I'll put up another vote for RC cars! Tons of fun and easy to upgrade as his skills grow. I run 1/10th scale electric On and Off-road. There is a kids class where I race and it really cool to watch the little guys (and girls!) get excited when they run well. RC is a great way to introduce kids to wrenching and teach them about car setup, maintenance, as well as sportsmanship. As for customization you can paint your own bodies choose wheels and tires and so on, just like a full scale car.
Only three? That boy is huge!! I figured he was 7 or 8! LOL...just kidding. Don't want Marcie sending me thru Norman, OK again with a burnt orange shirt on.
Just did a search on "that site", cars are going for serious $$ ($399 for one car here) And this set in Atlanta without cars here last week-ish *None of you other fellas try and buy them before the boss gets a chance How about a later model RC car with a traditional makeover like here Would go like stink and you get some father son bonding time (although possibly would be a handful for a three year old) edit: this could be the best of both worlds here! Man, I've got a three year old, I'm gonna build one of these! That's it for OT from me.
I'm not sure how off-topic this is given the amount of coverage Car Craft magazine devoted to model cars and slot car racing in the early '60s! The AMT Turnpike set was a lot of fun, but not as much as a comparable 1/32nd or Aurora Thunderjet or AFX set, being big and cumbersome to set up. With it's unique system using a wheeled electrical pickup running in a slot underneath the track surface, it was kind of an evolutionary dead end in the slot car world. I'm pretty sure it was pretty much gone from the scene by 1963 or so. However, the fact that it was based on AMT's 1/25th promo models and kits had added appeal for this model car nerd, and when they were available in the antique toy world of the late '70s for relatively low prices (being something of a "white elephant"), I picked one up that was complete. My set had two cars, a '62 Ford Galaxie 500XL and Pontiac Bonneville hardtop. I think the other car typically available was the '62 T-bird hardtop and don't recall ever seeing any of the many other AMT models available in the Turnpike series, or any 1963 or later models, either -- though pretty much any contemporary kit or promo with a screw-on chassis would have worked as long as the wheelbase was roughly comparable. The rubber tires used on the Turnpike cars were a damn authentic-looking stock car racing tire, right down to the sidewall lettering. After the Turnpike set was discontinued these tires turned up in AMT's Trophy Series kit of the '58 Impala hardtop, which featured opening doors and steerable wheels, in addition to "Real Rubber Tires!"
Round 2 Auto World just came out with a few A/FX drag strip sets in HO scale..... They don't give you enough track pieces to build a "scaled" 1/4 mile track.. Bummer! But you could add straight lengths of Tomy track to that set.. And add enough track for a shut down area.. I've been meaning to email Round 2 and Tomy an' bug those guys for single lane track pieces like the one's Aurora had back in the grand ol' dayz. That way you could add a return lane for each car.. That would really be neat!!
My little brother told me he once cut off an electric cord, stuck the bare wires on the pickups of the slot car, and plugged the other end into the wall. Said it went REAL fast for about two seconds, then smoke....
I found a Thunderbird (painted a purple-ish color) like the one in the first video posted at my grandma's way back... I 'snuck' it home and played with it for awhile ( I was like, 10 or so, at the time...) and now it's lost in my parents basement. I guess that means at some point my dad had that set. I'll have to find out the story on it now! Thanks for solving one of my childhood mystery's Ryan... I always wondered what that T bird went to! JK
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