Automoblox > conditioning your kids to love cars

This company, Automoblox, approached me to check out its line of heirloom quality toy cars, to wit I replied, "You want me to play with toys? Sweet." In all honesty, I have to say these toy cars are a cut above the plastic crap on Wal-Mart shelves. I really dig the philosophy of the company, which is that it's better to have one great toy than 10 cheap ones.

The concept behind Automoblox was to create a toy durable enough to last a few generations, interesting enough to tear your kid away from the TV for more than five minutes, and stimulating enough that children actually grow a brain cell or two from playing with them.

I was sent the X9 sport utility, although there are five other models including a sports car, sedan, pickup, compact and sports van. The wooden bodies of each vehicle are made of three parts that are interchangeable, which creates a kind of kiddie chop shop where new Franken-cars can be created from the individual pieces.

I?ve had such a ball playing with this Automoblox car that memories of some great car toys of the past have begun to resurface. My all-time favorite car toys are a die-cast model of the General Lee with doors and a hood that actually opened and wheels that turned (older brother broke the hood off), my old Knight Rider big wheel (older brother wore holes in the plastic wheels from doing spin outs), and my Micro Machines San Francisco playset (the most dangerous toy I ever owned on account of its dozens of parts on which to choke).

Anyone else remember some great car toys from our youth? I?d be interested to know if anyone has saved some car toys for their own kids to play with.