Michael Zarnock
{{Short description|American actor (born 1958)}}
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{{BLP sources|date=July 2014}}
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{{COI|date=July 2014}}
{{Notability|date=June 2025}}
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{{Infobox person
|name=Michael Zarnock
|image=
|caption=Michael Zarnock with his Guinness World Record Hot Wheels Collection.
|birth_date={{Birth date and age|mf=yes|1958|4|21}}
|birth_place=Utica, New York, U.S.
|death_date=
|death_place=
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Michael Zarnock (born April 21, 1958 in Utica, New York) is an American writer of collector guides and articles about Hot Wheels toy cars and accessories. Zarnock is known for a massive Hot Wheels collection that earned him a Guinness World Record title in 2003Guinness Book of World Records, 2006 Edition - p. 65. {{ISBN|978-84-08-06149-6}}. and 2007Guinness Book of World Records, 2009 Edition - p. 120. {{ISBN|978-1-904994-37-4}} for owning the largest collection of different model cars (8,128) and is featured in the 2008 "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" book Prepare to Be Shocked.Ripley's Believe It or Not: Prepare to be Shocked, 2008 - book 5, p. 210. {{ISBN|978-1-893951-31-0}} And the 2011 "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" book "Utterly Crazy!" By his own account he has collected more than 20,000 toy cars; From 2004 to 2010 some had been on display at the Children's Museum of Utica, New York.[http://www.museum4kids.net/04HotWheels.htm Children's Museum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061216140848/http://www.museum4kids.net/04HotWheels.htm |date=2006-12-16 }}, Utica, New York; November 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-11. The local Utica newspaper reported Zarnock as saying: "I’ve been in love with Hot Wheels since 1968."Elizabeth Cooper, [https://www.uticaod.com/x215411810/Santa-collects-wish-lists-at-Holiday-on-Main-Street "Santa collects wish lists at Holiday on Main Street"] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130208223032/http://www.uticaod.com/news/x215411810/Santa-collects-wish-lists-at-Holiday-on-Main-Street |date=2013-02-08 }}, Utica Observer-Dispatch, 28 November 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-13.
Life and work
Born into a working-class family, Zarnock worked 45 hours a week as an auto mechanic while attending John F. Kennedy High School in Utica, New York, where he graduated in 1976. As a teenager he raced Motocross; while still in high school he built and drove show cars and drag cars. Some of the drag cars were used by other people for illegal street races; Zarnock claims that at one such unsanctioned street race he was kidnapped for a time. This story made its way all the way out to Los Angeles where he was asked to write it as a screenplay for actor–producer Christopher Titus. Zarnock later rewrote the script for publication as a novel.[http://www.toycollectormagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72 "Interview with Michael Zarnock"] in Toy Collector magazine.{{Dead link|date=May 2025}}
Zarnock's is the author of the Ultimate Guide to Hot Wheels Variations Krause, now out of print after two printings (2002 and 2003).[http://www.mikezarnock.com/vg.html Ultimate Guide to Hot Wheels Variations]. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
Notes
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External links
- [http://www.mikezarnock.com/ Zarnock's website]
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Category:American male film actors