Bob Couture was one of the National Propane Gas Association’s northeast regional drivers of the year in 1993. He’s got other propane accolades on the walls of his home.

He loves his job, loves collecting – magnets, milk bottles, Matchbox – but it’s in an assembly of little propane trucks those worlds collide.

Couture has collected more than 100 die-cast fuel miniatures, each displayed on glass shelves with museum precision. A thorough cleaning takes days.

“Gulf is my favorite, something about the color, the blue and orange,” he said.

One case nearly as tall as him is devoted to Gulf propane trucks, motor oil delivery trucks, wreckers and biplanes, in styles going back to the 1940s. Another case has miniature 18-wheel propane transports with company names and logos on the sides.

Other cases, with hundreds more pieces, veer into firetrucks and other vehicles.

The first time she glimpsed the displays, prominent in nearly every room, “I was totally amazed,” said fiancee Brenda Davis. “It’s been two years now and I’m still finding new ones that I hadn’t noticed before.”

Couture, 49, has been a propane truck driver for 23 years. He works now for Downeast Energy. As a kid, his father used to buy three Matchboxes at a time, two for he and his brothers to play with, one to put away. That’s how Couture’s collection started to take shape.

Someday, he’ll pass everything on to his own four daughters and a growing number of grandchildren.

There’s fun in looking for that one you don’t have yet, he said. “I love the different styles of the vehicles. No two are made the same.”

He readily admits to being meticulous.

“It takes him hours (to reshelve after a cleaning) because they have to be set just right. He’ll stand back and he’ll look, ‘No, that’s not right,'” Davis said.

He brings that same detail to his day job, keeping the floor of his propane truck clean enough to eat off and decorating the truck with chrome caps and wheel covers, all out of his own pocket.

“I like to be different. I like to have my truck, when I’m going down the road, ‘Wow, that’s one hell of a nice truck,'” Couture said. “I like it when it turns heads.”

The same could be said about his collection at home, with its head-turning factor.

Couture figures he used to have 3,000 die-cast trucks and cars. He’s down to 1,000 now, trying to scale back. His magnet collection used to number 7,000; it’s down to a manageable size. He’s still got a soft spot for Beanie Babies (and 700 of them.) He and Davis have also started a frog collection together.

“Some people collect cherubs, some people collect salt and pepper shakers. I collect everything else,” Couture said, laughing.

He’d like to focus on propane and Gulf trucks in the future, with the occasional Beanie, mostly for reasons of space. Asked if he had any more room, he said, “No. But we’ll always find a place.”