I have an unassembled scale model of my Triumph TR3, my first car (still have the car after 53 years). Plus a neat ceramic coin bank that I have never seen anywhere. There are many scale models of TR3s, some nearly as pricey as a real car.
And I have a very detailed model of my first generation Scion xB and just scored a Hot Wheels xB in the clearance bin at an auto parts store!
And a late 1930s American Bantam panel delivery like my grandfather had. Hmm, now I need a bullet-nosed Studebaker like Dad’s.
In fact as I thought about this post, most of the cars I have owned probably have models available, I may just start a collection outlining my life in cars. I do have a written list complete with dates owned and what happened to each one.
I have a scale model of my first car, a VW beetle. It was a gift from the dealership. I still nominally have it, although it lives at my grandchildren’s house now.
I did mostly airplane and naval ship models as a kid, but did a few car models as well. Plus owned a bunch of Matchbox & Hot Wheels, though very far from a real collection. All long since gone.
I’ve thought a time or two over the years of buying scale models of my car history. But until recently they were either semi-customs that I couldn’t buy a model of without extensive rework I’m not skilled at, or were utterly ordinary boring cars not worth commemorating. Though it’s kind of fun to occasionally see on the road an old rattletrap version of something I bought new or newish decades ago.
In the spirit of the OP I do have small scale models of every airliner I’ve flown in the appropriate company and period livery. And some of the USAF planes at a larger scale.
That’s already almost more of a menagerie of fragile dust collectors than I want at this stage of my life. I’m not sure I’ll get the next 2-4 models I probably will be flying between now and retirement. Having downsized extensively twice in the last 5 years I see more and more advantage to owning less and less unused stuff. One way to avoid the pain of parting with irreplaceable memorabilia is to not have gathered it in the first place. IMO/IME memories don’t need memorabilia.
More and more I’m thinking “collect the whole set” is a young person’s error.
Back in 2010 I bought a new Hemi Challenger and Dodge gave me a collectable, limited edition model of the car. I have one of 7000 made. Typical AMX type model. I’ve not opened the box so I don’t know the number of the 7000 it is.
Years ago my mother had an idea that for Christmas, birthdays, Father’s Day, and any other gift-giving occasions she and my siblings and I would buy him scale models of the cars he had owned in his life, of which he had quite a lot. With only a few exceptions, for my entire life up until just a few years ago my father would trade-in/up every year. This is at least three dozen cars just in my lifetime (I’m 40 now), and he’d been doing this for at least a decade before I was born.
The problem was, while we had photographic evidence of some of the cars to reference, my mother couldn’t actually identify most of the cars they’d had, so that whole thing petered out very quickly.
But it was a good idea.
Myself, I’ve only owned 4 cars and two of them were the exact same model, so my collection, if I had one, would be pretty sad.
I have a unassembled model kit of a 1966 Dodge Charger. I bought it about 15 years ago with the intention of building a scale model of a stock car I raced back in the mid 80’s. It’s on a shelf in a closet, still with the shrink wrap on it. Thinking about listing it on Ebay.
Triggered by this thread, and contrary to my earlier post …
I got a new-to-me car a few months ago. A special one. So just now I internetted around and found one of the diecast makers of 1:43 scale models made my exact year, trim package, and color of car. Click, click and in a week I’ll have a nice addition to my dust collectors.
The good news is it’s less than 4" long, so not real big.
