Today, in a world where children's playthings are all digital and on screens, it's good to remember a time when toys were much more inventive and clever. The toys that I grew up with relied on simple mechanics to achieve their wonder, and they worked quite well. In this post I'm going to feature a Hot Wheels accesory that was mind numbingly simple, but it etched into the racing memory of almost all Boomer kids! I give to you, the Hot Wheels drag chute!
Below is the first boxed set that it came in. As a kid I had this set, and I remember racing my cars around that loop, over that jump and popping that chute out time after time! Again, this image came from the net...
And now for what I currently own! This is a parachute still in it's original package!
Next, we have a 1968 Deora snagging the parachute! I actually rolled this car down the track and worked the mechanism. No faking it for my blog!
And now my 1968 Beatnic Bandit does it as well! I'm not gonna lie. It was actually fun!
Now, let's look at how this works! Remember I said it was extremely simple. Now I happen to have two 'chute boxes (and a total of three 'chutes) so just look at the bottom one. See that hook? Yep, that's about all there is to it!
Opening up the box, we can see that the parachute is hiding inside! The car simply goes down the track, snags the hook, and pulls the 'chute out of the box. Very simple, but very effective. And it works every single time, with no batteries or electronics at all. Toy engineers were brilliant!
And just for completeness, we have a picture of the inside of the empty box.
So there you have it! Simple and fun!
Of course, without electronics we wouldn't have this post, so I guess they do have their place...
Now, to be clear, these didn't come from those original stunt sets, they came from another set that was released a year or so later. I guess I can do a post on the whole set at a later date, but I thought these were a good example to make my point, which is simple is better in pretty much every aspect of life.
Until next time keep searching for treasure!
I know that my younger brothers had a Hot Wheels Loop. But we didn't have the parachute box thingy. Evidently you could get the Loop in other Hot Wheels sets?
ReplyDeleteLooking at your photos and reading your commentary, I could easily see how the 'Chute box worked. But I wasn't sure how the parachute attached itself to the car as it went zooming by. After looking more closely, I can see that the V-shaped hook merely gets pulled along by the front of the car. Seems like not all Hot Wheels cars would be shaped right to grab the hook?
Thanks, Stu.
Hi JB!
DeleteYes, the triangle just snags the front of the car and drags the chute out. I've never found a car it didn't work on. In fact, the set that these came from used rail type dragsters, which are long and skinny. (read "pointy"). It really is a great design!