Last Lap

Hot Wheels Sizzlers

I’m not sure how, why or when our fascination with certain things ends. When I was seven, all I wanted for Christmas that year was the new Hot Wheels set. It was just a narrow track that you bolted to a stair or counter and rolled the car down. It would then go through a loop and over a jump. Simple, but I played with it for hours. The following year my younger brother and I each got the Super Charger sets. These were awesome battery powered garages that had revolving foam wheels which hurled the cars around the track. They used up a lot of batteries which lessened the appeal somewhat.

Hot Wheels Super Charger

I’m not sure why my older brother was excluded from the Hot Wheels, but the next year my younger brother and I once again were gifted the next generation of miniaturized race cars with the introduction of Sizzlers. These were plastic versions of Hot Wheels cars that you could charge with a gas pump styled “juice machine”. Once charged, the motorized vehicles would zoom around the track for a couple of minutes before needing a re-charge.

Then one year a strange thing happened. My parents bought my brother and not me yet another variation variation of a Hot Wheels set. I actually forget the name, but it was a dual track which used levers that you would pull to activate a unit that would push the cars around the track. Since it required two people to race, I played with it often, but then one day there were no more Hot Wheels for us. We never really collected all the different cars like some kids, but enjoyed the different race tracks.

I can’t recall if either I or my parents decided I was too old for Hot Wheels by the time I was 11 or 12, or if  I just lost interest. The concept of seeming too old for a toy before you had even reached your teens seems, in hindsight, depressing. It was sort of the end of an era. Presents started to become more mature in nature, but still a lot of fun. Tape recorders, clock radios, televisions and other utilitarian things.  There were still occasionally some toys, but certainly in lesser quantities.

I guess someone else had to make the decision that it was time to grow up for me, because if it had been left up to me, I’d probably still be kneeling on the floor watching Hot Wheels race around the track forever trying to avoid that last lap.