WILMORE, Ky. (FOX 56) — Dalton Cox has been a businessman for just a few months, and he makes work look like child’s play. He opened Gold Flame Diecast in Wilmore in the fall of 2023, a store packed full of small metal cars made by Hot Wheels and Matchbox.

Cox said his love for the little cars goes back to when he was in grade school and had a fascination with Monster Trucks.

“Back when I was a kid, I would collect the cars, but I beat them with a hammer, so they looked like they were crushed. So I didn’t have a good idea of the collecting-value mindset. I was just playing,” he said.

But now he knows the value of those diecast cars and is happy to share his knowledge with anyone who stops by his store on Main Street. Cox, a Woodford County native, lived in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2019 and 2020, working as a NASCAR mechanic. He said when he moved back to Kentucky and got married, he got away from the real cars and “back into the little cars.”

He said he found there are a lot of people in the “car culture” who have special things they like to collect.

“It’s everything car-related,” he said. “It’s real-life car guys who will come in here looking for cars that look just like their car, or, you know, your die-hard muscle guys that want everything Chevrolet, or everything Ford, or Mopar.” Other people want to collect novelty cars that advertise products or are based on movies or television shows. He carries them all.

“You’ll see some jaws drop when they walk through the door, and they’re in heaven,” he said.

Cox said a lot of people questioned the wisdom of locating in a place where you can stand in the middle of Main Street and not get hit. However, he believes specialty stores may be what bring people back to small towns. He said people need a reason to seek them out.

“Even family members told me I was absolutely nuts for not only opening a Hot Wheels store but doing a Hot Wheels Store in Wilmore.”

But he said the business has been successful from the start. He has had customers from all over the state, and surrounding states, who come to search for hard-to-find cars, especially the rare Hot Wheels known as “Super Treasure Hunts.” Those cars often have a circle and flame emblem on the blister card containing the car. That’s how he came up with the “gold flame” name for his store.

“These are what grown men are fighting over in Walmart,” he said.

Daniel Webb has made several two-hour trips here from his home in Richmond, Indiana, to visit the store and add to his collection of more than 3,000 cars.

“Yeah, you can order anything you want online, but I like going to little places and finding things,’ Webb said. “I like the hunt.” He said he has recommended the store to a lot of other people in the hobby.

The store’s goal is to have something for everyone.

Cox said, “We have cars that range from a dollar all the way up to $1,800.”

Cox also buys cars and trades them. “There are still some that I have not seen that are on my bucket list,” he said.

He said he is already thinking about the need for a bigger space. He hopes to stay in Wilmore, now that he knows people are willing to go to a small town in hopes of making a big find.