"JRapp: now as good as new again" (jrapp)
07/23/2015 at 21:21 • Filed to: dyecast, toy car
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"JRapp: now as good as new again" (jrapp)
07/23/2015 at 21:21 • Filed to: dyecast, toy car | 4
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A bit of background info. I grew up in the then Soviet Estonia in the 80s, and moved to the US early 90. Got married, had kids - 2 boys, settled down.
Watching my kids grow up, and their friends and my friends kids, it seems that they don’t get the same enjoyment out of toy cars as I did. And granted, the culture in the US in general is more “disposable”. Everything is more available - toys are cheaper, there’s plenty to choose from. Even back in the 80s. Hot-wheels are a dollar now. It’s what you bribe the kids with when you don’t want to buy them the 30 dollar Lego set, as a consolation prize. But even then, kids don’t really come by the really detailed, well built, rare, “toy” cars that often. And I’ve gotten my boys some really nice die-cast cars, thinking they’d cherish these the same as I did with some of my toys growing up. No dice. And it’s not like they’re not into cars. It’s just that for them it’s yet another car to throw in the hot-wheels bucket.
There’s a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on Oppo today with comments talking about taking toys apart as a kid, and I remember taking apart some of my die-cast cars as a kid. That got me looking for pictures of some of the toy cars that I had and loved as a kid, and I came across !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! site, which took me down memory lane..
My earliest vague memory of a car toy I had was this RAF van, that met it’s watery fate in the kindergarten toilet, courtesy of a “friend”. I cried because the teacher woudn’t let me play with it anymore after Henri had thrown it in the toilet. (Henri if you’re reading this, I’m still mad.)
Skipping ahead a few years, I remember getting a couple, then really cool by Soviet Estonian standards, exotic car toys. I had a Ferrari 250 Berlinetta Lusso and a Lotus Europa that I constantly took apart and had to have my grandpa reassemble. I must have been somewhere around 8 or so at the time.
The Ferrari I had was exactly this. Spring loaded doors that opened, hood that opened, trunk that opened. Even had a little white plastic engine under the hood. The tires would come off, but those I was able to put back on my own. The Lotus was similar - doors and hoods that opened, with an engine under the rear deck lid. Both had spring loaded suspension if I remember correctly.. pretty badass actually.
Then there was a bunch of Soviet car toys - a Lada 2102, Kamaz dump truck, Moskwitch, and a few others, and I’ve brought some of them back to the US with me now as well, so I still have them. I even had an old Russo-Balt toy. Not sure where that went. But I knew exactly what toy cars I had, and it seems like I got more enjoyment out of them than my boys do now from any given toy that they have.
And now is the point that I realize how old I sound. “Back in my day..”, “the kids today...” and hell, “Back in the old country...”, but whatever. I think having a few toy cars that I could take apart and try to put back together is partially what made me into the gearhead and engineer I am today. You can’t take a Hot Wheels car apart. They’re pressed together, never to be disassembled.
Anyways, the point is that it seems to me the toy car has lost some of its charm due to there being a million HotWheels and Matchbox cars at a dollar a pop evailalbe in every grocery store and kwiki mart. And maybe it’s for the better. They don’t get so attached to their toys that they need to haul them half way across the world at the age of 30+. I just wish my kids would take apart their toy cars, so I would have something easier to put back together (and feel like I actually sucessfully mended something), than the 1:1 scale non-funtional Fiero toy that I have...
Brickman
> JRapp: now as good as new again
07/23/2015 at 21:42 |
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I did the same with 1:18 model cars when I was little. A good bit of them have a full engine bay like the ford mustang and viper I had with removable radiator, engine, transmission, driveshaft, etc. It’s not supposed to be removed, but I did anyway :)
Wilsonic
> JRapp: now as good as new again
07/23/2015 at 21:46 |
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Are you familiar with Live and Let Diecast? You seem like you would be right at home there.
http://liveandletdiecast.kinja.com/
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JRapp: now as good as new again
> Wilsonic
07/23/2015 at 21:49 |
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Was not aware of this. Thanks for pointing it out.
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Wilsonic
> JRapp: now as good as new again
07/23/2015 at 21:52 |
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No problem. Don’t be surprised if your article gets shared onto LaLD. I posted something diecast related on Oppo and it got shared to LaLD. That was my introduction to the site.
Boxer_4
> Brickman
07/23/2015 at 22:00 |
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Some of those 1:18 models were surprisingly detailed in that regard.
Ej8gUy
> JRapp: now as good as new again
07/23/2015 at 23:06 |
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That was a pretty touching story, thanks for sharing. I totally get what you mean. I have a 7 year old girl and toys aren’t what they used to be.