Before the rise of video games, toys involving cars were tactile. You touched them, you used them, you put them together and you took them apart, right? I’m not knocking video games because they are the natural evolution of the process here but I look at my sons and think that they definitely missed out on the golden age of car toys. We have had some fun and neat stuff here at the Lohnes manse over the years but the automotive video games have definitely taken the lead in their 11 and 13 year old lives. That wasn’t a worry in 1973. Nor was it a worry that people wouldn’t know what a stick shift was!
This ad for the Tyco “Stick Shift Racing” set is pretty funny and the toy itself looks great. Basically it is a slot car tack and instead of just having the little squeeze gun to speed your car up or slow it down, you actually have a four speed gated shifter to do the same thing! The track in this video has all kinds of killer banked turns and stuff. As anyone who has ever played with lot cars as a kid knows, there are some bonus parts shown in this ad, right? Every kid wanted the track from TV and what actually comes in the box gets you about halfway there.
Anyway, this ad brought back good memories of slot cars and laying the carpet playing with them long enough that our limbs would go numb as kids. Toys like this got your imagination working at 200 mph and that was their greatest gift.
Smash Up Derby Cars were great fun too