Marty Mullins, who owns Wallace News at 205 Broad St., began collecting plastic model race cars around 1961. The crown jewel of his collection is a replica of Fireball Roberts’ 1961 Pontiac, but Mullins’ collection on display in the store includes most of the favorite entries from the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s.
Favorite NASCAR entries from the 1960s are on the top shelf of the counter including Junior Johnson, David Pearson, Bobby Isaac, Ned Jarrett, Joe Weatherly, Rex White, Tiny Lund, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Pancho Carter, Fred Lorenzen and Bobby Allison. There’s also a few of the more obscure drivers including Nelson Stacy and Elmo Langley.
Several examples of Dale Earnhardt’s car are featured, as well as some examples of Davey Allison’s. That’s where Darrell Waltrip’s post Junior Johnson era cars are also displayed including his No. 17 Tide entry that he drove to victory in the 1989 Daytona 500.
Dale Earnhardt is well represented in his early Richard Childress Racing days and even earlier in the Bud Moore No. 15 Wrangler car. And then there’s Bud Moore’s replacement driver for the No. 15 after Earnhardt left, Ricky Rudd.
Mullins accumulated his collection through friends, swap meets, and buying cases of models at auction when other retail businesses closed. He had friends who built some of the vintage cars for him.
Most of them were race car model kits, although one of his favorite cars, the 1961 Fireball Roberts Pontiac, started as just the plain car. A friend made the decals and designed it to look exactly like the Roberts car.
“Down through the years I had some guys build them for me, and then I bought some that were already built like this top row (of 1960s cars),” Mullins said. “I don’t know how many cars I’ve got all together, but this is all the cars I’ve got put together. I’ve got a lot more older cars still in the boxes in the back.”
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