Small Toy, Big Toy
Small Toy
For those of you of a certain age, now in your late summer and autumn years, should remember if your interest in cars began as a small child. Looking back to the seventies was a time when the cars on the roads were fairly mainstream and boring. A more exciting automotive selection was viewable on the British TV shows such as The Professionals and The Sweeney. Of course there were the V8 chariots featured in the American TV shows, normally “cops and robbers” based stories via shows like Kojak, The Rockford Files, Starsky & Hutch and The Dukes of Hazzard to name a few. The eighties TV shows brought Magnum Pi was his Ferrari 308GTS, Knight Rider with his Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, Miami Vice with a (replica) Ferrari 365 GTS/4 and a Ferrari Testarossa.
There were the muscle car films of yesteryear that featured inspirational motors, like the ’68 Ford Mustang GT, ’70 Pontiac GTO Judge, ’70 Dodge Challenger R/T, ’77 Pontiac Trans Am, ’73 Ford Falcon GT, Ford Mustang Mach 1 featured in the films Bullitt, Two Lane Blacktop, Vanishing Point, Smokey and the Bandit, Mad Max and Diamonds Are Forever respectively.
Toy companies such as Corgi, Dinky and Matchbox produced the cars from the aforementioned TV shows and films which allowed kids to re-enact film scenarios. Driving the cars along the carpet, making the engine noises, with some improvisation for the buildings and garages, using anything available to hand like empty toilet roll tubes was a popular play pastime. Multiple cars were normally collected and most kids ended up with boxes of cars that lasted years. Interest may have then continued through the school years by playing the trump cards that featured competing automobiles.
If you loved these cars as a child, then the next challenge was getting the driving licence and your first car as soon as possible. For most, funds of course dictated. The costs of running a car would become a life long tolerance. You passed your test after however may attempts needed and you was on the road. Then as time went by and you had more spending power, maybe a car you always wanted – one of those Matchbox cars you use to play with was possible ? Auto Trader magazine, Exchange & Mart, the local papers – these were the resources back then you scouted for your desired car.
Big Toy
You realised your dream. That toy car you drove on the carpet has now become a reality. You have the bigger version. Was this choice of vehicle inspired by the toy car? Was this just a coincidence ? Was it the TV shows or films that influenced your choice ? Was it the trump cards you played with in the school playground ? Was it nurture or nature ?
In recent years, influences seemed to have changed. The number of children who do play with toy cars has declined. Video games are the bigger thing. The sports and performance cars in the console games are now the wishes for adulthood ownership. Choices we make in adulthood could be unconsciously determined by those little toys we play with as a child or a video game as a teenager. As the majority of affordable vehicles are becoming more androgynous and losing their character, will children be influenced or inspired anymore by their toys ? Will toy manufacturers continue to produce toy cars that replicate today’s offerings? Time will tell. ©