing and playing the drums with my old band, The Blister Tones.
by clicking here. There are six of our original tunes there for you to check out.
Movies
My favorite movies are car movies like American Graffiti, Two Lane Blacktop, Gone In 60 Seconds, The Lively Set, stuff like that and old Beach Movies,
oh... and Road House!.
CSI Miami, NY and Vegas, NCIS, Numbers, Criminal Minds, old Sci-Fi Shows like X-Files and War of The Worlds. Crime Story was one of my all time fav's. I loved the opening with the Del Shannon tune. (I was very lucky and got to meet him a little while before he died. Very cool guy!)
Books
I'm not much on books. I don't even read the ones that I write.....LOL
I am just finishing up
"Once Upon A Street Race".
Based on the time I was Kidnapped at a street race. That should be out soon.... I hope! Anyway, here are the other books that I have written.
You can find them at your local bookstore, anywhere on-line or by Clicking Here to go to my website.
I wrote a monthly Hot Wheels column in
Toy Cars & Models Magazine from 2002 to it's last issue of February 2008. I have all of those columns on my website for you to read.
Heroes
Heroes, well I wouldn't call them Heroes, but I look up to these guys and have a great appreciation for their work. I've been a fabricator most all my life and know what it takes to make something so cool and useful from a pile of material.
Some of the guys I look up to are early Hot Rod builders like George Barris,
Dean Jeffries, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth,
Von Dutch, and Ed Newton (worked with Roth).
The innovators of the craft. I wish I had gotten a chance to work with any of them. I was able to meet Ed Roth one time long ago and I'm proud to say, that Ed Newton is now a personal friend of mine. Man, the stories he has told me about Roth and Von Dutch. I can sit forever and listen to him.
There are new guys out there that are cut from the same cloth as these old timers, and I gotta say these new guys have some really big shoes to fill. Not that they aren't filling those shoes, it's just that they have to work harder and be just as creative today with technology as those guys were creative with what they had back then, "Nothing".
These guys are Chip Foose, Jesse James and another good friend of mine, Dave Tucci jr.
The stuff these guys are putting together is just beyond normal imagination. I would work with any of these guys for FREE, just to be a part of what they're doing.
Published Author/Columnist, Michael S. Zarnock writes Collector Guides and Articles about Hot Wheels ® toy cars and accessories. He is labeled "One of the worlds leading Hot Wheels ® authorities".
Mike Zarnock is getting ready to write my next article for Die Cast X magazine and get to Watkins Glen for a signing on Friday!
Biography
Michael Zarnock
is an American author and columnist,
who writes collector guides and articles about
Hot Wheels toy cars and accessories.
Michael's knowledge and his massive Hot Wheels collection
has earned him notoriety around the world.
Whether it be because of the 7 books and countless articles
that he has written about Hot Wheels toys
or the sheer size and diversity of his collection,
this extensive knowledge has earned him the label,
"One of the worlds leading Hot Wheels authorities."
Michael is also a 2 Time Guinness World Record holder!
First in 2003 and then again in 2007!
He is in the record books for owning the
"Largest collection of different model cars".
He is also featured in the new "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" book to be released in the Fall of 2008!
Michael was born April 21, 1958 in Utica, New York into a working class family. As with most young men of that era, he grew up with aspirations of getting married and working with his dad in their family body shop repairing cars. His parents divorced in 1974 and his dad moved to Florida. Michael stayed in Utica with his mom and attended local schools while working as an auto mechanic at Nichols Department Store. He has worked full time since the 11th grade. "Everybody thought it was pretty weird that I came to school with my blue work shirt that had "Mike" on it everyday. They couldn't understand that I worked 45 hours a week while I was still in high school. They were all playing sports and hanging out while I was turning wrenches and fixing their parent's cars." He graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in 1976.
Some of Michael's accomplishments over the years include racing Moto Cross as a teenager to building and driving many show and drag cars as an adult. Some of those drag cars ended up being street racers for other people. Michael has many stories about those street racing days including the time that he got kidnapped at a street race. This story has made it all the way across the country to Hollywood where he was asked to write a screenplay about it for Actor/Producer Christopher Titus. He has also rewritten that script to be published as a novel.
The mid 1980's brought another challenge to Michael when he became a singer/drummer and co-wrote songs in a band called "The Blister Tones". After 3 years and 3 albums, the band split and he went back to working on his house and collecting Hot Wheels again.
Michael has spent so much time and effort on his collection that it prompted him to write a best selling Variation Guide called "The Ultimate Guide to Hot Wheels Variations", that was published in 2002 and went into its second printing a year after it was released. That book is now out of print and sold out.
September 2003 brought great joy to Michael as he was awarded a Guinness World Record ,, for his collection of 3,711 Different Model Cars. Although Michael has more than 15,000 toy cars in his collection, that record was for 3,711 different Hot Wheels model cars. The old record was 1,500. In 2006, Michael's record was broken by a man in Argentina with 7,000 different models cars. Michael has since brought his title back to the USA in February 2007 with 8128 different Hot Wheels model cars! Part of this collection is on display at the Childrens Museum in Utica, New York.
Since the release of his first Hot Wheels book, "The Ultimate Guide to Hot Wheels Variations", Michael has written a total of 7 books including the Hot Wheels Collector Number chapters in "The Standard Catalog of Die-Cast Vehicles II & III", and the 11, 12, 13 & 14th editions of "Toys & Prices."
Michael has also been under contract with "Toy Cars & Models" Magazine since 2002 where he writes a monthly column with a Hot Wheels variation price guide. In his column he writes about the most current variations to be looking for along with collecting trends and pricing.
Michael now lives with his wife Tina and son Cody in a small town outside of Utica called Deerfield.
Michael also makes appearances at schools, conventions, toy shows and Hot Wheels club functions across the United States and Canada. He has even made a few appearances on film. He made his screen debut playing Artie, the sleazy comic book publisher in the "Catch Your Breath Productions" film Detour, and returned to take on the role of Freddy Grecko, talk show host extraordinaire in The Death of Daniel Whately.
Mike's latests movie quest is playing Chester Greenfield II, the wealthy father of the main character in the movie "Anchor Eddy’s."
Click here
to see the movie trailer and what the movie "Anchor Eddy's" is about and who the players are.
This movie will be on it way to all the Indie Film Festivals around the world in October.
Below is a clip of Mike’s role in "The Death Of Daniel Whately".
Below is a video taken from a FOX TV Christmas show back in the late ..80s. Check it out and look for a very young Mike Zarnock with some Christmas garland through his earring. And by the way, he quit smoking 15 years ago, so this might put some date to the video. Sorry for the bad quality, but this was found out there on MySpace. Thanx to who ever put it out there! Christmas at Patrick's Cantina
Another video from “The Vintage Video Vault” of the Blister Tones (circa 1989?).
This one is called "Talk Without Lying"
Notice Mike Zarnock at the end sporting a very cool Fu-Man-Chu!
Bibliography
2002 to 2008
Toy Cars & Models Magazine, Hot Wheels column and price guide.
2002-The Ultimate Guide To Hot Wheels Variations
2002-*The Standard Catalog of Die-Cast Vehicles II
2003-Warman's Hot Wheels Field Guide
2004-Hot Wheels Variations, The Ultimate Guide 2nd Edition
2004-*Toys & Prices 11th Edition
2005-Hot Wheels Accessories, The Ultimate Guide
2005-*The Standard Catalog of Die-Cast Vehicles III
2005-*Toys & Prices 12th Edition
2006-Hot Wheels: A Warman's Companion Guide
2006-*Toys & Prices 13th Edition
2007-Hot Wheels Variations, The Ultimate Guide 3rd Edition
2007-*Toys & Prices 14th Edition
2007-Warman's Hot Wheels Field Guide 2nd Edition
2008-*Toys & Prices 15th Edition
2008-Once Upon A Street Race (In Production)
* denotes (Hot Wheels Collector Number chapter only)
Discography
Albums with The Blister Tones
1986 — My Town (Krellman Records)
1987 — Born Again Losers (Krellman Records)
1988 — Welcome To Our Neighborhood (Krellman Records)
Filmography
2004 — Detour (CYB Productions)
2005 — The Death of Daniel Whately (CYB Productions)
2006 — Anchor Eddy's (CYB Productions)
Hey baby...I just wanted to let you know that I had a great weekend, spending it with you, Family and friends. God we have two great boys, it was great seeing them together...Thats what family is all about... $16.00 dollars @ lowes for parts for a potatoe gun,3 hrs of play for 2 brother...PRICELESS...LOVE YOU...TEE
Hope all is well with you guys! I don't think I will be able to make it to Dave's the next few weeks as I am stuck working! Booo! lol Hope you guys have a great week!
Myspace Comments @ DazzleJunction. com So what have you been up to besides fixing the tractor and mowing the yard ??? It's been pretty dry around here for hotwheels .. have you got any news ????
Hello Mike! Hope you are having an awesome summer filled with cars, which it sounds like you are! :D Wow, a Viper and a SRT 10, eh? It's funny, because when you left me that message, I happened to be in one of those trucks. It was cool. Now, living in a city filled with traffic, we see many accidents on the freeways/highways, but one that would make a grown man cry was seeing a Viper on a flatbed, and a Prowler in the dit
....Hope to see you again soon!
Have a good one! :)