Your Favorite Hot Wheel (Or match Box) Ever? - Bilge

I ikitnrev Tiki Socialite D.C. / Virginia Joined: Jul 27, 2002 Posts: 1325	I ikitnrev Posted posted on Sun, Mar 26, 2006 10:10 AM I was big on matchbox cars. Our house had an old cement porch base, and I would take a brick fragment, draw the outline of an oval racetrack, and then have races with my various cars - simply nudging them forwards one at a time, until finally a 3 to 5 lap race would be run. Through normal wear and tear, they became scratched and beatup - and I then painted several of them with my enamel model car paint. I remember painting some of them with a swirling mixture of various colors, so they ended up looking like Janis Joplin's psychedelic Rolls Royce. But did I have a favorite? I guess it was always the newest one that I purchased - the start of my consumer addiction, where i only needed to buy 'just one more car' to make my life more complete. I guess the Lotus racecars (60's Indy style cars)will always be a fond memory for me, because they were the most exotic looking of the cars when I started, and partly because you could drive two of them into the bigger Race Transporter vehicle. I did buy a few hot wheel cars, and bought the used yellow track of a neighbor, but by then I was getting a bit older and into other things. The Hot Wheel cars did roll longer and faster - but once the wheels got bent and out of alighnment - forget it! The Hot Wheel cars eventually started getting more elaborate and fake cartoony looking, and by the time they got into day-glow colors, I had moved past that scene. I did catch the tailend of the HO slot-car scene, mostly because my Dad built this great mountain loop layout for my oldest brothers, and then I played with it when they went off to college. The cool things about slotcars was that you could easily switch body tops, and suddenly give your fastest car a new look. One thing HO provides that HO and Hot Wheel cars can't is the memories of the burning oil used to lubricate those small engines, or the feeling of placing those two curved magnets into the underlying car mount. The car-toy that really brings back fond memories is the SSP Smash-Up Derby cars - the ones with the big gyro wheel in the middle, that would be powered via the black notched, pull T-strip. I think I was fortunate to be a young teenager in the era when Evel Kneival was King, and the best event to appear on ABC Wide World of Sports was the Joey Chitwood stunt drivers. Vern

I was big on matchbox cars. Our house had an old cement porch base, and I would take a brick fragment, draw the outline of an oval racetrack, and then have races with my various cars - simply nudging them forwards one at a time, until finally a 3 to 5 lap race would be run. Through normal wear and tear, they became scratched and beatup - and I then painted several of them with my enamel model car paint. I remember painting some of them with a swirling mixture of various colors, so they ended up looking like Janis Joplin's psychedelic Rolls Royce.

But did I have a favorite? I guess it was always the newest one that I purchased - the start of my consumer addiction, where i only needed to buy 'just one more car' to make my life more complete. I guess the Lotus racecars (60's Indy style cars)will always be a fond memory for me, because they were the most exotic looking of the cars when I started, and partly because you could drive two of them into the bigger Race Transporter vehicle.

I did buy a few hot wheel cars, and bought the used yellow track of a neighbor, but by then I was getting a bit older and into other things. The Hot Wheel cars did roll longer and faster - but once the wheels got bent and out of alighnment - forget it! The Hot Wheel cars eventually started getting more elaborate and fake cartoony looking, and by the time they got into day-glow colors, I had moved past that scene.

I did catch the tailend of the HO slot-car scene, mostly because my Dad built this great mountain loop layout for my oldest brothers, and then I played with it when they went off to college. The cool things about slotcars was that you could easily switch body tops, and suddenly give your fastest car a new look. One thing HO provides that HO and Hot Wheel cars can't is the memories of the burning oil used to lubricate those small engines, or the feeling of placing those two curved magnets into the underlying car mount.

The car-toy that really brings back fond memories is the SSP Smash-Up Derby cars - the ones with the big gyro wheel in the middle, that would be powered via the black notched, pull T-strip. I think I was fortunate to be a young teenager in the era when Evel Kneival was King, and the best event to appear on ABC Wide World of Sports was the Joey Chitwood stunt drivers.

Vern

Post #223155 by ikitnrev on Sun, Mar 26, 2006 10:10 AM