Curators are an important part of the hobbyDB family. As much as we try to be experts on anything and everything collectible, we rely on our Curators to help sort through data, fill in missing information, and fix errors and misinformation. From time to time, we’ll be profiling these defenders of the database.
Jay Comparoni is Curator for several castings of Corvettes from Mattel, including Hot Wheels and Matchbox offerings. “My love for Hot Wheels started as a young child building HO scale train layouts with my grandfather back in 1968,” he said. “I saw the Hot Wheel commercials that in reality were short films about the new Hot Wheels cars. I got my first Hot Wheels Corvette at a five and dime shop in Monterey Park in California and now have in the area of 50,000 vehicles.”
“I’ve had a passion for Corvettes since the late sixties when Mattel released the first Custom Corvette,” he said. “That model hit the shelves before the 1:1 driver version of the 1968 Corvette. I currently own a 1976 Corvette that up until 2014 was the last year that wore the Stingray badge.”
After getting a miniature Corvette as a kid, Comparoni added this 1976 Vette to his collection.
“I’d estimate my total collection to be in the neighborhood of 50,000 Hot Wheels so it will take some time to get them all identified in the DB.” Jay was excited to get involved with hobbyDB as a curator. “It’s an opportunity to share my knowledge of Hot Wheels and showcase my collection in an environment accessible to the collecting community worldwide,” Jay said. “The site is user friendly and easy to understand and provides all the necessary information any collector could need all in one place.”
It should come as no surprise that he is most partial to the C3 Corvettes, as both his real car and his very first Hot Wheels are of that type. There have been several models of C3s (not necessarily 1976) in colors close to his car. So yeah, those are his absolute favorites.
Comparoni found matching C3 Corvettes from Hot Wheels in 1:18 and 1:64 scales.
As for displays, he has “somewhere between five and ten thousand loose Hot Wheels in display cases throughout my home.” I don’t separate between redlines, mainline, limited edition, or even the few customs I have. They’re all displayed based on vehicle type and model to show the versions and variations over the years.” You can see some of it here.
This is just a small portion of Comparoni’s diecast collection.
In addition to Hot Wheels and some Corvette models from other brands, he collects model car kits, mostly Corvettes from all generations and a good amount of Tom Daniel kits. We should all be glad to have him on board!
If you’re interested in becoming a hobbyDB curator, there’s more information and contact info here.
Thanks Jay for all of your help! Also great to see parts of your collection; will have to find an excuse to venture North!
I’m really glad that this guy has a passion for the Corvette. It’s a Chevrolet, right! As the curator for the ’57 Chevy page ,(not Corvettes) I am really glad to have him on board.
I also have the original redline Hot Wheels Corvette, (it came in a job lot on Ebay and I treasure it!
Jay is a founding member & integral part of our local Pacific Northwest HotWheelers club here in the Puget Sound region. He often brings fun & educational elements to our meetings and get-togethers. I’m sure he is a valuable curator for this website.
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