Dickie's Car Cockpit

[Tyree_Cooper | 776]

So the guys at Dickie had to have a cockpit, obviously.

[Tabonga | 2,344]

 

[RH | 4,980]

On 5/28/2022 at 6:37 AM, Tyree_Cooper said:

So the guys at Dickie had to have a cockpit, obviously.

A cousin of mine who was about 5 years younger than me had one of those. I’m not sure why but I found it a bit hypnotic.  There really isn’t much to it.  The steering wheel moves a card cutout left and right, while a drum shows a road with cars spinning past the screen.  The goal is to dodge the cars, but there is no mechanism for keeping score or triggering if you hit a car.

All it did was scroll a road and made a rumbling sound.

[Tyree_Cooper | 776]

haha really! pretty sure several companies resold the same item from the same taiwan/hong kong/china supplier, so no wonder you had the same model

i once got a similar toy just much smaller, but it's exactly the mechanism you say, there's absolutely no scoring and nothing happens if your car hits something. what a letdown. i guess rule number one was to keep costs as low as possible

the video from tabonga is a much much cooler toy, and it's at least 30-35 years older. surely not the same production costs, look at those moving wipers. it's just too bad that the speedometer moves left and right with the steering wheel, which makes absolutely no sense. but still a clever way to make it move by doing something.

[RH | 4,980]

6 hours ago, Tyree_Cooper said:

haha really! pretty sure several companies resold the same item from the same taiwan/hong kong/china supplier, so no wonder you had the same model

i once got a similar toy just much smaller, but it's exactly the mechanism you say, there's absolutely no scoring and nothing happens if your car hits something. what a letdown. i guess rule number one was to keep costs as low as possible

the video from tabonga is a much much cooler toy, and it's at least 30-35 years older. surely not the same production costs, look at those moving wipers. it's just too bad that the speedometer moves left and right with the steering wheel, which makes absolutely no sense. but still a clever way to make it move by doing something.

It might have had two speeds and was built sturdy enough for a kid to play with, which goes to show that even when it’s cheap China goods, “they don’t make them like they use too!”

[Tabonga | 2,344]

8 hours ago, Tyree_Cooper said:

the video from tabonga is a much much cooler toy, and it's at least 30-35 years older. surely not the same production costs, look at those moving wipers. it's just too bad that the speedometer moves left and right with the steering wheel, which makes absolutely no sense. but still a clever way to make it move by doing something.

I never had one but those were designed for really young children - and long before electronic gadget/toys.   Back then kids generally provided their own imagination to the experience rather than having to be totally entertained by a screen of some sort.  So it was enough that the fake dashboard had lots of things the kid could maniplulate  -in any event there was no practical way to put on a foot feed tied to the speed that would have been realistic.

Here is another interesting toy from that era that could do all sorts of stuff (until the various attachments all got lost or broken anyway). 

One of the biggest differences back then IMHO was that kids interacted with the toys by creating scenarios in their minds -whereas electronic toys do the entertaining in a more immersive manner - kids no longer need to use their imaginations as much (if at all).

[Tyree_Cooper | 776]

very nice battleship there

[Tabonga | 2,344]

2 hours ago, Tyree_Cooper said:

very nice battleship there

I never had one of those -but I did have some really nifty Marx playsets!