I found a YoJoe.com like website for Hot Wheels and was looking for pictures of Hot Wheels I had as a kid. I made a very interesting observation - the last Hot Wheels I received for birthdays and Christmas were produced in 1982. There's no mistaking the significance of that year - i.e. - when GI Joe and later Transformers first came out. I didn't realize I had made such a hard shift as a child from one toy type to another.

I was also surprised to realize my Hot Wheels days were from 1 - 6 yrs of age. This interest all started after buying a Hot Wheels today for my 1 yr old son. Technically he's too young for Hot Wheels, but the car looked too cool to pass up. Now I discover evidence that my cousins and I played with Hot Wheels as toddlers so I don't feel so bad buying them for him. Granted it'll suck seeing him scratch the paint but at least he'll have the same fond memories I have.

_________________

Well, smashing to cars together was a lot of fun when I was that age, so I'd say don't worry about the paint.

Maybe pick him up a little car wash set and he will be fascinated by something we take for granted.

Honestly, I don't think 1 year old is too young for Hot Wheels. I am pretty sure my son had some then. He is 3 now and has a boat load of them of course. Part of that is my fault. Even though he has a ton of them, I still can't help buying the occasional one for him because (1) it looks cool and (2) the are cheap. Hot Wheels have been $0.99 for what seems like forever. Who doesn't have a buck to drop on a cool toy for their kid? The problem lies in also having a daughteras well. She doesn't like cars and you can't get any toy for her for a dollar.

_________________

I remember getting toy Cars here and there in my child hood. I don't remember playing with them very often. I can remember tuns of times my Joes were lost in the sand box and such but only 1 or 2 memorable times with cars.

That said. My daughter just turned 1. She has had her own GI Joes since she was 2 months old. Her first Xmas I got her Combat Hero GI Joes. and once she could crawl into my customizing room she has swiped many of my fodder Joes.

She also often looks up at my Joe shelves and stares for long periods of time. And when something changes, like I get a New Joe to display, she points at it and asks, 'Wa dat?' She does the same when I hang a new Joe poster up as well.

She does have girly toys and baby toys and toddler toys, but I notice her playing with Joes just as much, if not more, then most of her other toys (Except maybe Ming Ming from the wonder pets)

_________________

Hot Wheels are perfect for getting the kids to calm down at the store, get 'em a car for 99 cents and they're quiet for the rest of the shopping trip, usually.

My Hot Wheels interest started to fade around 1978, when the Start Wars machine began to rev up. Star Ware interest began to die down in 1982, I wonder why?

_________________

Well I started with Tootsie cars and then graduated to Matchbox and HotWheels. I had more Matchbox than Hotwheels though. The Toy Store my Grandma liked only carried the Matchboxes. They'd have them in a display case, and you'd pick out what you wanted, and they gave it to you in a "Match" box.
Then it was Lincoln Logs and Green Army men, then Star Wars, then Gi Joe.

I had Tootsie Toy metal cars! They were always on the check out aisle at Winn-Dixie. What was the blue one with the barrel in the back and exposed engine supposed to be anyway?

_________________

I have no clue. I don't remember having that one I remember having a ton of the blue sedans (that looked like late 60's early 70's) chevys and VW beetle looking ones,and I think some Le Mans style race cars. My mom would get them at Woolworths, I think but I was a toddler.

My first Hot Wheels car was a purple Deora, which I received as a Christmas present in 1970. I no longer have it, but I was able to replace it a couple of years back. I actually have a fair collection of Hot Wheels cars, including the fairly recent 1966 Batmobile! They also did a series of four cars a number of years back called "Mod Bods" which featured several cars with color schemes that looked like a bad hippie flashback. One of them was a Hummer. A neon pink Hummer with flowers on it.

I had a ton of hot wheels and match box cars, and one really cool matchbox garage playset. I had a blast with them, but really lost interest in them once action figures hit 1:18th size.

As far as for little man, I remember having some small cars that were a bigger than 1:64th but not tonka size. Say in scale with Green Army Men. They came in themed sets like cops and firetrucks. Big enough for rolling around fun, but not small enough for gnawing on.

One of the first Hot Wheels that I can remember getting was a gray Jaguar XJS from 1978.

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/hotwh ... g_gray.JPG

I'm sure I had others before it, namely the one that looked like the Emergency! Squad.

I always pretended that is the car James Bond would drive around in...

_________________

I had quite a few Hot Wheels and Matchbox as well, but my favorites were called Fast Ones (I think), and if memory serves me they were made by Kenner. They had sticker license plates from different states, so my Holy Grail one was one with Florida tag.

_________________

This is the old blue tootsie toy I was talking about. It came in a set of about 8 - but I could never identify what this one is. And is that a keg in the back!?

_________________

I had one of those!!!!

My Father would have been able to ID it...

_________________

CJack - That's most likely the gas tank. I've seen some similar hot-rods that have these giant chrome gas tanks hanging off the back like that.

_________________