As young boys, my brothers and I would play for hours with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. We’d race them across the room, smash them into one another, chipping the paint work and role playing countless stories, using the full extent of our collective imaginations. Eventually playing with model cars would give way to other activities such as riding our bikes around the neighbourhood and a bit of cricket and touch footy. 

It wasn’t until about two years ago, when I took my twin daughters out shopping for a new toy that I was able to reconnect with my fondness of toy cars. The conditions were simple, 

“Pick one toy each, whatever you want in the shop!” I cursed myself after saying that, what if they decided on the most expensive thing in there.  

One daughter was on the hunt for a doll or soft toy, it ended up being the purchase of her first ever Barbie, which was a lovely occasion that I was lucky enough to share with her. The other, was adamant.

“Dad, I want some cars!”

“Wh-what was that honey?”

“I really want some cars.”

As a girl dad, I was over the moon. I could see years of tea parties immediately vanishing right before my eyes. 

“Certainly, how many do you want? Lets go find them.” 

We settled on a multipack of Hot Wheels and a garage play set from Matchbox. (We also made sure to pick up the Hot Wheels version of Barbie’s Dream Camper)

It’s a special moment, playtime with my children, I enjoy it immensely, so more than three decades on being able to relive part of my childhood with my kids is even more special. Thinking about that lead me down a rabbit hole. 

‘There’s probably an overflowing basket of 1980s Hot Wheels cars in the attic of mum and dad’s place - wonder what they might be worth?’ 

From there I learnt about the genius product strategies that Mattel employ. In particular the limited run ‘Treasure Hunts’ and ‘Super Treasure Hunts’ that appear in the mainline each year that has driven an outrageous secondary market. A little further into the rabbit’s burrow you discover Hot Wheels Premium lines, with their full die cast metal construction with rubber wheels and the ‘Chase’ cars as well as a global community of collectors and die cast car enthusiasts. Soon I was on a multi continent mission to find these rare and illusive miniature model cars.

I’d go ‘hunting’ - as it’s referred to in the community - trying to find the most desirable castings, both to play with, with my kids, to customise, to collect and perhaps resell in the future. When encountering other Treasure Hunters on the mission, the etiquette is to nod and smile, perhaps offer a hello and if you’re up for it, you might ask if they’ve found anything good lately. Scalpers exist too, they’re fairly easy to identify, they are typically the ones holding multiple copies of the same casting to flog and profit from on the secondary market. It’s a bit frowned upon but they providing a service for collectors that aren’t able to make it to the shops. 

The apex predator out on the hunt is the retail staff who’ve become aware of the value of the rare castings, naturally they have the first pick of the lot and causes the battleground to be uneven for the weekend warriors. Nevertheless it’s an enjoyable and inclusive hobby that can be shared with family and friends. 

After sometime of exclusively hunting Hot Wheels, I came to the conclusion that the mainlines were mostly junk... fun, but junk. Most of the models from the yearly release would be considered ‘peg warmers’ by the community. Matchbox had more realistic model releases, however the finish quality wasn’t great, I suppose a symptom of mass production. While the Premium Hot Wheels were much better and more realistic, there just was something about them that was right or didn’t warrant the higher price tag, for instance, the Hot Wheels scale is 1:64, however one would notice some cars that in real life are smaller cars were the same size as the real life larger cars in the Hot Wheels set, so the these weren’t true to scale and therefore the collection must be incorrect. Now don’t get me wrong Hot Wheels and Matchboxes and other mass produced brands are great for play and racing down the track, but as a collectors piece that people were paying a premium for on the secondary market, the inaccuracy just didn’t add up - not to mention the fact that most of the models don’t even have side mirrors on them.  

So I thought to myself there must be a 1:64 scale die-cast manufacturer out there that pays close attention to detail and is consistent with maintain the scale no matter which car model they were replicating. Driving deeper into the die-cast car collector communities, I discovered, to my delight there indeed were… 

In particular, two such manufacturers stood out to me, Mini GT and Tarmac Works. Their models are exquisite, they are true to scale, the attention to detail is second to none. They manage to cram even the finest of details into their miniature castings, plus a big one for me, every casting from Mini GT and Tarmac Works has side mirrors. These models also include inserted perspex head and tail lights, full metal construction and rubber wheels. By all counts, a vastly superior product to that of the market leaders - however they were impossible to find in the Middle East. 

This lead me to identify a gap in the market, collectors and car enthusiasts the UAE and the Middle East were missing out on true 1:64 scale Premium Die-Cast model cars. Couple that with Dubai Car Culture surely there’s a decent addressable market in the region. Following a little bit more research and building direct relationships with the manufactures, PremiumDieCast.com was born. A passion project that would allow me to potentially generate some income from a hobby - must be too good to be true.

PremiumDieCast.com is the UAE and Middle East’s Premium 1/64 Scale Die-Cast eCommerce retailer. The business has been running for a little over a year now and has just become profitable. We’re currently stocking Mini GT, Kaido House and Tarmac Works car models, with plans to further extend our offering in the near future. 

The learning curb has been steep, and it will continue to be. I’ve had to handle all aspects of the business myself - to keep the costs down, though I do utilise a 3rd party logistics partner to manage order fulfilment and deliveries. Through the process I’ve navigated, business setup, negotiation with suppliers and services. I designed, branded, built and marketed the website myself, I’ve listed and utilised Amazon as a selling platform. I’ve dabble in the world of content creation and influencing - here’s one of my first Mini GT vs Hot Wheels comparison videos, it's a developing skill. I’ve built a fairly decent social media following across three of the biggest social platforms. I’ve also had to play customer service agent and answer various random queries about certain car models and I’ve set up automated email marketing journeys that try to convert shopping cart abandonment. 

There is certainly more that I should do and be doing and I will do as I try to find the time and further expand my learning and experience from my passion project... side hustle, or whatever you want to call it. But most importantly, it’s fun.