Pump handcars

YES! I had one, and the expansion pack. I still remember trailing around town with my mother trying to find a stockist of the Matchbox Scorpions set, to be my Xmas present, which were rechargeable motorized Matchbox cars. We ended up in Halfords (of all places) who had them but I saw the Matchbox Motorway and expansion set were being sold off cheap and it quickly became a case of "Want that one".

Hours of fun!

How did the set with the roundabout work?.

MBQ

Matchbox Scorpions .... my brother had some of Mattel's Sizzlers Cars that used to run on the bright orange 'Hot Wheels' track ( I think Matchbox track was yellow and blue for the bends ? ), if I recall the charger was in the shape of a petrol pump ( 4 'D' cell batteries ) and you pressed the top down to charge the cars.

The Matchbox Motorway with the roundabout I think used to have the spring going 'across' the roundabout and the two sets of springs meshed together. You could not go around the roundabout only across like a cross roads.

Triang's Mimic Motorway had road / rail off-loading ramps you could link up a car transporter carriage which in turn connected directly to the road so you could just drive the cars straight on board and away on your train.

With the advances made in plastic composition and moulding I feel a modern version of these would be a great addition to the model rail community.

Chris

.... and very noisy !

Chris

Luxury!

We had to make do with a cardboard street map of London from the Matchbox range.

(kim)

I'm pretty certain you could go around (it always looked that way from the pictures), and there was some kind of switch at each exit road to control the route taken by the car.

MBQ

What's wrong with the Faller road system?

MBQ

" a cardboard street map " Luxury ! I had to make do with on off cut of lino' in our bedroom with a town scene on it. It gave you shinny knees :-)

Chris

You had rooms for beds ? It was a long time before we had the bed.

Cheers, Simon

All modern road vehicles and they run too fast for a historic layout. Oh, and the price.

Greg.P.

You had a room and a bed? We had a cardboard box beside the road - mind you, dad had a good job so we always got a new one for alternate Christmases.

Greg.P.

The Matchbox system would seem to me to have some application for something like a forklift going back and forth in a goods yard, or a road roller or bulldozer moving soil. One could do the same ting with a threaded rod and nut, but the Matchbox system could have bends.

Greg.P.

Divers get those.

If they used the Matchbox road system to time the speed of their assents, they wouldn't! Mind you, the spiral springs would probably rust.

Greg.P.

Checkout the Brendan Fraser remake of "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" for the pump handcar ride of a lifetime!

(kim)