This is one of the great toy ads of all time. It features Dick Landy’s Dodge, The Little Red Wagon of Bill Golden, and a dozen or so kids doing tricks on old bikes that would have corporate lawyers in this day and age crapping their suits. It had to have been a riot to run a toy company in the 1960s. The sky was the limit, creativity was unbridled, and the legal department was meant for suing the bastards ripping off your products. Sadly in today’s day and age of rules that seem like they favor the idea of wrapping children in shipping peanuts for the entirety of their lives the wheelie bar won’t fly. Anyone who suggests something like this would be treated like the old toy huckster from those 1970s SNL episodes who would sell stuff like, “Bag O Broken Glass”!
Hit play below to see a totally awesome ad that touches all our BangShifty bases. There are historic cars, an awesome announcer, and wacky bike stunts galore. Wham-O rules! The footage of Landy pulling the front end in what looks like a snow covered parking with a single lane cleared through it is awesome as is the close up shot of the caster wheel mounted just below the bumper of the car. Finally, you can’t not smile when you see the Little Red Wagon which was a national star by the time that this toy hit the shelves. We’re sure that there were kids pedaling their little hearts out back then pretending to be Landy and Golden on their streets. Yeah, we need a time machine bad!
MSD Performance’s Chuy Nava for the tip on this one!
Even having had to have my little toe reattached to my right foot (as a result of getting it caught in the spokes) I’m still glad I grew up before the Safety Nazis were a thing.