I'm old enough, I had those same Fords....I believe they were actually in boxes of Grape Nut Flakes. Mine all got away but have found a few of them at flea markets. Plus a few others I had.
Those were Aurora Imposters, and they came in several body styles including a VW bug. There's a print ad for them on eBay right now, but no actual toy.
Big Bruiser toy truck .Had flashing lights and a car that you could put a crushed fender on and a flat tire on. Then put a good fender on and a good tire came with a jack and tools. Also real metal models that were un painted this was in 1961
I had a Shuco version of that ( like this pic). And Johnny Express truck. Countless Matchbox/Corgi/Dinky including the original James Bond Aston Martin. I had a few Japanese tin toys to like big VW with a see through motor and lights etc. and a cool Bell Huey copter and 707 that had lights on the engine pods. Later it was HotWheels and slot cars, Eldon, Cox,Tyco etc These things would be worth a fortune now but hell, we played them to death, that's what they were for.
I had lots of neat stuff, but two of my favorites were slot car sets we had. The first I got as a present for my 4th Christmas. My Dad was into slots as well as real hot rods, but his racecar was a 1/25 scale where our home set was a Strombecker 1/32 set that my uncle (an HO train fanatic) set up on a HUGE 5'x10' table to be "sort of" like a european road race circuit complete with mountains, trees, spectators, grandstands, pits, a tunnel (try reaching into the tunnel to get your car out while your brother is still racing!) and lots of other extremely realistic details. The other was an Eldon slot car drag set. It had two front-engined dragsters, a real christmas tree (complete with red lights!) and a shut down area with a tunnel and a safety net to stop the cars, but we usually just ran them out onto the floor. We always thought my Dad had awesome driving abilities since he was undefeated, and was even generous enough to give us (and Mom) a head start. Looking back, that was his trick, he would punch it early essentially giving him a run at the 'tree. But what did we know at 10 years old? I recently saw one on ebay for about $350, NIB and it took all the self control I had to not buy it.
My first roadster. Not this one though. I broke my original when it collided with the door jamb after going over a ramp. When the plasic that held the axle broke it was useless....to an 8 year old anyway. It took me about 45 years to find a good replacement. I had a ton of fun with this thing. I wanted to collect all the toys that our family couldn't afford from the 50s but that would side track me from the hotrod parts that I really love.
I done the same and since I have the family christmas pics I went through them and got all the ones I could identify,the antique malls are a good place to look at them and find out the manufacture and then get them on ebay and flea markets for alot less in most cases.
I believe your right about the Grape Nut Flakes thing according to the site I googled they came in Post Grape Nuts Flakes, Brand Flakes and Fruity Pebbles from 1954 thru 1967. I have 26 of them, I'd love to have a couple of the 50's Mercury ones all I have are '54, '55, and '57 Ford cars. I also have 4-'69/70's Mercurys, 3-'60 Plymouths, 3-'65 Mustangs, and 3-'61 Thunderbirds. They were made by F&F Molding out of Dayton, Ohio however there is some question among collectors as to whether the 69's/70's Mercs were built by F&F, as they are marked JVZ Co. however under the body the Plymouths have the F&F stamp under them!
In the early 50's you could get the hopped up hot rod model for 50 cents and the coupon on the back of a Kellogs cereal box. Mine is from Kellogs Krumbles and is the monogram hot rod model in a plain brown box. Sorry about the lousy pictures. Mick
This is a early shot of my racing career with my younger sister, she and I were the terror of the streets early with our "Hot Rods"
tootsietoys... hundreds of them! i had a solid rubber Army truck that became my absolute favorite for a while... my Dad would bring me home Jeeps with machine guns on the back and deuce-and-a-halfs that the "canvas" tops were removable when he had money to spare... we had an Aurora Motorriffic raceway, the one with the little steel pins and nylon locks to hold the track together... Dad bought his OWN aurora GT40 and kept it separate from the set. my cousin got a steel toy car, i think it was made by Eldon, and part of a series called "jalopies", that i traded a bunch of stuff with him to get. it was a Ford A woodie, without a hood... i got caught stripping down an antique baby carriage to get the wheels to build a Stutz Bearcat for my G I Joes. whupping ensued.
My dad was in the Army so a lot of my stuff came from the Sears catolog or local toy stores where ever it was we lived at the time. I ended up with quite a collection of Dinky Toys before they ever were popular in the States. When we lived in Eritrea there were a couple of local shops that had a lot of Dinky Toys. The one I remember most was Sir Malcom Campbell's Blue Bird (my son now has it in his collection.) Though I played with most of those cars and trucks, I never played much with the Blue Bird because it was too cool to mess up. The Sears catalog was the source of my brown Tonka Toy dumptruck. It looked like a Ford F1. That was a fun toy. I wish I had all those toys today (I do have some of them), but then I wish I had all the real cars I've had over the years as well. (I guess most of them were toys too in their own way.)
big deuce I remember those sizzlers, and think that mine is probably packed away out in the shed. My grandfather bought my brother and I one each and I can remember the "gas pump style charger used to recharge them. The kids 3 doors down the street from us had a big track set up out in the shed we all used to race on. I need to go and see if I can find mine, maybe it is in the same box as all my Cox 1/25 slot cars. Michael
Anybody remembers those SSP cars? I used to have couple of those along with the smash-up set. Check out the old commerical on youtube.
ha ha I had the pit change charger, I almost posted it when the thread first was posted...played with that sucker for ever...esp like pulling the motor.
damn i rmember that too.. I remember seeing them in the store, they looked like a normal coupe but then would stretch like a dragster kinda..saw one at a swap meet a couple years ago in pieces...
I still have my old Tonka hot rods, one is a C cab one a fendered T and 1 a T bucket in red metal flake, big steel ones... Plum crazy VW with a blower sticking out the back, from Tonka too I believe. I also had a "stick shifter" was a car..old glory and it attached to this box wth a four speed shifter on it, you would rev in 1st, 2nd, wind it up in 3rd, and when you hit 4th it would engage the car and fly out of the launcher. Had the yellow 55 and an orange 57 nomad AFX, also a black flamed 40 Ford too.
Hey Dooley those are out of this world man, I wish I had some like them, they just seem to bring a smile to my face just looking at them
OH WOW! That is one that I've long since forgotten. I always wanted one of those and have completely lost track of how to find it, until now! Thanks for the post!
I have a little T-bucket like the first one, but different, has a chrome surfer scoop and bigger slicks, I also have 2 or 3 of the same basic scale Buddy L hot rod "Woodies" and a model A Pickup...
I forgot about Pit Change Charger! That was the best. Crashed fender and all. Anyone remember the "Spinwelder Racecar Factory"? It was basically a kit with two cars, one Indy, one dragster, made out of plastic beams. They gave you a battery powered drill with plastic rods, the rods would spin, melt the plastic, and "weld" them together. Body panels were held on with plastic rivets.
Now that I'm in memory lane, this isn't a car, but who had "Redline", the drag race game? It was a hand held game, shaped like a dragster steering wheel with a Christmas tree and buttons for throttle and shift. The tree would come down, gotta keep your eye on the tach, and you just try to get the best ET. There were classes for stock, modified, funny car, and top fuel. Damn I wish I knew what happened to mine. (I beat my dad into the fours, maybe he stole it).
I have a friend who has this game. I bought the later version: http://www.ioffer.com/i/90899636 Its a pretty fun little game to play! Now I need to go find mine as my Children have probably destroyed it!
We used to go to the local stores at Christmas time and play the electronic handheld games all day and I loved that Redline game... what about digital derby...played that one forever
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