Hooniverse Asks- What Was Your Coolest Car Toy When You Were a Kid?

By Robert Emslie Mar 25, 2013

Austin

Many of us have never really grown up, and in fact our cars and trucks are just playthings much like our childhood toys, just on a more grandiose scale. The thing of it is, many of you probably had some pretty cool car toys when you were growing up – ones with which you might just like to spend some quality time even as an adult.

When I was a kid, I had this sweet Tyco slot car set. I kept the box under my bed and would pull it out and set up a road course on my bedroom floor. The cars that came with the set – a Mustang road racer and a Stingray ‘Vette – shot off of the toy’s box lid in glorious color ink art. They also shot off the track and I spent hours searching out the tiny contact springs that inevitably would be knocked out of the car upon crashing into the wall on attempting an especially overeager corner. Still, I loved that slot car set, I just wish I knew what became of it.

What about you, did you have a particularly awesome automotive toy when you were a snot-nosed kid? Did you maintain a Hot Wheels empire? Or, perhaps you prowled the sidewalk in a pedal car that was just as shiny and cool as the real deal.  What was your coolest car toy when you were a kid?

Image source: AustinWorks

92 thoughts on “Hooniverse Asks- What Was Your Coolest Car Toy When You Were a Kid?”
      1. It's important that the 'Verse stay relevant and topical.
        My honest answer to this is a pedal powered Corvette Stingray – it was a GM promotional item that Dad brought home from the dealership he worked for. It's long gone, which it too bad as it would doubtlessly be quite valuable today.

  1. I didn't have toy cars as a kid; I had dolls. I'm making up for it now though with a 60+ collection of 1:64 scale Ford GT/GT40's. They are unopened and displayed on my garage wall.

  2. I had a silver Jaguar E-type roadster flywheel car made of tin in about 1:18 scale. I loved it.

  3. By far, this:
    <img src="http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss253/BlackKnight047/eBay%20Selling/P1030384.jpg&quot; width=550>
    TURBO CHARGER YO!
    Unlike your full-size Ferrari, this remote control car lasted for my entire childhood. Probably spent more on batteries than the actual cost of the car, but it was a survivor. I remember that I drove it around the block one time with a camcorder strapped to the top. God, that was fun.
    I might just buy one on eBay. <a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280817656248” target=”_blank”>http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280817656248

    1. Very similar!:
      <img src="http://www.tamiyaclub.com/getuserimage.asp?t=g&id=img15829_17052010152239_1_350.jpg&quot; width="600">
      I also had these little cars from walgreens that were electric but not controllable. Supposedly to race them on some kind of track. We just raced them all over anyway. You could even change the tire type on them from different types of rubber and foam. Then one day, we attached model rocket engines to some of them. What a day. Sad day for those racers though.

      1. Were those the battery operated ones that had guide wheels on the side to keep them from scraping against the "guard rail" on the tracks? If so, those things were super popular in Japan. Can't remember the name of them, but they had huge tracks for racing and you could hop them up in all kinds of ways.

        1. Yep! Yeah, you buy parts for nearly everything on them to "improve" them. They went silly fast for what they were.

          1. I went to a Japanese supermarket here back about 10 years ago and remember they sold those cars, and had a video running showing the gigantic tracks they had for them in Japan. I was actually thinking about them just the other day, but I can't remember what they were called.

    2. I had the awesomeness that was the Super Lobo. My friend had a Lobo II. That was the limit of my R/C car hobby. I wanted to get into it more fervently, but I didn’t know, at the time, what “fervently” meant.

    3. I think i had two Nikko cars… They ate batteries like no tomorrow and eventually broke. I fixed the steering on one with technic lego. I was 12 or so when i got a real RC car, a Tamiya Ford Mondeo. FWD FF01 chassis. I have most of the parts laying in a box somewhere and it's all beat to hell, but functional. You could still find spares pretty easily.
      &lt;DIV style="OVERFLOW: auto"&gt;
      <DIV style="OVERFLOW: auto"><img src="http://www.rctech.net/forum/attachments/electric-road/579810d1271185048-tamiya-ff03-mondeo.jpg&quot; width=600 IMG &lt;>

  4. Had tons of Hot Wheels/Matchbox/Corgi/etc., but in general my favorite were scale cars made by Tomica. I have never been a very imaginative person, so I always preferred the more realistic toys over the crazy concepts (that Hot Wheels was famous for), and Tomicas have always been some of the most detailed of the typical toy cars. Plus it helped that my dad worked for Garuda, the Indonesian national airline, when I was a kid in Australia, so I frequently traveled to Asia, and every trip involved stopping at a you store for a few Tomicas.
    My favorites? Gotta be my very first toy car, a Tomica Fuso school bus (which I still have, but is in worse shape than the one shown), and a Tomica "Kenmeri" Skyline GT-R with pocket flares in metallic green. I credit this car, and Tomicas in general, for my love of classic Japanese cars.
    <img src="http://cdn.sulitstatic.com/images/2012/1122/023435731_020812395c967251d773f10c1b0be110dfcbe987ece03622d.jpg&quot; width=650>
    <img src="http://bimg1.mlstatic.com/tomy-tomica-kuji-skyline-2000gt-kenmeri-en-caja-japon_MLA-F-3012337019_082012.jpg&quot; width=650>

  5. First was definitely my dad's Tamiya Super Blackfoot. I spent many a summer running that thing all over the neigborhood or chasing the dog with it. I still have it, need to get it running again.
    <img src="http://www.rcknowhow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/58110-super-blackfoot.jpg&quot; width="600">
    Second was of course my hot wheels and track. The motorized accelerators were the best things ever, for shooting cars at your friends at least 😀

    1. I bought a King Blackfoot when i was about 14 or so. The thing can take a beating.. Still have it, but it's in a million pieces.

      1. Yep, mine took a weird hop and didn't turn because the front wheels were off and smacked straight into a curb, breaking the front suspension mount. I always meant to get back to it, but finding the part was almost impossible even then, and I was just getting into real cars seriously, and you know how things like that go… 12 years later and it's still sitting in a cabinet with a broken front suspension mount. I'm glad they did this though, it's reminded me to get on Ebay, find some parts, and get this thing moving again!

        1. Mine very nearly burned up when the mechanical speed control ate thru a couple of wires and shorted the battery. "Hey it stopped… weird, I just put in a new battery. wait, is it smoking? shit shit shit shit!" type of thing. Other than that I didn't break too many parts… Lots of epoxy and rivets on the body though. And i put some green LEDs in the headlights.
          The Super Blackfoot might be trickier to get parts for.. Up until a couple of years ago when i last checked they still had the same basic chassis as the original, but now it seems Tamiya has revised the whole chassis so parts are a bit harder to find. You could try this place. http://www.vintage-tamiyaparts.com/ I've never bought anything from them but they might have it.

          1. Lol, mine did the exact same thing! I put a cheap reversing ESC and a 20 turn motor in it so I could stop mesing with that ancient MSC. The ancient servo it came with for the MSC was constantly going out of trim, so it'd just randomly start going faster and faster.
            On the parts front, it's looking like the only options are going to be buying a parts chassis off ebay or fabbing a replacement up. Starting to think it'll be easier to just replicate the part in aluminum, and that's probably the route I'll go with.
            And I love vintage Tamiya parts. I've gotten so many of their amazing old touring car bodies off of there 🙂

          2. Good times.. Now i'm feeling all nostalgic. I still have my old Tamiya catalogs. And the Tamiya Radio Control Guide Book that thought me about racing lines, suspension geometry and how to set up springs and dampers, camber / toe / caster, weight balance, the differences of fwd/rwd/4wd and engine placement, differentials, aerodynamics, electrics, combustion engines and many other things… Love that thing. Heh, i should really fix up my cars and drive them. I even have a couple NIB cars i never got around to actually build…
            But yeah building your own might be easier, depending on the part.. I would still buy the correct part if I could find it for a reasonable price. Too bad vintage tamiya parts don't have the Ford Mondeo BTCC body..

      2. My first hobby grade RC was a King Blackfoot. Took a beating like you wouldn't believe. Couple years ago it was retired and then completely restored.

    2. I got a Clodbuster when I was 13 or so. Lots of fun, but then I got into real cars. It got taken apart and used for various engineering class projects.

  6. I too spent lost of hours with Tyco slot cars. My Christmas presents usually came from Sears Outlet or JC Penny Outlet, so I got the previous years set 3 or 4 Christmases. I never did a road course, we had a very long den in our house, so my circuits usually ended up looking like the old Avus circuit, but with a loop in the middle <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Circuit_AVUS.svg/250px-Circuit_AVUS.svg.png"width=300&gt; More often than not a '77 Trans-Am would end up racing a Porsche 917, at least until I figured out they were faster with no body on them.
    Probably my best automotive toy was the Big Trak tank.
    <img src="http://www.robotroom.com/BigTrak/BigTrak.jpg"width=500&gt;

  7. I had lots of Matchbox cars. I didn't like hot wheels because to me they looked "fake." Whatever I meant by that. My favorites were the English ones that I didn't see where I grew up in Texas. Then when I was 11, I bought an old Studebaker farm truck for $200 and didn't really care about the toy cars any more.

    1. Yes. This is me exactly, except it was a Rambler sedan, not a Studebaker, and I was fifteen, not 11, and my parents had owned it since I was born. I hated it when Matchbox went "Superfast" to compete with Hot Wheels.

  8. The toys I spent the most time playing with was my Lego, but while I built a lot of cars out of them they weren't specifically car related. I spent a long time lobbying to get the Golden Eagle Express truck and my parents surprised me with it one Christmas. I can't even describe how awesome that thing looked to me.
    <img src="http://i.ebayimg.com/t/NYLINT-GOLDEN-EAGLE-EXPRESS-18-WHEELER-ROLL-UP-REAR-DOOR-/00/s/Mzk3WDEyMDA=/$(KGrHqN,!jcFBlkVWuq7BQe(C1iKOg~~60_57.JPG" width="500/">
    Nowadays it looks kinda cheesy, but to a kid that was the A #1 in class. I played with it an awful lot, but don't remember what happened to it. We moved a lot so it might have been given away. Still have the Lego though.
    Tell me if that pic doesn't show up, I'll find another one.

  9. I had a couple of Matchbox toy cars, I especially remember a Ford Sierra (pre facelift) and a 300 ZX. But I had most fun with my Lego Technic stuff. I had the pictured set with the electric motor, and a pneumatic kit. I remember designing a car with contemporary Peugeot rear lights, the motor and a 2 speed gearbox using the pneumatic kit.
    <img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8178/8056984561_e7967c4e53_z.jpg&quot; width="600">
    <img src="http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100216055258/lego/images/8/88/8064_Universal_Motorized_Building_Set.jpg&quot; width="600">

  10. HOTWHEELS!!
    I have no idea how many I'd mashed or burned. About 10 years ago my mom said I needed to take a box of stuff back to Tx with me and lo and behold… a few survived my wrath.
    <img src="http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090907034204/hotwheels/images/6/62/PoisonPinto_bw.JPG&quot; width="350">
    I also had the crapload of Evel Knievel toys. Even had the dragster.
    Because comics were the portal to awesome.
    <img src="http://www.vintageculture.net/images/evel-knievel-stunt-cycle-toy1.jpg"&gt;
    ^^^ He even has a Pimp Cane!!! (Or one leg was significantly longer than the other…)

    1. "Jumps your set of encyclopedias volumes A through W." That's what made the real Evel so exciting – he always aimed for A to Z, even if there was a good chance he wouldn't make it.

    2. My favorite, too. Those hand-cranked flywheel drive motorcycles and cars were good for thousands of hours of fun with the neighborhood kids, especially when we could afford a gallon or 2 of gasoline and create those death-defying jumps for an afternoon – until Albert deliberately held off extinguishing the fire on a failed jump. Some people just want to see the toys burn.
      We eventually graduated to the Cox glow-plug powered toys, of which the propeller-driven streamliner was the pinnacle of awesome: fill the fuel tank; heat the glow plug; hook the recoil spring; wind the prop; release and repeat until that engine began its high speed howl; point the car in a general direction and let it go. That was good for a couple hours of high speed sprinting until all the fuel was gone.

  11. I remember having Tonka trucks, not the cheap ones you buy now, but ones produced early on that were thick metal and could really hurt if you decided to hit someone with them. I remember having a couple trucks and a loader. This was so awesome to me as a kid because my father ran a road construction company, so if I wanted to walk next door to the company shop then I could see actual loaders and dump trucks. I remember my father coming home in a loader to fill our sand box up one night, presumably because my brother and I had slowly emptied it over several years. He dumped about half a bucket full of sand in, and left it piled up so we could distribute it with our own equipment. It probably kept us busy for several days.

  12. I had a Visible V/8 kit 1:4 scale that surprisingly is still available today.
    Great learning tool,and neat toy.

  13. I spent a lot of my childhood sniffing glue building models, seemingly half of which were Countaches. I always seemed to be building a Countach, until the focus of my attention went to the ’63 Corvette, which I then built several of.

    1. I'm pretty sure I had this one as a kid, too. It has a functional tailgate, right??
      Hardly any Matchbox/Hot Wheels now have opening doors/hoods/etc. Must be some sort of conspiracy…

  14. Three that stand out to me: My Corgi No. 471 "Joe's Diner" food van, Remo Tru-Smoke dump truck, and SSP Lakester.
    <img src="http://www.thetoycabin.com/images/big/BGCOR71.jpg"&gt;
    <img src="http://i.ebayimg.com/t/1969-Vintage-Remco-Tru-Smoke-Dumptruck-Battery-Operated-Toy-Motorized-Truck-/00/s/NDUwWDYwMA==/$%28KGrHqZ,!pwFCs9PmHpVBQ2LF4%28q1g~~60_3.JPG" width="350">
    <img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4sCUMFVBe2M/S3hOQROA_eI/AAAAAAAAA4I/QVfTwnXcW7A/s400/eliminator.jpg&quot; width="350">

  15. This was the toy dashboard I had back in the early 60's. The turn indicator lights would flash if I used the signals, the horn would honk, the wipers would wipe (manual handle, of course) and it had lots of chrome.
    <img src="http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s141/K5ING/dash.jpg&quot; width="600">
    <img src="http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s141/K5ING/CIMG0916_zpsf1177ea3.jpg&quot; width=600>
    (No, that's not me…just some picture I found on the internet to show the scale of the dashboard).

    1. Wow! I had one remarkably similar, though probably slightly later/cheaper . When you turned the ignition key it made something vaguely like an engine startup sound.
      I had TOTALLY forgotten about it. Thanks for the memory flashback.

      1. Those date from around 1962 IIRC. I used to "drive" all over the countryside in mine.
        You know something? It look a lot bigger to me when I was 7 years old…LOL!

  16. It was important to me to keep my Matchbox cars nice (I still have them on display) so I didn't play with them roughly. I did have some Hot Wheels and similar free-wheeling toy cars for use on gravity loop tracks. The coolest thing, though, was a slot car track with gummed pegs that could be used with any car with a flat bottom. There was also a Major Matt Mason lunar rover with one giant unsteerable tread that would climb anything, within reason and battery life.

  17. I had an RC truck that looked like this:
    <img src="http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/$%28KGrHqZHJCUE63%28+wu3uBO8m1LGwLQ~~60_35.JPG"&gt;
    Except mine had taped up rear tires, so I could do MAD DORIFTO!
    Also, Micro Machines were pretty cool, this was my favorite:
    <img src="http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Micro-Machines-Ferrari-Daytona-Spider-Convertible-Model-Car-/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/$%28KGrHqZ,!ogFBvNMg+h6BQebhO2vD!~~60_35.JPG">
    And Majorette's weird obsession with French and Swedish iron got me some cool stuff. For example, I had two Citroen XMs. One was this minty fresh green.
    <img src="http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Citroen-Xm-By-Majorette-/00/s/MTA3NVgxMTY3/$T2eC16JHJIYE9qUcNbMwBQUY%29Oofww~~60_35.JPG"&gt;
    As well as those cars that changed color from temperature, though I don't know if my mom appreciated having a fridge filled with cars.
    I think I'm going to have to hunt down those Citroens next time I'm at my parents'.

      1. It's similar, it was a "Mini Eliminator" which probably just meant a different body, since they're both Tyco RC trucks. Looking at the posted image closer, it's missing the giant Daytona-esque wing that marked the Eliminator body. This one's more accurate, including the right remote:
        <img src="http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzUwWDEwMDA=/$%28KGrHqJ,!iwFD%293PFL4fBRLTMDqr7g~~48_35.JPG">

  18. When I was a kid, the model that I aspire to is an Autoart. To a kid used to Maistos and BBuragos, the level of detail and quality in Autoarts are just amazing.
    It's a shame they're really expensive. Now I have the means to buy one and yet I can't justify putting down $100+ for a model. Although, some models make me really close to ignore my sensibility.
    <img src="http://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/server4000/72e67/products/230/images/934/75932a__89423.1318812300.1280.1280.jpg&quot; width=640 />

  19. I don't have a picture of it, and it's no longer with me, but it was an RC knockoff of a ~1983 Porsche 911 'slantnose' in blue. I saw it in I think Bed Bath & Beyond of all places when I was 8, right after reading a book on oddball Porsches (including my favorite, the turbo Flachbau.)
    Somehow I convinced my mom to buy it for me, and then I proceeded to beat it to death by hooning it around my yard/neighborhood until the brushes in the motor wore out and the tires were literally bald.

  20. I had tons of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, along with a few Majorette cars. I'm not sure, but some may be up in the attic (gee, I hope so!). I also had a 1/5th scale Visible Rotary Engine (man, that was cool), and one that I still have is an Allied Van Lines tractor trailer by Buddy L, which I got for my sixth birthday. It's still in good shape, and and I got it back when we cleaned out my mom's house after she passed away last year. I also have tons of 1/25th scale car models, some still unbuilt, and a 1/8th scale '78 Corvette.

  21. I didn't have toy cars, so I don't have something to share, but I did want to comment and say how much I enjoyed looking through all the nifty toy cars the rest of you have posted.
    Makes me smile. I especially love the ones where half the paint is worn off. Playtina, that's what it's called.

  22. For me, it was my small "fleet" of Majorette semi-trucks. My grandfather lovingly kept them at his house, and surprized me with them one day I dropped by.
    Weird how i used to plsy with toy trucks and now I drive the real big thing.

  23. Man, so many cool old toys.
    I had this Nylint 'Special' race car. It came with a double decker trailer with two plastic formula ford type race cars on it. I couldn't find an image of the whole thing. I beat them all to crap, though, and they're long gone now.
    <img src="http://auctionimages.s3.amazonaws.com/1936/21342/14280062.jpg&quot; width="600/">
    I had loads of Hot Wheels & matchbox cars & the like. Some of my favorites were Majorettes that I got when on vacation in Canada. The best was this travel trailer that was twice as long as the typical Matchbox car. Similar to this but 2-3X as long:
    <img src="http://www.diecastlovers.com/normale/Majorette_StTropez_caravane_8Mr1.jpg"&gt;
    I also had this RC Mustang II, only mine was black with gold accents. Maybe even a King Cobra.
    <img src="http://www.photos.jcstudiosinc.com/user284/cobraii001.jpg"&gt;
    I really wanted the RC Chevy stepside truck with the snowmobile trailer, but we bought it and it never did work so I took it back and got the Mustang.
    My slot car track was a simple figure * Aurora track, but Dad worked for Champion Spark plugs so it was a special set with two VW Baja Beetles or 'Spark Bugs'. I sold it on eBay a few years ago for about $100.
    <img src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR1NWww8I-ciK5nGygxbM50M2CLZhFPrSqKSHD7RC8ezrnu2HMCTw"&gt;

  24. I had an old go kart that my grandfather made of my brothers and myself around 88-89. That thing was six and a half feet long with a tube chassis and steering. when my grandfather was mostly finished building it he let us take it out and pusb it around a while. We pushed it up the side of the road to a back road with a huge(when I was a kid anyway) hill, we ran it down that hill for most of the afternoon untill one of the residents called the police and had us escorted back to my grandfathers place. He was not happy and never finished putting the 12hp honda sideshaft on the thing. So we found another giant hill in a gated comunity and had a blast with it. That kart weighed somthing in the neibourhood of 150 lbs and gravity alone could get the thing to what felt like 50-60 km/h givin the right hill.

  25. Matchbox cars (my favorite was a Citroen) and Tonkas. My mother wanted me to play with dolls and carriages. She was thrilled when I asked to play with my older sister's carriage. I piled all my Tonkas in it and "drove" it to my friends house to play.

  26. Judging by the wear playtina, I was more of a Jaguar kind of guy:
    <img src="http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/1407/img0229mi.jpg&quot; width="400/">
    Actually, I liked the ones that actually did something neat, like this Ford Transit with the fold-out cradle:
    <img src="http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/4175/img0232fn.jpg&quot; width="400/">
    Oh and a funny thing: I've had this blue car as long as I remember (it's one of my earliest ones, up there with the Merkur and the Jag) and I had no idea what it was.
    <img src="http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4027/img0230mq.jpg&quot; width="400/">
    And this mystery would have gone unsolved if not for Antti's weekend posts and today's Asks in succession.
    <img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img811/8163/img0231mo.jpg&quot; width="400/">
    I have a Nissan MID-4 II! The details aren't all correct, but close enough for a no-name. The rear suspension is also sagging, the chrome wheels pitted and the axles are rusty. But still! Now it can park beside the no-name GTR models.

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