Todd tells how he entered the world of Pineheads and assembled the world’s largest collection of PWD cars known to man
Hello, my name is Todd and I’m a pinehead. I’ve been collecting derby cars for 5 years. My addiction began innocently enough with some boxes of my stuff that my parents had packed up when they moved. It was mostly junk. Then I found my 3 derby cars and a couple of trophies I had won. Thank goodness I hadn’t blow them up like most of my other toys.
I started reminiscing about the fun times I had in scouts and how much fun we had during derby season. My mom and dad got a little crazy, and I had to wrestle the cars away from them from time to time. Anyway, after remembering the good times, the cars and trophies went up on the shelf for a couple of years. One day, my mom and I were at an auction and there was a nice old derby car there. I bought it and put it on the shelf next to the others. One day, I was looking at the cars and then it popped into my head that these things would be fun to collect!
I was hooked. After my first year of garage sales, I had about 35 cars. After the second year, I had 75. Then I got on the internet and the hook went in a little deeper. Before I knew it, I was up to 175. My wife told me I had to slow down, so I had my mom buy some for me on the side. My wife wasn’t happy when she found that out. I think she knew I had a problem. Lately, I have let more go than I have gotten. I haven’t gone cold turkey, but I have gotten a little picky with the ones I buy. I’m still a pinehead.
As if the collecting wasn’t bad enough, I started buying kits at the local dime store and building them just for the enjoyment of it. One fun car I built was an Elmo car for my daughter, Hanna. I even built cars out of scraps of wood that I found. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I needed power tools. I now have a scroll saw, band saw, belt sander, disk sander, drill press and a full set of carving tools. My wife put her foot down, so I didn’t get a wood lathe.
My son, Chris, and I built our first car together when he was 4. He loves to work the drill press. He is 6 now and he paints his own cars and polishes his own axles. Another pinehead, you bet. He can’t wait (and neither can I) for him to get into Cub Scouts. We do most of the things that scouts do already. However, when he puts his own car on the track for the first time, I think he’ll be hooked too. That will have to be the next chapter of the story.
Cars that Todd Built: As you can see, Todd is an imaginative designer and a great craftsman. Just look at the “Silver Streamliner”, the styling of the “Cheetah”, and how ’bout the flawless finish on the candy apple red sprint car ? If you like incorporating animal shapes into your cars, the “Dolphin Car” is as good as you’ll see. As for super hero cars … the “Bat Car” is truly a trophy winner. Thanks, Todd. This ol’ Pinehead is inspired. I’ll have my version of the “Streamliner” done in a few more days. How ’bout it, Scouts and Pineheads, see anything here you like ?