Did you know?

• 2021 Fireball Publishing asked to do the Official Mike Zarnock Hot Wheels Coloring Book!
  19 of Mike's Favorite Hot Wheels Cars that you can color along with information and history of each car!

• 2020 Guinness World Record for the most gravity fed loop-the-loops on a Hot Wheels track is 7, and was achieved by Mike Zarnock in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on 5 February 2020.

The Hot Wheels track measured 34 ft in length and was built as part of the Jaguar Land Rover display at the Chicago Auto Show 2020.


• 2007 Guinness World Record - Largest Collection of Different Model Cars.


• 2003 Guinness World Record - Largest Collection of Different Model Cars.

• 2011 - featured in "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" book "Utterly Crazy!"


• 2008 - featured in the Ripley's Believe It Or Not! book #5 "Prepare To Be Shocked!"

• 2009 - Hot Wheels reproduced Mike's old Race Car as a Hot Wheels Car and included it as part of their nostalgic "Drag Strip Demons Series" as "Mike Zarnock's Altered Roadster".

• 2021 Received the Hall of Honor "Lifetime Achievement Award"!


• 2020 Inducted into the Hall of Honor as a Hot Wheels Historian!


• 2009 Mike was inducted into the Diecast Hall of Fame as a Hot Wheels Historian!

• 2021 - Host on the History Channel's TV Series "The Toys That Built America" Episode 3 - Toy Car Wars


• 2020 - Self on NBC's Little Big Shots TV Series Episode 1 - Icing on the Cake
  Hot Wheels Expert/Hot Wheels Track Design


• 2018 - Host on the History Channel's TV Documentary - "Hot Wheels: 50th Anniversary Special"
  Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the most popular and disruptive toy in the world, Hot Wheels.
  
  
• 2017 - Michael is featured in the film- Redlines to Treasure Hunts: The Cars, The Collectors, The Community.
  A documentary delving deep into the sub-culture of Hot Wheels Collecting around the world.
  
  
• 2015 - Michael is featured in - Passion or Obsession: Inside the World of Extreme Collecting.
  

Mike is producer/editor and host of "Hot Wheels TV" on YouTube.
An Internet based program where he takes his audience deep within the Subculture of Hot Wheels Collecting via Conventions, Car Shows and other events around the world.
The program also features unboxing and review of the latest Hot Wheels product as soon as it's released!

He is Senior Contributing Editor at Die Cast X Magazine where he has written two Hot Wheels feature columns since 2011
"The Hot Wheels Highway" which focuses on the latest Hot Wheels releases and "Hot Wheels Flashback" reaching back into the historical archives of Hot Wheels releases of the past.

Mike 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. But, as we all know, things change. 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".

Though he was able to graduate high school after the 10th grade, he continued to attend with two classes his 11th year and one in his 12th year allowing him the opportunity to work full time since the 11th grade. "My classmates thought it was pretty weird that I would come to school every day wearing a blue work shirt that had "Mike" on it. They didn't understand that I worked 45 hours a week while I still attended 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, Utica, New York in 1976.

Some of Mike's other 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. Mike has many stories about those street racing days including the time that he was 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's also rewritten that script to be published as a novel titled "Once Upon A Street Race".

Mike has had a passion for Hot Wheels toy cars and their accessories since their release in 1968 and has collected them whenever he could find them. It's come to be, that he's has spent so much time and effort on his collection that he's become one of the world's most respected authorities on Hot Wheels ® and their variations. So much so, that it prompted him to write a best selling Variation Guide series called "The Ultimate Guide to Hot Wheels ® Variations", that was published by Krause in 2002 and went into it's second printing just a year after its released. That book is now out of print and sold out. Since then he has written 13 more books, was under contract with Toy Cars & Models Magazine for 6 years where he wrote a monthly Hot Wheels column and price guide, written numerous chapters in many other die cast books and countless articles for magazines such as "The Car Room Magazine" and Die Cast X Magazine. He is currently Senior Contributing Editor at "Die Cast X Magazine" where he has had his Hot Wheels Features "The Hot Wheels Highway" and "The Hot Wheels Flashback" since 2011.

Mike provides Hot Wheels Collection Appraisal services for Insurance Riders, Insurance Claims, US Postal Damage Claims, Court Cases involving Estate and Divorce Settlements, Ebay Fraud Claim services to authenticate or disprove fraudulent Hot Wheels product including issuing Certificates of Authenticity when needed.

Mike makes his home in the small upstate New York town of Deerfield with his wife Tina. They have been married since 1990.

Mike makes appearances at Schools, Conventions, Toy Shows and Hot Wheels Club functions across the United States and Canada.
You never know where you'll find him. He's even made a few appearances in the movies.

Filmography:

Magazine Publications:

Book Publications - Author: