Not to sound like an old man here, but toys like this were the things I LIVED for as a kid. Yes, I was about 20 years behind this one but even into the 1980s there was plenty of neat “hands on” stuff to play with. my two will sons spend most of their time on the floor with their diecast cars and stuff so all hope is not lost, but toys like this one certainly are. The Remco toy company is the outfit that created Mr Kelly’s Automatic car wash and it looks like something you could totally spend an afternoon messing with as a kiddo. The creativity and imagination that would be employed with this rig seems endless. The toy came with two “late model” cars, wax, all the little signs and stuff to make the car wash look authentic, and the electric powered wash unit itself. Did it actually clean the cars? Probably not, but who cars?
The first truly automated car wash was opened in LA during the 1940s and used a winch hooked to the bumper to pull the cars through itself. Can you imagine watching today’s car wash operators hook up a winch cable to a car? Insurance claims would plow them under in two weeks! But we digress. Even by the early 1960s it wasn’t the most common thing to take your car to a full on automatic car wash so there was novelty in this toy along with the obvious fun.
Like all good 1960s commercials, this one has a killer jingle that will worm its way into your ear and it’ll be stuck in your skull all day. You have been warned. Toy collectors get top dollar for stuff like this today. We could not find this exact piece on eBay but stuff that is way less cool is selling for hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
Press play below to see this vintage ad for the cool Remco Mr. Kelly’s Automatic Car Wash toy –
Since you are a child of the ’80’s, how come you didn’t know about Hot Wheels Car Wash? OK, it wasn’t quite as cool as this one.
I had a toy from Remco called “Clydes car crusher” look that one up. I would use a whole roll of tin foil with it.
That’s everything I look for in a childs toy, electricity and water.
Always a Good Combination for youth entertainment.
I used to have an automated multi level parking lot for my Matchbox cars. It also served as a storage case. It had buttons with numbers and letters. If you pressed A and then 1 for A1 the elevator would move up then across to the A1 space. Then the car would roll out of the space onto the elevator which would take it to a ramp and roll down to the bottom. I loved that toy. Don’t know what happened to it.
I had one of those, too. 1970-71-72 or thereabouts. It was red & blue.