A TOY cars enthusiast, Bruce Pascal, has amassed the world’s most valuable Hot Wheels collection – worth over $1million.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1 Where does the King of Hot Wheels live?
2 How many items does he have in his collection?
3 How much is the most valuable item, the Pink Rear-Loader Beach Bomb, worth?
4 Why was it pink?
5 Where does he keep his collection?
6 What is Bruce’s dream?
7 What did Ruth Handler invent? When?
The collection today is worth well in excess of a million dollars. I insure it, I protect it and I enjoy it.
On the East Coast of the United States lives the King of Hot Wheels.
I was 7 years old when my parents came home with a Hot Wheel. I was hooked. I collected them as a young kid and it was amazing. I currently have about 3,500 Hot Wheels in my collection. Just come into my room and sit back and look at pieces of history of the most famous toy car.
Included in Bruce’s collection is the most valuable Hot Wheels vehicle in the world, worth a whooping $150,000.
Most valuable Hot Wheel in the world is called the Pink Rear-Loader Beach Bomb and what’s unique about this car is that this was the first the attempt at Mattel to make a Volkswagen VW bus. And when they made it, they put the surf boards on the back side, they put a small sun roof on the top of the car and then this Pink Rear-Loader Beach Bomb was one of the only two made in the colour pink, which was an attempt to sell toy cars to girls. It didn’t do too well, because boys bought them, smashed them with their hammers, and today this is the finest example and the most beautiful Pink Rear-Loader Beach Bomb there is.
And Bruce hasn’t stopped at just collecting the toy cars.
At my old house, I had a small office that I never really paid much attention to. But I realised how much time I spent in my office with my Hot Wheels hobby. I decided when I moved to a new home, I hooked with a great architect and I said, ‘Design me an office that looks like the residence of Mattel in 1970.’ And this way I can come in and just enjoy every single evening, looking at 1,100 Redline Hot Wheels on one wall and cases holding another 2,000 cars made at later days. So, for me, it’s exciting to go into a Hot Wheels room that looks like a real Hot Wheels room.
It’s incredibly important for me to preserve the history of Hot Wheels. And it’s kind of funny, because I think I have more items related to the original production in my house than Mattel does in its entire factory. My dream one day would be to build a museum. To talk about the greatest boy’s toy of all the time, and I wouldn’t mind splitting it up with other collectors with the Barbie doll.
Why? It’s very simple. Elliot Handler was the founder of Hot Wheels. His wife, Ruth Handler, worked at the same company and she was his partner. She invented the Barbie doll in 1958. Imagine that, a married couple where the wife created the number one girl’s toy in the history of the world and the husband invented the number one boy’s toy in the history of the world.
Well, I must say when you tell friends that you collect Hot Wheels, you don’t get the same reaction as when you tell them you collect art work, or you collect cars or you collect baseball cards. One of my goals in life is to elevate the hobby so you get the same level of appreciation. But many people look at me with bewilderment and say, “You collect those toy cars that I played with when I was a kid myself?” And I proudly answer, “Yes, I do”.
Key:
1 On the East Coast of the United States
2 About 3,500
3 $150,000
4 Mattel wanted to sell toy cars to girls
5 In his old house
6 To build a museum
7 Barbie dolls in 1958
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Collecting. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Collecting. Mostrar todas las entradas
viernes, 23 de diciembre de 2016
martes, 16 de agosto de 2016
The Computer Collector
Lonnie Mimms has a massive collection of vintage computers he keeps outside of Atlanta.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.
1 Mr Mimms likes being called a nerd.
2 He regrets throwing away some computers.
3 He was determined to start a collection from the very beginning.
4 At some stage Mr Mimms considered that computers reflected the way society was changing.
5 He has been offered $1m for his collection.
6 None of his children has inherited his passion for collecting.
7 His family considers him eccentric, to say the least.
8 Mr Mimms has a computer museum.
I used to be teased for being a nerd. Now I definitely view it as a compliment. If I use one of my old computers that still run, I can't even explain the emotion that I'm feeling. It's more than reminiscing. It's a very strong memory retrieval. I never threw away any of the computers I had. And it ended up becoming a collection without consciously collecting them.
You wake up one day and you've got 15 of these things in the basement or your bedroom or whatever. It just hit me that these were important devices and that this was the beginning of a whole change in society.
At first when he was telling me about his collection, I thought, yeah, he's a collector. But then when I saw it…
Old computers are fascinating because there is so much variation. In the early days, there wasn't a common platform. It was like beta and VHS, but on steroids. And that just made things a lot more interesting. The collection at this point in time… it's very hard to say what it would be worth. But I mean, it would have to be over a million dollars. I probably have that in it, maybe even more. None of my three sons are collectors. They must have gotten their mother's genes in that regard. I think within one family, I may be enough of that.
What does your family think about your obsession?
Well, the nice word is eccentric. We've created an Apple pop up exhibit at King's Market Shopping Center in a former CompUSA building. If there was such a thing as an inanimate object having a personality and having charisma, then Apple is off the chart. Let's show them where it came from because the history is going to be important. At some point, we look back and go why didn't we save that? Where can I get one of those? Anything that is in the collection, no matter how primitive to a previous generation, it would be magic.
I can't wait to see the end result. It's going to take a couple of years. It has taken many to get to where he is now. And I just can't wait to see the end result.
It's never complete. A collection… a collection is never complete. The universe of computers is big enough. that I don't see it ever being finished. My goal now is to have a museum that will outlast me… you know, that will be more of a legacy.
Key:
1T 2F 3F 4T 5F 6T 7T 8F
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.
1 Mr Mimms likes being called a nerd.
2 He regrets throwing away some computers.
3 He was determined to start a collection from the very beginning.
4 At some stage Mr Mimms considered that computers reflected the way society was changing.
5 He has been offered $1m for his collection.
6 None of his children has inherited his passion for collecting.
7 His family considers him eccentric, to say the least.
8 Mr Mimms has a computer museum.
I used to be teased for being a nerd. Now I definitely view it as a compliment. If I use one of my old computers that still run, I can't even explain the emotion that I'm feeling. It's more than reminiscing. It's a very strong memory retrieval. I never threw away any of the computers I had. And it ended up becoming a collection without consciously collecting them.
You wake up one day and you've got 15 of these things in the basement or your bedroom or whatever. It just hit me that these were important devices and that this was the beginning of a whole change in society.
At first when he was telling me about his collection, I thought, yeah, he's a collector. But then when I saw it…
Old computers are fascinating because there is so much variation. In the early days, there wasn't a common platform. It was like beta and VHS, but on steroids. And that just made things a lot more interesting. The collection at this point in time… it's very hard to say what it would be worth. But I mean, it would have to be over a million dollars. I probably have that in it, maybe even more. None of my three sons are collectors. They must have gotten their mother's genes in that regard. I think within one family, I may be enough of that.
What does your family think about your obsession?
Well, the nice word is eccentric. We've created an Apple pop up exhibit at King's Market Shopping Center in a former CompUSA building. If there was such a thing as an inanimate object having a personality and having charisma, then Apple is off the chart. Let's show them where it came from because the history is going to be important. At some point, we look back and go why didn't we save that? Where can I get one of those? Anything that is in the collection, no matter how primitive to a previous generation, it would be magic.
I can't wait to see the end result. It's going to take a couple of years. It has taken many to get to where he is now. And I just can't wait to see the end result.
It's never complete. A collection… a collection is never complete. The universe of computers is big enough. that I don't see it ever being finished. My goal now is to have a museum that will outlast me… you know, that will be more of a legacy.
Key:
1T 2F 3F 4T 5F 6T 7T 8F
jueves, 25 de febrero de 2016
Meet the man who owns around 80,000 magazines
In 2012, the Guinness Book of Records named the Hyman Archive the largest collection of magazines in the world. Meet the man behind it.
1. Which year do the first magazines in the archive date back from?
2. Which is the main topic that all the magazines in the archive have in common?
3. What did James's family think of his idea in the beginning?
4. What did James do before he started his project?
5. How does he get many of the magazines in the archive?
6. How does Tory Turk describe James?
My name is James Hymon and I’m the founder of Hymon Archive. We are in the stock room in London SA 18 in Woolwich. I would estimate we are up to about 80,000 magazines and 3,000 different titles. The collection spans 1910 to present-day, even yesterday, we get magazines coming in all the time and over 55% of the titles in the collection are not owned by the British Library [Yes, I’m going to need the ladder.]
This collection is curated for popular culture. That's a very broad definition, so that’s film, fashion, music, television, technology, art, sports and you have to obviously realize that in that itself you've got from the last hundred-plus years the best photographers, critics, authors, journalists, illustrators, visual artists, cartoonists. That's why it's so valuable.
[Here we go. They’re up here.]
Initially my family, they would make ties and they thought I was quite crazy doing this but as this journey has progressed and they’re seeing all the cogs fit into place and they share our vision, they see, you know, what that madness could be genius.
I started collecting, the tipping point for me really was when I was a script writer for MTV Europe in the late eighties and early nineties. You didn't have the internet, your best source of information was magazines, they were the zeiss guides, they had all the stuff that you needed information on to talk about what was going on in music, film, fashion. I valued those magazines because I really felt an emotional attachment to them to preserve what was in there. There was something in those magazines that had to be preserved, the information, the pictures, the illustrations, the photography was very important, in my opinion, and still is.
[I think this is it. Hold on. Yeah.]
I don't have that anxiety like I used to, like oh my gosh I'm missing an issue, because again we get lots of donations. For me that anxiety is gone because I have the vision for what I want to do with
This.
[Oh, hold on, number three.]
Well as you can see behind me, there’s an incredible team who help maintain it, Alexia and Tory Turk. Tory Turk has been incredible. She’s been with me pretty much from day one on this project.
Well, I think me and James automatically bonded. I really sort of appreciate his OCD spirit and his complete-ism. I think he's a genius. It's difficult to understand how he could’ve come up with this idea so long ago when at that time he probably didn't intend it to be what is going to become.
[Got them.]
Hoarding is derogatory word. It gives the impression there’s no purpose to what you're doing. There’s a purpose here and that purpose is to digitize its contents, meta-tag it, create analytical tools to analyze the data and visualize the data, because that really unlocks the key and value of this archive. That’s something that businesses would like, researchers, students, professionals.
In twenty years’ time I see this collection as living, breathing, valued and accessible.
Key:
1. 1910
2. popular culture
3. He was crazy
4. He was a scriptwriter for MTV
5. Through donations
6. He's a genius
1. Which year do the first magazines in the archive date back from?
2. Which is the main topic that all the magazines in the archive have in common?
3. What did James's family think of his idea in the beginning?
4. What did James do before he started his project?
5. How does he get many of the magazines in the archive?
6. How does Tory Turk describe James?
My name is James Hymon and I’m the founder of Hymon Archive. We are in the stock room in London SA 18 in Woolwich. I would estimate we are up to about 80,000 magazines and 3,000 different titles. The collection spans 1910 to present-day, even yesterday, we get magazines coming in all the time and over 55% of the titles in the collection are not owned by the British Library [Yes, I’m going to need the ladder.]
This collection is curated for popular culture. That's a very broad definition, so that’s film, fashion, music, television, technology, art, sports and you have to obviously realize that in that itself you've got from the last hundred-plus years the best photographers, critics, authors, journalists, illustrators, visual artists, cartoonists. That's why it's so valuable.
[Here we go. They’re up here.]
Initially my family, they would make ties and they thought I was quite crazy doing this but as this journey has progressed and they’re seeing all the cogs fit into place and they share our vision, they see, you know, what that madness could be genius.
I started collecting, the tipping point for me really was when I was a script writer for MTV Europe in the late eighties and early nineties. You didn't have the internet, your best source of information was magazines, they were the zeiss guides, they had all the stuff that you needed information on to talk about what was going on in music, film, fashion. I valued those magazines because I really felt an emotional attachment to them to preserve what was in there. There was something in those magazines that had to be preserved, the information, the pictures, the illustrations, the photography was very important, in my opinion, and still is.
[I think this is it. Hold on. Yeah.]
I don't have that anxiety like I used to, like oh my gosh I'm missing an issue, because again we get lots of donations. For me that anxiety is gone because I have the vision for what I want to do with
This.
[Oh, hold on, number three.]
Well as you can see behind me, there’s an incredible team who help maintain it, Alexia and Tory Turk. Tory Turk has been incredible. She’s been with me pretty much from day one on this project.
Well, I think me and James automatically bonded. I really sort of appreciate his OCD spirit and his complete-ism. I think he's a genius. It's difficult to understand how he could’ve come up with this idea so long ago when at that time he probably didn't intend it to be what is going to become.
[Got them.]
Hoarding is derogatory word. It gives the impression there’s no purpose to what you're doing. There’s a purpose here and that purpose is to digitize its contents, meta-tag it, create analytical tools to analyze the data and visualize the data, because that really unlocks the key and value of this archive. That’s something that businesses would like, researchers, students, professionals.
In twenty years’ time I see this collection as living, breathing, valued and accessible.
Key:
1. 1910
2. popular culture
3. He was crazy
4. He was a scriptwriter for MTV
5. Through donations
6. He's a genius
jueves, 3 de septiembre de 2015
35 year old who lives in 1946
Ben Sansum is 35. But he lives in 1946. His clothes, his house, the music he listens to - all come from an era before he was even born. BBC News went to meet Ben at home in Cambridgeshire.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below about it. The activity is suitable for Intermediate 2 and Advanced students.
1 How old is the Victorian range he's still using?
2 What does Ben do?
3 What's one of the favourite parts of the house? Why?
4 What concession has he made to the 40's?
5 Is Ben into a relationship?
6 Who was the original owner of the Victorian mangle he inherited from his grandmother?
7 What does Ben think of personal relationships these days?
I guess I was always the funny boy at school who had this interest, strange interest. But gradually as I grew older I loved the music, and the cars and the fashion. My name is Ben Sansum, and for years now I’ve been fascinated with history, particularly the 40s, so I decided to recreate the 40s as much as I could in my own home.
I’m 35 now. My parents probably thought I would grow out of this but I will always live by this now, I will never grow out of it and I shall probably die living like this but that’s fine because I’m ensuring their way of life isn’t forgotten.
And the heart of the house really is the Victorian range, 1890’s, fully restored, every nut and bolt working perfectly in and after (1) 120 years, marvellous. I use it all the time in winter. It’s fantastic. Endless supply of hot water and great fun but hard work. Blacking the range every day is filthy.
I have a very sort of modern life in one sense. (2) I’m BA cabin crew, so sort of jetting off, then I like to come home and retreat and go back in time in my own little period house.
This is the master bedroom. Being a Victorian house, it’s more Victorian up here because in the 30’s visitors used the bedroom, the front room, so that’s where you had all the art décor and modern stuff, but the older part of the house where visitors wouldn’t see, it had all the hand-me-downs of Victorian furniture.
(3) One of my favourite parts about the house is the location, the view outside this window hasn’t changed for perhaps 1,000 years, being the older town church. It’s a pity we have the modern traffic, can’t do much about that.
I’ve got one or two concessions to the 40’s. I don’t do microwaves and dishwashers, I don’t go that far but (4) I do have a fridge I’m afraid, meat saves not great these days. I’ve got a fridge, sorry!
I think years ago I used to hope that one day I’d have someone live with me and be sort of compatible, but I think my interest is so strange that (5) my partner has a modern house and I have a period house, so we have a house each, it’s great because not everyone wants to live like that, I appreciate that.
This is my older walk-on back yard, the court yard garden. My absolute pride and joy is a locally made mangle here. My grandmama actually used this, (6) belonged to a neighbour of hers. And it’s made right here in our town, it’s a Victorian, again survived a hundred years. What can you buy now that you’ll still be able to use in a hundred’s years time. It’s incredible, really.
I think it’s so true now that the world moves so incredibly fast. I… I mean, I’m 35 and I can’t keep up with it. I don’t understand Twitter and iphones, and I really don’t understand… technology moves so fast. I think we are more isolated today, I mean, we can have hundreds of friends on Facebook but do you go out and chat to your next-door neighbour over the fence of the house, you know, it’s scary. (7) Today I think we are more isolated and we’ve lost such a lot that I’m just trying to hold on to some of the old, old world charms of that period for as long as I can.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below about it. The activity is suitable for Intermediate 2 and Advanced students.
1 How old is the Victorian range he's still using?
2 What does Ben do?
3 What's one of the favourite parts of the house? Why?
4 What concession has he made to the 40's?
5 Is Ben into a relationship?
6 Who was the original owner of the Victorian mangle he inherited from his grandmother?
7 What does Ben think of personal relationships these days?
I guess I was always the funny boy at school who had this interest, strange interest. But gradually as I grew older I loved the music, and the cars and the fashion. My name is Ben Sansum, and for years now I’ve been fascinated with history, particularly the 40s, so I decided to recreate the 40s as much as I could in my own home.
I’m 35 now. My parents probably thought I would grow out of this but I will always live by this now, I will never grow out of it and I shall probably die living like this but that’s fine because I’m ensuring their way of life isn’t forgotten.
And the heart of the house really is the Victorian range, 1890’s, fully restored, every nut and bolt working perfectly in and after (1) 120 years, marvellous. I use it all the time in winter. It’s fantastic. Endless supply of hot water and great fun but hard work. Blacking the range every day is filthy.
I have a very sort of modern life in one sense. (2) I’m BA cabin crew, so sort of jetting off, then I like to come home and retreat and go back in time in my own little period house.
This is the master bedroom. Being a Victorian house, it’s more Victorian up here because in the 30’s visitors used the bedroom, the front room, so that’s where you had all the art décor and modern stuff, but the older part of the house where visitors wouldn’t see, it had all the hand-me-downs of Victorian furniture.
(3) One of my favourite parts about the house is the location, the view outside this window hasn’t changed for perhaps 1,000 years, being the older town church. It’s a pity we have the modern traffic, can’t do much about that.
I’ve got one or two concessions to the 40’s. I don’t do microwaves and dishwashers, I don’t go that far but (4) I do have a fridge I’m afraid, meat saves not great these days. I’ve got a fridge, sorry!
I think years ago I used to hope that one day I’d have someone live with me and be sort of compatible, but I think my interest is so strange that (5) my partner has a modern house and I have a period house, so we have a house each, it’s great because not everyone wants to live like that, I appreciate that.
This is my older walk-on back yard, the court yard garden. My absolute pride and joy is a locally made mangle here. My grandmama actually used this, (6) belonged to a neighbour of hers. And it’s made right here in our town, it’s a Victorian, again survived a hundred years. What can you buy now that you’ll still be able to use in a hundred’s years time. It’s incredible, really.
I think it’s so true now that the world moves so incredibly fast. I… I mean, I’m 35 and I can’t keep up with it. I don’t understand Twitter and iphones, and I really don’t understand… technology moves so fast. I think we are more isolated today, I mean, we can have hundreds of friends on Facebook but do you go out and chat to your next-door neighbour over the fence of the house, you know, it’s scary. (7) Today I think we are more isolated and we’ve lost such a lot that I’m just trying to hold on to some of the old, old world charms of that period for as long as I can.
miércoles, 8 de febrero de 2012
Talking point: Why do we collect stuff?
People collect just about anything: stamps, dolls, porcelain figures, rocks, Homer Simpson memorabilia.
What other stuff do people collect?
What kind of things are the most interesting to collect? Why?
What can you collect that
a) very few people do?
b) will cost you no money?
c) is interesting or fun?
What drives people to collect objects?
And when does collecting become a problem?
Why do you think that collectors are more often men than women?
Do you know anyone who has a collection?
Do you collect or have you ever collected anything?
Do you have any things at home that a collector would be interested in?
Are there any special areas or markets for collectors where you live?
Get together with your talking group and discuss the questions above. In preparation for the discussion you may be interested in reading the opinion of seven debaters in The New York Times and see this slideshow.
What other stuff do people collect?
What kind of things are the most interesting to collect? Why?
What can you collect that
a) very few people do?
b) will cost you no money?
c) is interesting or fun?
What drives people to collect objects?
And when does collecting become a problem?
Why do you think that collectors are more often men than women?
Do you know anyone who has a collection?
Do you collect or have you ever collected anything?
Do you have any things at home that a collector would be interested in?
Are there any special areas or markets for collectors where you live?
Get together with your talking group and discuss the questions above. In preparation for the discussion you may be interested in reading the opinion of seven debaters in The New York Times and see this slideshow.
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