Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Can it be?
Can it be Tuesday?
And can it be the second half of a month?
Too gosh darn right it is.
And, as all dedicated followers of infamy know, that can only lead from one thing to another, and that other is the return of the greatest invention humanity has ever seen.
It's Speak Your Brain. The feature that's so good it says what it does on the tin!
Therefore, if you have a topic you've always wanted to get to the heart of, here's your chance to raise it and see just what the rest of us make of it all.
Personally, I often feel like I don't know what to make of it all.
But perhaps, with your help, that's about to change...
Posts
25 comments:
Are any toy cars memorable to you?
My bother & I had Matchbox cars, in a blue tray inside a carry case
( possibly a hand-me-down? )
I remember a pink Lotus Europa (strange colour for boys, in the early 70s! ) George Best popularized those ( not that I knew that, at the time! ):
https://matchbox.fandom.com/wiki/Lotus_Europa_(1969)?file=Lotus_Europa_%284896%29_MX_L1210045.JPG
There was a red Porche 910, too. I didn't see one like it, until Miami Vice
( the Florence, Italy episode, perhaps? ) Such an old sports car, on such a cutting edge show seemed unusual:
https://matchbox.fandom.com/wiki/Porsche_910?file=Porsche_910_%281970-74_In_Box%29.jpg
There was also a weird concept car, called a 'Siva Spyder':
https://matchbox.fandom.com/wiki/Siva_Spyder?file=Siva_Spyder_%284745%29_MX_L1200443.JPG
I also remember a similarly sized Ford GT40, but can't find a pic.
As well as that series, I had some 'Rolamatics'. A favourite was the Fandango:
https://matchbox.fandom.com/wiki/Rolamatics?file=MATCHBOX_ROLA-MATICS_FANDANGO_1975_MB35-B_WHITE_ENGLAND_%282%29.jpg
That must be a fictitious car!
And another pink (not a 70s boys' colour ) car - the 'Clipper':
https://matchbox.fandom.com/wiki/Rolamatics?file=MATCHBOX_ROLA-MATICS_CLIPPER_1973_MB39-A_ENGLAND_%282%29.jpg
The James Bond Esprit that fired missiles (Dinky?) was very popular, at the time.
And the Corgi Batmobile.
Does rolling cars across the linoleum/carpet trigger anyone else's childhood memories?
Phillip
I mean, does remembering rolling cars on the lino/carpet evoke anything? I'm not rolling them, right now. Were such nostalgic treasures at hand, though...
Phillip
I had both Matchbox and Hot Wheels. I remember Matchbox being mostly your every day drivers, something you could see out your picture window, which was cool.
Hot Wheels on the other hand seemed to tilt more to the hot rods and racers, those are the one's I preferred as I got older. Putting together those orange tracks into a multitude of different configurations was endless amounts of fun, especially drag racing against your buddies favorite car.
I had a few Matchbox cars when I was a kid — don’t remember which ones — and I was the perfect age for Mattel’s Hot Wheels when they exploded on the scene in 1968. Of that first wave, I had the Barracuda and the Beatnik Bandit, maybe one or two others. Man, how fast those little guys were! The Johnny Lightning cars were also crazy fast, but they were kinda ugly so I didn’t really like ‘em much.
b.t.
Aged 4+, possessions were few! ( What were comics, to a 4+ year old? ) Thus, each toy car was special - almost entities in their own right! Our Matchbox cars were often models dated before I was born, but that didn't diminish their value to me. Hmm, there's a kind of nostalgia to picture windows - particularly now UPVC's taken over the world! In the UK, Scalextric involved putting pieces together - in a track, configured with loops, etc. My thrifty mother ( much later ) got us a cheaper, knock-off version, called 'Slot Racing'. A wise decision, as buying your kid overly expensive stuff, just because the other kids are raving about it, isn't always for the best. Basic, small toy cars, in contrast, were relatively cheap - and provided hours of fun, for the young!
Phillip
b.t. - Beatnik Bandit brings to mind 'Bucket of Blood', or Jack Kerouac! What kind of car for the Beat generation, I wonder? Dean Moriarty ( the Neal Cassidy character), I remember, was a fast car-parking expert. But I don't remember what type of car he & Sal drove. Could it have inspired the Beatnik Bandit, perhaps?
Phillip
Sorry - that's badly written; it sounds like I'm saying 'Bucket of Blood' features 'On The Road' characters!
Phillip
Charlie had (in order of quantity) Hot Wheels, Johnny Lightning, Match Box, and one Corgi.
The Corgi car, like Matchbox, did not have the wheels designed to go fast. Yet, on the Hotwheel tracks it was the fastest in the ‘hood. Go figure.
We did have the orange flexible Hot Wheel tracks and black hard plastic Johnny Lightning. Hot Wheel track worked on gravity. Johhny Lightning had a handle you could pull forward to launch the car forward.
My fav Hot Wheel was probably the copper-colored CHAPPARAL which I had to get via mailing in. But I had also Silhouette, Splittin Image, Beatnick Bandit, Python.
My fav Johnny Lightning was the WASP. (As BT said, they were clunkier in design compared to HWs.)
THE hot car to have, out of them all, was Hot Wheel’s RED BARON. It was an ORIGINAL 16 and scarce! We are talking 1971.
My first car was a Matchbox from my parents along with a carrier case.
Don’t have any of it any more, unfortunately.
Interesting nostalgia. My sole CORGI was bought at a road-side discount store near Waukegan, Illinois; they were not common,lol.
When adults bought me cars, it was always like a real car e.g., Custgom Barracuda.
The other cool bit of nostalgia, as I am sure my fellow Americans will recall, was looking at the Sears Christmas catalog and just ogling those hot wheel and Johnny, lightning cars, as well as matchbox cars, hoping Santa would bring them lol!
I don’t know if the UK gents had a similar catalog they would look at a Christmas time?
Charlie - Absolutely - Argos & Shoppers World catalogues. Prior to Christmas... oh, the anticipation!
Phillip
Charlie - That Beatnik Bandit's transparent engine reminds me - slightly - of the Matchbox Rolamatics blue mustang:
https://matchbox.fandom.com/wiki/Mustang_Piston_Popper
I think, when you ran it across the floor, some engine parts went up & down!
Phillip
Phillip:
The Beatnik Bandit was one of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s scratch-built custom show cars (like his Outlaw and Mysterion), the body an original design fabricated out of fiberglass —not a customized pre-existing car, and not inspired by any “real” car either, far as I know.
Charlie:
I had a Hot Wheels Red Baron at one point — it was a neat-looking thing, for sure. Long gone now, alas! A few years later, I had the RB model kit from Monogram too. That was after I “outgrew” Hot Wheels and got obsessed with building model car kits. I had several of those Tom Daniels-designed kits — Tijuana Taxi, Boot Hill Express, Ice T, etc. I was into the super-cartoony “Deal’s Wheels” kits too.
b.t.
I had the Corgi die cast metal Batmobile when I was very young.
I was fascinated by the retractible slicing fin thing on the front.
I don't know if it was new or a hand-me-down.
I think that's it in terms of cars. But I had a Tonka truck as well. I liked the opening and closing rear gate mechanism on that.
I had on elf those Evil Kineval [sp?] bikes with the mount that you ten it up on.
That's all I got!
"I had on elf"...?
Should read -
"I had one of those..."
b.t. - That's interesting. I'll check it out further, tomorrow.
Phillip
Matthew - You've reminded me of the little yellow Tonka truck we had. More basic, but hardwearing (or whatever word I'm looking for!)
Phillip
BT - May Charlie assume you read "CARTOONS" magazine and collected ODD ROD stickers???
Hopefully Charlie is not going off on an extreme tangent when he mentions the thrill of SSP Racers by KENNER, too? The car, maybe 8" long, with the wheel in the middle thaT spun as fast as you could pull that ripcord? I don't know where mine ended up but I suspect after a near infinite number of times of my brother and I smashing our cars into each other they eventually disintegrated???
HELP? Can anyone provide a link to CORGI cars produced late 60s to early 70s? I really want to find the car I had!!! It did look a bit like the James Bond MOONRAKER car. Mine was a shiny green and had an orange back window with horizontal slats across it, IIRC. I've tried doing this before but always crapped out.
Fun topic Phillip!
My brother and I had cars from early on, starting with Matchbox. I recall the Greyhound Bus, Ambulance and a Station Wagon with a dog. We had a nearby pharmacy with a rotating display full of Matchbox cars; when my Mom would take us over there we would sometimes get to pick one out.
Later on, in 1968 (as b.t. noted ), we got hooked big time on Hot Wheels. Absolutely was entranced by the "Spectraflame" colors. My first was a blue Custom Cougar. But soon added many more; always a big treat on birthdays- when I got the "Stunt Action " set, with the loop , jump and drag chute. Oh, the races we would stage...
Favorite Hot Wheel: lavender "Brabham Repco F1".
A bit later still, we got started on Aurora HO racing. Don't remember any specific cars, but do recall the frustration of having to frequently take the motor out to clean off the carpet fuzz and cat fur.
Charlie and b.t.- I too had the Red Baron (never had the model,though). Actually, it's one of the five remaining Hot Wheels I still have. Sold most of them about 20 years ago, but kept a few favorites for sentiment (in case anyone is wondering, the others still on my shelf are the Paddy Wagon, Deora (with original surfboards), Demon and Mongoose.
Redartz:
I never had the Hot Wheels Paddy Wagon but did have the Monogram model kit. Must have been a popular design, MPC had a Paddy Wagon kit too (the Monogram one was better). I don’t think I ever had the Hot Wheels Deora but I sure remember that cool Space Age-y flatbed design — looked like something from Star Trek. One of my schoolmates must have had one.
Charlie:
I only bought CARtoons and Hot Rod Cartoons a few times. If I had 60 cents to spend on a humor mag, I’d usually opt for MAD (the art was better, for one thing).
b.t.
Charlie - enjoy!
https://twolanedesktop.blogspot.com/2018/01/corgi-143-porsche-911-targa-s.html
Phillip
I too had lots of toy cars (Matchbox, Corgi etc) but I'm not a car geek I'm afraid so I don't recall any particular model. I do remember buying a toy car along with a copy of Marvel UK's The Super-Heroes No.9 which was the only time I ever bought that comic in its' entire 50-week run.
Phillip, you mentioned Scalextric which was desired by my next-door neighbour Martin but he never actually got a set.
On the subject of pre-Christmas (Autumn/Winter) catalogues - in our house we had the Burlington catalogue and later the Grattan catalogue. As you say. Phil - oh, the anticipation!
Colin - I'm certainly not a car geek, as an adult. That being said, my mind remembered stuff about 'things' (including cars), since early childhood. First dinosaurs, then aircraft, animals, insects, mythology, cars, tanks, etc. Superheroes, of course, being a very big one! Then fantasy books. A geek in general, I suppose - not a car-specific geek!
Cars, however, have a childhood importance different to adult perceptions. As a child, a car's like a secure capsule ( not my word ), transporting you through unknown environments, which you observe from safety. Also, analogue car clocks were a particular plus point, for me, as a kid ( for some strange reason! ) Besides, as a child, motoring dangers - and bad driving - don't enter your head, at all. Ignorance is bliss. In contrast, as an adult, car journeys are tedious, being stuck in traffic jams, etc - watching the traffic, not observing car window views!
Phillip
Redartz - A shop named 'Englands' (now long gone) provided my toy cars, soldiers, etc. 'Englands' was located above my town's WHSmith's ( the U.K.'s national newsagent ). In 1976 (?) that store closed, and was sorely missed! Probably Woolworths provided me a few other toys, too - but that also closed for good in the UK, lasting until 2009.
Phillip
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