Culver City Observer -

Larry Webb, who grew up in Culver City during the 1960s and '70s before fleeing to picturesque Northwest Oregon, finally came back to L.A.'s Westside this month.

He didn't return to stroll our local beaches: The waters near his family's current home in Oregon's capitol of Salem are just as pretty and a whole lot cleaner.

He didn't come back here for the air, either, because it's nicer to enjoy the Northwest's fresh breezes rather than choking on L.A.'s smog. And, he certainly didn't return for our infamous Westside traffic.

Instead, Webb, now 61, returned to his former community for one reason and one reason only: Hot Wheels.

Hot Wheels?

"Yeah, Hot Wheels," said Webb, a Culver High Class of 1975 grad who eventually moved with his wife to Oregon in 1980 to start a family of their own that now includes four children and seven grandchildren.

The tiny cars are again fun to collect, Webb says, "and you can even make a little money doing it if you're careful and do your homework."

Webb and a small group of his friends from Salem had just carpooled nearly 920 miles south from their homes in Oregon to the LAX Marriott Hotel for the 32nd Annual Hot Wheels Collectors Convention, this year celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the first Hot Wheels.

The tiny race cars instantly captured the imagination of Webb and millions of other boys who were about 10 years old when the speedy toys were first introduced by Mattel Inc. a half-century ago.

As with Webb, though, many of those first Hot Wheels fans put the little cars away as they grew older. Sports and girls became more important as they grew into their teenage years, and the tiny cars ended up in forgotten boxes under the bed or at the back of a closet.

Webb was a standout baseball player at Culver City High. Primarily a pitcher, his dream was to become a professional baseball player but any chance at a major league career was soon cut short by an arm injury.

Webb had also forgotten about Hot Wheels, until he was reminded about the joy that the little toys gave him while watching a TV show with his own children more than 20 years later. The family started to collect and trade the minis together.

As Webb had done a few decades earlier, his children began to lose interest in the collectibles as they, too, grew into adulthood. But for Larry, a hobby had turned into a passion, if not a downright obsession.

Webb starting frequenting yard sales and swap meets and, after the internet evolved, began checking web sites for bargains or unique models. He now gets queries from all over the world at webb6@hotmail.com.

To pay for his hobby, he began buying and selling the cars. And when he realized that other collectors were earning a steady side-income from trading, he decided that it would be a good way to supplement the money he needed to support his growing family.

Webb says he has sold the cars to collectors in more than 25 countries through such internet sites as Instagram, eBay and The Toy Peddler. "Hot Wheels is truly a world-wide phenomenon," he adds.

For the uninitiated, a Hot Wheels convention like the one held at the LAX Marriott is an eye-popper.

About five floors of the hotel were reserved by some of the 1,700 paid conventioneers. Collectors all, many were also full- or part-time traders. Several set up shop in their own hotel rooms, laying their cars on beds and tables or hanging them on portable pegboards.

Collectors simply walked from one hotel room to the next, haggling for the best price on the items that they wanted. Many of the rooms were open from early in the morning until well after midnight.

Though this was Webb's fourth Hot Wheels convention, other visitors said it was their 10th, 20th or even 30th confab.

To be sure, he said, there's clearly money to be made in trading Hot Wheels cars, but only by those who know the market, stay on top of buying-and-selling trends and are willing to spend countless hours of research.

Webb estimates that his entire collection now has more than 100,000 of the little cars. Many are worth $50 or more, and one or two are worth more than $500.

"Doing this is a lot of fun," Webb said, "but it's not really a business to me.

"Collecting Hot Wheels is a hobby first," he said. "If you can make some money at it, that's just a bonus."