Autoblog

Matchbox cars. We collected them. We played with them. We loved them. Heck, a lot of us still do. And over the weekend, the man responsible for making these simple, inexpensive pleasures a reality passed away. Jack Odell was 87 years old.

The inspiration for the Matchbox car came after he created a miniature toy steamroller that fit inside an actual matchbox for his daughter. Odell was co-owner of Lesney Products, which subsequently began manufacturing and selling the miniature toys to the public, and the rest is history. Many of our fondest childhood memories can ultimately be traced back to Mr. Odell's creation. We are eternally grateful, and may he rest in peace.

[Source: Wall Street Journal via Telstar Logistics via Jalopnik]

Show of hands. How many of you used Black Cats and cherry bombs to incinerate large numbers of Hot Wheels as kids? Especially the pink ones, right? Because they were for girls. Do you know how much those cars in their pre-charred, uncrispy state could be worth right now? What were you thinking?

Here's a better use of miniature cars and pyrotechnics not endorsed by Mattel (this we can guarantee): rocket-powered Hot Wheels. Even if you choose not to study the step-by-step instructions (basically, just strap a model rocket motor to a Hot Wheels car) at Instructables, you must watch the video we've embedded after the jump. It's what we as kids were trying to accomplish 20 years ago. We think.

[Source: Instructables]

It probably takes considerable effort to get funding and engineering for a vehicle that can break the land-speed record or 458 mph. To achieve such a speed at 1/32 scale, you only need James May and 45 English Scalextric slot car fans. Just past the jump, you can see a terrific video that May put together on the history of the scale car, which goes all the way back to the 1930s with the British Dinky brand. After getting you up to speed on all gravity-based scale models, May settled on electrified slot cars. To make the story interesting, May rented out an airplane hanger and laid out 150 feet of track and then proceed to time car after car to see if it could beat the land speed record at 1/32 scale. As it turns out, the record was easily beaten, and speeds of almost 700 scale mph were achieved. Check it out.

[Source: Jalopnik]

Click the image above to view Polly Wheels in action

Most of the Autoblog readers have been fostering a love for the automobile since a very early stage in life. We collected Hot Wheels and Matchboxes, and we had model cars and remote-controlled hot rods. The one thing those toys have in common is that they're marketed almost exclusively to boys.

Mattel has decided to give the girls what they've wanted all along: race tracks, pink cars that go shopping, and a great way to compete. Earlier we gave you an extensive debriefing on Polly Wheels, complete with an Autoblog Gallery, and now we're adding video, too. Check out the Autoblog interview with Stephanie Cota, Vice President of girls marketing at Mattel. There is also some exclusive footage of a prototype Polly Wheels Race Track in action. Check it out!

Update: We just added a gallery of high-res photos of the Polly Wheels collection.



There is an exhibit area at the New York Auto Show with a staggering 1,190 vehicles on display. And it's "manned" by a trio of vivacious pre-teens playing "Race to the Mall" with a new line of die-cast toy cars made just for girls.

Polly Wheels, the latest offering from Mattel based off the Polly Pocket line of dolls, made its official debut at the New York Auto Show today. Fifty different models will be released in all this year, and about 20 are already out. The unique toys were designed with heavy input from girls, based on their insights and play patterns. The cars are heavy into candy colors and glitter, as a result. And in a switch from Mattel's boy-based line of cars, the Polly Wheels feature a removable "friend" in the driver's seat.

The 2-inch cars, which retail for just under $3 each, are a little more generic if not cartoonish than the faithful representations found in the Mattel Hot Wheels and Matchbox lines. In fact, only the chassis is die-cast; the bodies are plastic so the wild colors, such as "Splashin' Pink" and "Glitter Peach", can stand out. The "Race to the Mall" raceset retails for $34.99 and will be available in June.

HotWheels Radar Gun ($24.99)

Gary Swisher is the guy who has everybody's dream job -- he's the design chief for HotWheels, Tyco and Matchbox, and he's in charge of designing the cool and timeless dream cars in miniature that we only wish we could have when we grow up.

He's also the guy responsible for keeping up with the demanding, tech-savvy tastes of today's kids, and that, friends, is not an easy job considering that today's kids don't know what it's like to live without cell phones, AIM, and the iPod.

BusinessWeek was able to pull Gary aside from that particularly demanding job for a quick interview, in which Swisher lets the reader in on a little secret -- it's not the technology that gets kids juiced about toy cars, it's how you use it. "Having technology is not the feature," Swisher said. "The magic that it brings to the toy is the feature."

And it's not as easy as it sounds -- Swisher says that competing with video games for kids' time and attention is an extraordinary challenge. We think they're on to something with the HotWheels Radar Gun (pictured). Now all we need is the HotWheels Radar Detector and optional Handlebar Mount so our kids can play the same cat-and-mouse game that we do as adults.

[Source: BusinessWeek]

A pair of young Australian brothers who were apparently over eager to see their grandfather decided to clandestinely borrow their grandmother's red Holden Commodore on Sunday and set out to find him. The two boys drove around 60 miles, none of which would be news if the boys weren't ages 10 and six.

To their eternal credit, the two appear to be decent drivers-- they reportedly weren't driving erratically, and were only pulled over by police after some truckers had tipped off police. Once pursuing police flicked on their lights, the boys dutifully pulled over, then hopped in the back seat, ostensibly to make like they had been passengers the entire time.

Interestingly, the authorities spoke with the boys' relatives, and no further repercussions are planned.

[Sources: The Herald Sun; Bamca.org]