Vroom! Vroom! Pastor sees his passion for Hot Wheels

The Rev. Dennis Mendoza sits on a couch in the office at International Baptist Church on Dowsett Avenue and unlatches two tattered cases on a coffee table. His eyes light up.

Inside are Hot Wheels.

“I think you’d be surprised what pastors enjoy doing,” he said.

For Mendoza, collecting and racing Hot Wheels is a way to connect with people.

Now 56, he started collecting the Mattel die-cast toy cars as a 6-year-old in Napa, Calif. According to Mendoza’s wife, Vivian, his interest in them revved up again 15 years ago when he visited his hometown.

“We went back to Napa and found his old cars in the attic,” she said. “His mother had brought him Redline Hot Wheels on her way back from work.”

The Redline models were made in the first 10 years of Hot Wheels production, which started in 1968. Mendoza said the most valuable cars in his collection are 20 that his mother gave to him when he was a kid. They range from $50 to $100 each. Among the highest valued is a magenta Ferrari 5125 and a green “beach bomb.”

Mendoza estimates he has around 100 Redlines and 100 newer Hot Wheels cars, including some that are reissues of the original Redlines. He keeps them stored away in his garage.

Hot Wheels remain a top-selling toy, attracting collectors both young and old. More than 4 billion of the toy cars have been sold across the globe as of 2012, according to Mattel.

Mendoza said he researches the collectibles on websites and in books, and talks to other collectors. Some he’s met on Oahu have collections that trump his 200. He said he’s also aware of a fellow minister in Delaware who collects them.

“They’re out there,” he said.

Mendoza, who started as a youth pastor for the Baptist church in 1997, sometimes buys Hot Wheels cars

at flea markets for as little as a quarter and gives them out at the racing events he organizes. Over 100 people attended his latest rally at the church in late July. They included Hot Wheels aficionados and collectors to kids in grade school with just one or two cars to race.

“I like to see them having a fun time,” he said. “I think Jesus would enjoy racing cars with people.”

When asked what kind of Hot Wheels Jesus would collect, Mendoza said, “Cars that reflect what he’s like. His car would not stick out as anything out of the ordinary, but it would be perfect in all ways.”

Other Hot Wheels enthusiasts can contact Mendoza via email at pastordennis@internationalchurch.us.