I was a confirmed model car operator (I played with toy cars) by the age of one. I remember the toy truck I got when I turned four: Barclay HO car transporter with two cars. I may have gotten the 1937 Oldsmobile by Auburn Rubber Co. that year also, but I didn’t keep good records then. I was playing with the Lapin plastic 1939 type cars in the summer of 1939. I had a good collection by the time WW II started; Auburn Rubber, Barclay, Hubley, Lapin, Manoil, Sun Rubber, Tootsietoy, etc.

My serious collecting came when I received a box of five Dinky Toys for Christmas 1946. The Dinkys were of much better quality than any American toy cars at the time. Some Dinkys had numbers on the base plates so a cataloging system was possible. Most of the Dinkys were models of real vehicles making cataloging much more complete. In 1955 I found a Marklin model, in 1956 Tekno and CIJ, in 1957 Corgi and Norev, in 1958 Gama, in 1959 Solido and Matchbox Yesteryear automobiles, in 1960 Rami and Safir. I called them all "dinkys" because the quality was about the same.

By the end of 1960 I had 221 Dinky quality toy cars. By the end of 1961 I had 319 Dinky quality toy cars. I was a very serious collector.

I joined the International Association of Automobile Modelers (IAAM) in 1960 and wrote a column on collecting from 1962 to 1968. I helped put on the conventions in 1966 in Hampton, Virginia and 1971 in Dearborn, Mich.

I founded the Michigan Model Car Collectors (MMCC) in January 1973. After one and one-half years the name was changed to Model Car Collectors' Association (MCCA) because most of the new members were from outside Michigan. MCCA merged with Model Car Journal (MCJ) in March 1976.

In January 1988, a large group of MCCA members broke off from MCCA to form a new club called Automotive Modelers Society (AMS) and MMCC become the Detroit Chapter. In fall 1989, most of the members of MMCC voted to drop the AMS chapter status and change the name to Detroit Area Auto Modelers (DAAM). DAAM mets monthly and put on model car shows northeast of Detroit.

In December 1990 MMCC was reinstated as a chapter of AMS. A new name was added in March 1993 to better serve the modelers.

The Toy Car Collectors Association was started in 1992 to serve the collectors because the other four branches of the family of Detroit origin clubs were serving modelers only.