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Model Car Designer of the Year – Tom Daniel

Chances are, you had or at least seen a model designed by Tom Daniel. Beginning in High school, during the early stages of hot rodding after WW2, Tom began filling his waking hours designing cars with a pen and paper. A sympathetic teacher brought Tom’s class on a field trip to Art Center College, after noticing Tom’s talent for automotive design. Art Center was a design school with a direct pipeline to the major automotive manufacturers, and one trip was enough to convince Tom that car design was his calling.

Despite not having a college degree (or even a diploma yet) Tom submitted a portfolio and was accepted. During School, Tom met with the art director for Rod & Custom, a long running custom car publication, and began contributing work to the sketchpad section of the magazine. Models were becoming so popular, and Tom’s artwork so loved, that for a time R&C published an entirely separate model issue, in which Tom contributed heavily.

After graduating, Tom was hired by GM for a time, but Detroit winters proved less-than appealing, and Tom left to return to California, continuing to work for R&C and others, before landing the gig now synonymous with his name: designing models for Monogram.

Tom’s outlandish creations became some of the most recognized model kits of all time, helping to inspire others such as Hot Wheels and even a few running, full-size versions.  Tom helped design more than 70 Monogram models, with iconic names like Tarantula, Red Baron, and the Tijuana Taxi. Many have been re-released and re-released again.

Tom’s impact on model cars is hard to overstate. With such influential work, we’re glad to Have Tom inducted as Model Car Designer of the Year.

Model Car Customizer of the Year – Brian Moffitt

When does a diecast become a custom? Some folks have different ideas. It can be just a new paint job, a restoration or more. Much more. This further end of the custom scale is where Brian Moffitt steps in.

Moffitt’s customs involve a ton of work. Far from just paint, Moffitt cuts, chops, combines and adds to Hot Wheels cars creating something unique each time, from three-wheeled creations like the Tri-clops to beetles, trucks, motorhomes and trailers. Check out some of Moffitt’s customs below, and see for yourself why we’re happy to have him as Model Car Customizer of the Year.

Model Car Builder of the Year – Wayne Moyer

Wayne Moyer’s life was filled with passion for vehicles. Working for Wright-Patterson Air Force base in his home state of Ohio, Wayne put his Aerospace degree to use while continuing to foster a love of model cars, planes and ships.

Although he built and collected tons of models, he never imagined he’d be paid to write about them, but write he did, publishing nearly 2000 articles through nearly 50 model publications.  

He passed away in April of this year, having made friends in the model community that spanned the globe. For his prolific and dedicated model building, we can think of no better person to induct as our first Model Builder of the Year.

 

Model Car Dealer of the Year – Replicarz

Our Model Car Dealer of the Year describes itself as a diecast distributor doing something differently in the digital age, a family-owned business coming out of Vermont. Started in 1990 by all around car guy Mark Fothergill, Replicarz offers collectors over 3,000 models in scales ranging from 1:87 all the way up to 1:8. In 2013, Mark’s brand started producing its own brand of models in 1:18 and 1:43 scale. Mark’z creations cover vintage and historic Indy, Can Am, Land Speed, and Racing Sports Cars.

Mark regularly posts updates on new inventory to his Youtube channel, providing a great way for collectors to connect and stay up to date. For all Mark’s hard work, we’re glad to induct Replicarz into the Hall of Fame as Model Car Dealer of the Year.

Novice Model Brand of the Year – Goldvarg Collection

The Goldvarg collection is the the culmination of the lifelong passion of one guy, Sergio Goldvarg. Sergio hails from Beunos Aires, where growing up his parents fueled his matchbox obsession and by the age of ten, Sergio was restoring beat up matchbox and selling his work to local shops. Later Sergio worked as one of the few journalists in Argentina covering motor racing and scale cars, helping fuel the countries diecast scene.

Sergio’s first big diecast role was with Buby, an Argentine manufacturer and one of the first (in the 60’s) to use suspension on their models. Sergio worked as an advisor, helping design Renault and Chevrolet models among others.

All the while, he continued to collect, becoming a double Guinness world record holder with a collection of more than 12,000 cars. Despite the size of his collection and the deep ties to model cars in Argentina, Sergio was still frustrated that he couldn’t find many of his favorite cars in Argentina.

Sergio took matters into his own hands, starting the company we’re here celebrating today: The Goldvarg Collection. Goldvarg became the first white-metal diecast company in all of South America, no easy task.

Sergio created an entire manufacturing process from scratch, from melting the metal all the way to finishing touches. The work paid off. Early castings of classic American cars from the ‘57 Starfire, to the Chrysler Imperial to the Kaiser Henry J. created demandall over the world.  

Sergio eventually settled in the states, but continues Goldvarg today. Sergio was first inducted into the Diecast Hall of Fame in 2014, recognizing his huge achievements in collecting and forwarding the hobby. This year, we’re inducting Sergio’s Goldvarg Collection. We believe his models, even apart from his inspiring story, represent something special in the model car world.

 

Supplier Brand of the Year – Gulf Oil

From oil prospecting days down in turn of the century Texas, Gulf Oil and its various partners, subsidiaries and spin offs have grown into an important player in one of the worlds most dominant industries. For car people, though, Gulf is more than a multinational corporation. It’s a legendary race sponsor, draping beautiful colors over some of the most recognizable race cars (and model cars) of all time.

 

One of the first cars that Gulf got involved with was the 1938 Gulf Miller Tucker Special Race Car, a rear engined 4wd race car (in 1938!) that went on to beat 14 speed records at Bonneville.

In the mid 60’s, during the next golden age of racing, then VP of Gulf oil himself bought a ford GT40 (man that guy sounds cool) and formed a racing partnership with John Wyer, producing some of the most storied racing in history, including the LeMans winning Ford Gt40 and the Porsche 917, cloaked in-you guessed it-the orange and blue livery still iconic today.

These colors went on to grace many other LeMans winning cars, along with other series like like Can Am, Indy and Formula 1, racing with incredible names like Aston Martin, McLaren, and Lamborghini.

Needless to say, Gulf has had a huge impact on the car world, with countless great model cars of these racing legends worldwide, proudly draped in orange and blue. Cars that never were a part of racing still get painted in these colors because they were so iconic. This team continues it’s racing partnerships to this day. With their support of cars and racing, we’re happy to welcome them to the Hall.