Attending Industry Guests | Central PA Collector Con

Mark Watts

Mark has been creating great works of art for the past 30 years. Now with two studios, one in the rolling hills of Bucks County Pennsylvania and one in Sunny South Florida. Mark has worked for clients such as Walt Disney, Budweiser, The Rolling Stones, Warner Brothers Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Tyco Toys, Crayola, William Morrow Publishing, and Avon Books – to name a few! Mark has produced many illustrations for popular toys such as the Hasbro Transformers kids toy boxes he produced about 45 Transformer Toy Boxes and the Tyco Toys Crash Dummies boxes. Some of his most recognizable book covers were made into movies: The Odessa File, Day of the Jackel, and The Dogs of War. He created the logo Illustration for the Clint Eastwood movie Pink Cadillac. Mark also has done many paintings for Budweiser that were produced on there Limited Edition Collector Car Steins. His work has been displayed in many shows around the country and also at the prestigious Society of Illustrators Club in New York City. Mark was a featured artist on the QVC Home Shopping television channel. He was invited to display his work for the past few years at the Antique Auto Museum Hershey Pa. - The event is Night At The Museum. Another exhibit, of his work “Reflections” at the Sunset Cultural Center in Carmel, California in 2013, the Week of Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Painting in acrylics, and digital airbrush, Mark captures the essence of reflective surfaces such as cars and water. Some of his favorite subjects are classic cars, nostalgic scenes and surreal Images. 3 Images of Mark Watts Art is Included in the Table-Art / But you can Customize your Table-Art with any Art Work on his website.

Tom Lowe

Formerly with Playing Mantis, now CEO of Round2, Tom Lowe is the owner of the AMT, Auto World, Hawk, Lindberg, MPC and Polar Light brands. As well as the current owner of Johnny Lightning as he brought things back full circle.

Brendon Vetuskey

Brendon joined Mattel, Inc. in 2007, and began working on the Hot Wheels Track & Play Sets team. He developed the 2009, 2010, and 2011 Trick Tracks product lines, as well as the 4-Lane Elimination Race and Super 6-Lane Raceway sets. From that he was the lead designer on Monster Jam for two years developing items like the “Then & Now” series, the “Mighty Minis” line, as well as numerous 1:64, 1:43, and 1:24 scale replica Monster Jam trucks and play sets. He is currently the lead designer for the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks diecast vehicles and the Red Line Club diecast vehicles. Brendon got his start on designing 1:64 Hot Wheels cars for the 2010 Model year with the 1967 Pontiac Firebird 400 and the 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle SS396. Since then he’s worked on other cars like the 1972 Ford Torino Gran Sport, 1969 Shelby Mustang GT500, 1965 Mercury Comet Cyclone, 1967 Olds 442, and many other castings. Outside of work, Brendon has been collecting Hot Wheels and other vehicle related toys since the early 1990's and has been designing vehicle toys throughout his entire career. When he's not at work he is likely working on his own project cars (a 1967 Pontiac Firebird and a 1955 Chevy Gasser), helping others with their cars or at some car related event.

Sean Taylor

Vice President of Product Development, Sean Taylor, is the man behind the scenes at M2 Machines. He researches, designs and develops every casting and every vehicle variation offered from Castline. A Southern California native with an auto mechanic for a dad, Sean grew up around the automotive industry, from building model kits as a kid to spending his weekends at car shows. Today, Sean is the definition of a true gear head. Sean's wealth of existing automotive knowledge and his pure interest to study and learn about the automotive culture coupled with his outstanding artistic abilities, enables him to deliver diecast models replicating exact option packages as they were delivered decades ago. He has been in the diecast field for almost fifteen years and makes a point of immersing himself in the hobby, befriending and listening to collectors. He could talk about cars all day long.

Tony Karamitsos

Tony Karamitsos - The senior designer and brand manager for Round2, a leading company in the diecast and model enthusiast portfolio, is the Michelangelo of the model kit, and diecast business. His meticulous concern to detail and accuracy makes him a leader in the model industry. He has well established his place in the hobby and collectors business, showcasing an ability to work both in diversified scales, and subject matter. Whether its Johnny Lightning, Auto World, Racing Champions, slot car replicas, resin models or model kits, Tony has delivered a product that can only appreciate in value, making many of Round2 scale models sought after by collectors not just in the United States, but on the International marketplace too.

Chris Stangler

Chris Stangler has been customizing collectibles for 26 years. With the help of fellow collectors, and a great fan base, he has been able to turn his passion into a full-time career for nearly the past decade. Over the last 3 years he has been the special industry guest for the Indonesia Diecast Expo (IDE). He is also currently the brainchild and craftsman of the Hot Wheels Newsletter event cars. More recently, his work has been seen alongside the USA Hot Wheels Conventions as he has been painting the event and dinner baggie cars. Chris’s work and passion for the collecting hobby has been propelling his career to international heights as he will be traveling around the world in 2019 as an invited guest to events from Brazil to Malaysia to right here in central Pennsylvania for CPCC.

Brian Nazario

Brian Nazario is an automotive restoration technician by day and a diecast hobbyist by night. He has been a diecast collector for over twenty years. Five years ago, Brian took collecting to the next level by creating custom diecast vehicles, mainly M2 Machines and Hot Wheels. His natural talent for painting has made him one of the best diecast artists outside of the manufactures themselves. All of the hand crafted low production M2 Machines event vehicles for Central Pennsylvania Collector-Con are his creations. His work can be seen at Super-B Diecast Customs (on Facebook and Instagram).

Ralph Douglas

A passion for customizing and painting started at an early age for Ralph. By age 10, he was painting bicycles and expanded to model cars and entering contests. In 1975, his brother opened up Andy’s Hydraulics in San Jose, CA. and began installing hydraulics on low riders. The following year and at only 15 year old he entered his 1966 Impala low rider in a hopping contest and took 1st place. By 1980, he had his own custom/restoration shop, until he moved to Washington a decade later and continues to this day as a paint tech. After collecting die cast cars for a couple years, he began customizing them as well. Ralph Customs started in toy shows in 2002 and carried on with dinner cars for such great events as Northwest Fest, Auto Fest and Die Cast Super Convention. Ralph is excited to make his way to the east coast this summer to shake hands with those who have been purchasing his customs over the years.