When Wheels Catch Fire!

Welcome back to the attic! Come on up! Don't worry, this attic has central air conditioning...

In 1968 Mattel released a line of die-cast cars that took the toy world by storm. The sixteen cars were customs, race cars, and show cars. They came in at least eight "spectra-flame" candy colors. The really big deal though....was their wheels.

Before Mattel, Matchbox ruled the small die-cast world. Their cars were pretty accurate models of typical (usually English) cars. They weren't flashy, and they certainly weren't fast.

Mattel's cars fearured a new invention. They had a piano wire and bearing wheel system that not only made the cars roll much faster, but also gave them a suspension. Added to the California Custom vibe of the designs, they were unstoppable! They called them "Hot Wheels."

Many years ago, I began to collect these cars. I now have all of the 1968, 1969, and 1970 lines and I'm half way through 1971. I figured that I would share a few with you. So, today I give you the first half of the 1968 "Sweet 16...." maybe the "Great Eight?"
Here ya go!

The Beatnik Bandit was designed by Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. He nailed the Califonia over the top custom vibe.

The Custom Barracuda was a restyling of the real 1967 car model.

The Custom Camaro is sometimes claimed to be the first Hot Wheels that came off of the line, but no one really knows for sure.

The Custom Corvette was on the toy rack before Chevy released the real car. I'm sure that the guy from GM that Mattel hired away right before releasing Hot Wheels had nothing to do with it...

The Custom Cougar is one of my personal favorites.

The Custom Eldorado proved that Caddies could be hot rods too!

This Custom Firebird has the rarer light blue interior. They also had a red car with red interior.

The Custom Fleetside was, in a way, the real first Hot Wheels car. It was modeled after Mattel designer Harry Bradley's own truck. His boss asked him to design cars like it.

Well there you go! In the next few weeks I will feature more cars. Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

DYI Amusement Park!!!

When I was a kid, I got a really cool item at Six Flags Over Texas that I never could find again...until a couple of weeks ago. The item is this:

Yep, you could actually build your own Six Flags! I remember sitting on the living room floor and sliding my paper log down the paper flume in the shadow of my paper tower. Very cool stuff!

I found this unpunched book on eBay and sent the seller a note telling them that I was excited to find it. As it turned out, I was in for another surprise. The guy selling these is the guy that actually originally printed them for Six Flags! He also told me why they are almost impossible to find.

The year was 1972. Earl Warren came up with a great product, a build it yourself amusement park! What kid wouldn't want that? He printed up 5000 of them and they began selling them in the park...and then tragedy struck. Well, maybe what happened wasn't a tragedy, but it stunk pretty bad. You see, one of the attractions featured was the Enco Happy Motoring Freeway (a ride where you drove little cars around a little highway, like the Disneyland Autopia). The problem was that Enco chose 1972 to become...Exxon. In one fell swoop, the books no longer represented a major sponsor. Out of 5000 books, only about 1000 were sold. It was never reprinted. As a kid, I was in the right place at the right time!

44 years later, I was in the right place again. A chance search for "Six Flags Punch Out" yielded the long forgotten book. As it turns out, Mr. Warren is a very nice guy who also included this:

In case you can't read it, it says "John- This was the bad boy! Earl Warren" At least he can laugh about it now! Speaking of laughing, Mr. Warren still lives in Arlington where he is the leader of a clown organization. He seems like a really interesting guy!

If you would like your own copy, he still has a few. They are very reasonably priced, so I would jump on it quickly (oh, wait, I already did, lol!)

By the way, here are the other pages:

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Remembering a Magical Place

Howdy campers! On this steamy Texas summer day, I'd like to take you back to a place and time that lives in a special place in a lot of people's hearts. Today we're going to look at an item from one of the best theme parks ever created. Disneyland, perhaps? Nope, campers, today we are going to look at the original Six Flags Over Texas!

Now, if all you know of 6FoT is what the current amusement park consists of, you probably think I'm nuts. The current park is just a mashup of giant steel thrill machines and absolutely no connecting theme. Today's park is, in short, horrible.

But there was a time when it held real magic and adventure. In the late 1960's and early 1970's, when the park was young, it was wonderfully themed to Texas history. It had six "lands," much like Disneyland, but these areas were devoted to different flags that had flown over the land during it's long history. In addition, each land had attractions that were meticulously themed to that time period, and was staffed by castmembers in period garb. There were historical reenactments, and original rides that rivaled anything at Disneyland at the time. Just ask anyone who knew this place about La Salle's River Boats, The Spee-Lunkers Cave, or Skull Island, and you will see their eyes mist over with longing...

Our item today comes from a shop just off of Skull Island. It is this:

It's a pirate's treasure chest bank! This bank is made out of pot-metal and seems to be hand painted. This must have been a popular item, since I knew several kids that had one. It's not marked "Six Flags Over Texas," and, in fact wasn't a park exclusive. I believe it was made by a company in Chicago. Still, it reminds me of those wonderful pre-Warner Brothers days at the best theme park I ever went to as a kid. R.I.P. Six Flags Over Texas, you are greatly missed.

By the way, here are some shots of the park during that time that I found on the interwebs. I'll give credit to those I know...

From the incredible postcard collection of Ken Martinez. Check out more of his stuff at Gorrilas Dont Blog where he sometimes guest posts. . I think this is the shop that sold the chest...

La Salle's Riverboat was much like Disneyland's Jungle Cruise, but actually was more exciting!

I love this shot of The Spee-Lunkers Cave, mainly because it was taken about the same time I was making great memories there!

The Tree Slide on Skull Island. Not for people who didn't like small spaces.

A postcard of the Skull Slide on Skull Island. This one is from www.Cardcow.com

I'm pretty sure that there were two ways to get to Skull Island; this raft and a barrel bridge. Both were very
cool!

So there you go! Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

You Got Anything to Stop This Coffin?

The title of this post is in memory of Harold Powley (my dad) who held the record for the most dumb jokes told....well, ever. It's the punch line to one of his "classics." It also seemed to fit well with this week's item. First, a little back story (about the item, not the joke)

In about 2001 the Autorama came through town. I grabbed the kid and hustled down to see this guy:

Not the guy on the left (that's 15 year younger me) but the guy on the right....The king of custom cars....George Barris!!!
If you haven't heard of George Barris, well, I'm not sure you should even be reading this blog (but go ahead anyway). He was the guy that brought us tons of custom tv cars such as the Batmobile, The Munsters Koach, and...this little gem:

Yep, the Drag-U-La! This car was featured in an episode of The Munsters where Herman decides to be a drag race driver. Grandpa builds the car out of (what else) a coffin!

The toy company Playing Mantis had come out with this replica (1/18 scale, about 6 inches long) and another one (about 1/67 Hot Wheels scale) in 2000. I happened to have the large one still unopened, so I asked Mr. Barris to sign it! He looked at it for a second and said "You got the big one, those are hard to find!" and then made it priceless (in my eyes anyway) by signing it on the spot. He also told me how it was tough getting the coffin for the real car. it seems that funeral supply places in the 60's were kind of particular about whom they would sell to, if you didn't actually have a body ready to dispose of! Still, he finally got it and he made custom car history yet again!

Unfortunately, George Barris passed away in 2015. I remember it hit me kind of hard for two reasons; first, because he had brought us so many cool vehicles that became part of our lives growing up in the 1960's; and second, because he was just a really nice guy to me that day. He will be missed by a lot of people.

By the way, here is a picture of the smaller version, just to show it out of the package:

Playing Mantis really did a great job with the detailing on these cars! By the way, you can still get them on eBay. A 1/67 scale version will run you about ten bucks, and a 1/18 scale will run about 20 bucks. A signed version? I've never seen another one and mine is NOT for sale! Sorry!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Feelin' Super Charged!!!

Well, people seemed to enjoy last week's Hot Wheels post, so I figured I would extend it a bit to this week. So, let's take a look at another great Hot Wheels accessory...the Super Charger!

By 1969 Mattel knew they had a huge hit with Hot Wheels. They also knew that when you have a huge hit, you should milk it with accessories. They were the company that made a universe of toys out of the Barbie line, after all!

Still, you can't exactly make new outfits for cars to wear, so they had to get creative. One of their most successful ideas was the Super Charger.

I love the racing shop graphics on this side.

In case you forgot what it was called...

Two real 1969 cars...the Splittin' Image and the Volkswagen Beach Bomb. I included the Beach Bomb because it was redesigned for the Super Charger. If you find one that is skinny and has the surf boards coming out the back window, you've found a chunk of change!

I also included two 1970 cars; the Classic Nomad and the Boss Hoss Club Car. The chrome Boss Hoss could only be found in the Hot Wheels Club Kit. 

The "go lever!" My Super Charger still works, by the way...

The spinning wheels launched the cars down the track. This was the reason the Beach Bomb had to be widened. (Also it was top heavy on the banked turns)

I found my Super Charger at a toy show in Fort Worth a few years ago. It went so well with my Hot Wheels collection that I snapped it up! Now it's a fun part of my collection!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

1968...When Hot Wheels Popped Up Everywhere!

Welcome back to the attic! Today we are going to travel to 1968 and look at one of the cooler accessories Mattel released for their then brand new Hot Wheels line. The first year for Hot Wheels saw 16 cars released, some track pieces, a carrying case, and three pop-up buildings. They were the service station, the house and car port, and this one...

Yep, the Pop-Up Speed Shop!

I'm not actually sure if I had the Speed Shop or the house and car port as a kid, but when I saw this little beauty at a local flea market, I knew I had to have it! When I bought it, the guy had a Shelby Turbine car with it, but I switched it out with the Custom Fleetside for the photo shoot, since I wanted it all vintage 1968. I also added the piece of "Hot Strip" track, since as you can see in the fine print, it was not included!

I can remember how cool I thought these pop-up buildings were as a kid (ok, I actually still do). You would fold them open and have a whole world for your favorite Hot Wheels to drive through! It didn't matter that the walls were a bit warped. It sparked the imagination!

Which is where I think video games and electronics come up short. All of the imagination there comes from the programmer, not the kid. I'm an advocate for simpler (but still really cool!) toys.

Enough of my soap box! Keep searching for treasure!

The Disneyland Bus That Never Was

Hiya folks!
Today we're going to look at something that seems like it should have existed, but never really did. Well, not exactly, anyway. Today we are looking at the Corgi Disneyland Bus from 1976! Here are a few pictures:

As you can see, the Corgi version of the Disneyland bus is a bright yellow vehicle with lots of happy characters on the side. There are also Disneyland logos on all four sides. One can clearly imagine it chugging down Main Street U.S.A. on a bright summer morning. However, THIS bus has never been seen in any Disney park!

Perhaps a bit of explanation is needed here. You see, the double decker busses (known as Omnibusses) at Disneyland (and at Walt Disney World) are totally Disney inventions. They were designed by Bob Gurr to look like vintage busses. Mr. Gurr designed all of the Main Street vehicles, which is why they are referred to as "Gurrmobiles." Here is a look at one:

It doesn't look much like the Corgi version, does it? Actually, I prefer the Gurrmobile, but that's just me. Anyway, what gives? Why is Corgi (who is usually so accurate) so far off?

Well, the truth is that they cheated. Rather than go through the time and expense to create a totally new vehicle, they took their "London Transport" and dolled it up to be the Disneyland bus. Perhaps that's why the Corgi version never really caught on. You can get it, mint in the box, for about 35 bucks. Other Corgi toys from around that time can go for much more. 

Still, it's a fun item to have on the shelf. It reminds me of Disneyland, and that's a good thing, so all is forgiven.

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!