DEERFIELD, N.Y. (WKTV) - Think your kids have a lot of toys? Try being Mike Zarnock - almost 20,000 Hot Wheels cars. And no, they're not his kids - they're all his.

"I've always loved cars," said the Deerfield resident. "And as far back as I can remember, there were always cars in my life, whether they were toys or real. So, when Mattel came out with Hot Wheels - cars that were already souped up and they had super chargers, big tires and all kinds of cool, trick paint, I was in heaven. That was the greatest thing for me."

He continued collecting until he was about 14 or 15 years old.

"Boys at that age start to get away from the toy cars and get into real cars," he said. "And, of course, my dad having the garage, I had some experience at working on them."

"Eventually, I got a chance to buy an old race car," he said. "The Double-A altered car. I bought that, and put it all together, my way, in my garage at home, and then just started going racing with it all over the east coast."

But he never gave up his fondness for the toy cars. And as his collection grew, so did his reach to other collectors...all thanks to the then-up and coming internet.

"I got into looking for things on the internet and I found a lot of Hot Wheels and Hot Wheels collectors. And then I built my first website," he said. "And my website got huge. People were writing me and calling me and wanted copies of my website...they wanted my lists [of cars]. And for a while I started sending them out for whatever it cost me to print them and post them. And I started sending out a lot.

Sharing his expertise via the internet soon led to a book deal on collecting the cars. And it wasn't long before that book became a series of books, and he started rubbing elbows with the toymakers who created his childhood passion.

And when the time came for a new line of the toys focused on vintage racers...opportunity came knocking once again.

"I said, man, you know how cool it would be to have my own race car in that series. And we just laughed it off. And about a week later, Mark[from Mattel] calls me and says hey, you really wanta' do your car?"

So from driving Hot Wheels cars on the floor as a kid, to driving his own real-life race car his 20s, to collecting and writing about Hot Wheels cars as an adult, it all came full circle for Zarnock when his drag racer became a Hot Wheels car all its own.

"Having my old race car become a Hot Wheels car in a regular Hot Wheels series that you can buy in any store....that's just a dream come true," he said. "It's so far fetched that I never even thought of it ever happening."

The car is in stores now.