Since 1971, the 56-year-old Milford Fire Department dispatcher has amassed about 1,000 die-cast miniature firetrucks, and needs eight display cases to just show 800 of them. Some are still boxed in his attic.

"They all look the same but there's a difference in them: a tinted window, decals, wheel covers," the Stratford resident said.

He can also recount the progression of firetruck design in Europe and the United States.

"Europeans were heavy into the rear-mounted apparatus," a better design that took American departments more than 10 years to adopt, he said.

Firetrucks have been the constant of Tibor's life, which began in Milford.

When he married his wife, Christine, 38 years ago, he was a firetruck chaser, sometimes getting up in the middle of the night to check out a scene. He got the love from his father, a volunteer firefighter for Co. 2 in Milford.

Tibor was a construction worker and a department store manager before joining the Bridgeport Fire Department at 37 years old, in 1988. A job-related back injury forced him to retire 2002. But he quickly jumped into a dispatcher's chair in Milford.

All throughout, he loved firetrucks. It kept up his spirits after he was forced to retire from Bridgeport.

"I think it helped me quite a bit," he said. "I was down, but I didn't want to be out."

His basement exhibit shows his unwavering passion for firetruck models, as well as a side hobby of heavy construction equipment and tow trucks.

In one corner sits a desk crammed with books and pieces of plastic that used to hold model parts. Across the room is a table with model construction equipment, some salvaged from dumps, notes his wife.

In between, covering much of the wall space, are display cases he bought from a store that was going out of business.

Models, from the really small, or N-scale, to the larger O-scale, are crammed diagonally on the shelves. Some are sealed in their packages stacked on top of one another.

One prized piece is a Franklin Mint-issued ladder truck he bought for $400 about five years ago.

"It's probably worth more now," he said.

Maintaining the models is important to keeping them valuable, he added.

"A lot of them work. Their wheels steer, the doors open."

Another valuable one is a model of New York Fire Department Ladder 10, along with its firehouse, located near the World Trade Center site.

A waving U.S. flag adorns one side of the model.

"This is the actual mural. That is the real apparatus," including a list of firefighters killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center towers.

He does his homework when he buys a piece. He'll compare a model to a photo of the real thing to make sure it's accurate in the smallest detail.

Some are very accurate, "down to the gauges on the pump panel, from the wheel lugs to the pump handle."

He wasn't always as meticulous as he is today.

As youthful collector, he committed a big faux pas. He re-painted two model firetrucks issued by Hess in the early 1970s, one the first few issues of the now-famous vehicles.

He paid $15 each for them, a lot back then for a struggling married couple, and painted their cabs black after the Chicago Fire Department's colors.

They'd each be worth $2,500 today, he notes with a sigh.

His wife likes to tease him about that blunder. But she supports his hobby and frequents toy fairs with him, where he gets his models.

Christine, 55, isn't surprised where life has taken them.

"He chased the fire engines the whole time we were dating, so I knew what was next," she said.

Besides, she added, "I know where to find him."

Tibor agreed.

"This is my vice. I stayed out of trouble," he said.

Now the biggest challenge for him is finding more space for his collection.

He also has to think about the ultimate fate of his fire fighting curios. He plans on leaving to his grandchildren, with the stipulation that they be preserved as models.

But the oldest grandchild, 8-year-old Kyle, already knows that. The youth calls them "collectibles," and knows they're not really toys.

"They have their toys, and I have my toys," Tibor said.

Other adults have toy fire trucks. There's even a collector's magazine, to which Tibor subscribes.

And he doesn't have to look far for a fellow aficionado.

Paul Wormsley, a Bridgeport pumper engineer, has been building model firetrucks from scratch using balsa wood. Between models he's built and buying collectibles, he has about 300 trucks.

"A lot of people are doing it, but they're hidden around," Wormsley said.

Aaron Leo, who covers regional issues, can be reached at 330-6222.