Way back in the dark ages when I was a kid and not just a kid at heart, I was in love with Hot Wheels, Matchbox, and Johnny Lightning cars. And then I saw Darda cars. Pretty much the same scale, but they also had the added benefit of a friction motor with rubber treads. These things would fly, and you could navigate loops without the need for a gravity assist. Also unlike Hot Wheels, the tracks were multicolored, and they just looked cooler. The cars had a different aesthetic too, slightly chunkier, probably so that they could encase the motor. Some (if not all) models had a pressure switch on the back which could be used to store the kinetic energy until activated. Set 2 cars on the track and start the first one off, when it returned to the start it would hit the second car and activate it. Meanwhile, if you were fast enough, or had another pre-revved car available, you could keep the race alive. The downside? They were from Germany, and were only readily available in Europe, or the boutique toy stores. In 1984 they made a very strange looking skateboard set. Granted, the few slot car skateboard sets that have been made all look awkward and grafted on, but the weirdness from this one come from the robotic astronaut looking skateboarder.
– Thanks to David Maes for the tip.
A surprisingly brief Wikipedia article says Dara was invented in 1970 by a German named Helmut Darda. Hats off to you, Helmut. These things are awesome. Mostly awesome, with the possible exception of the Skateboard Akrobat. This complete set ws found on eBay. Like a lot of mechanized and motorized skateboards, this one looks more like a surfboard on top of a box with wheels.
Sorry that the astronaut acrobat is out of focus. The photo is form the auction listing. Well done on the backdrop though. Interesting that they chose to make it look like some sort of spider robot instead of an actual human being. I’m pretty sure the technology existed in the 80’s…
He/she inanimate object does handstands too!
This image comes courtesy of The Vintage Toy Advertiser. Hopefully it is still a courtesy if they don’t know I’m using it. It’s very amusing that they made velveteen motorized mice too.
Circa 2001, after the brand had changed parent companies, another Darda skateboarder appeared under the moniker of Junior Joxx. Even though he is more humanoid, everything about this version seems like a downgrade. [Photo: Walthers]
Take a look at one of the vintage classic cars. The rest of the designs from that era had the same distinct feel. [Photo: Toys From The Past]
What makes these things roll? The motor. Very simple, but surprisingly fast. [Photo: Classic Memorabilia]
Because they were so sturdy, it was very tempting to overwind a Darda car, and thus replacement motors were a necessity. [Photo: 2001rutger] If you’re interested in more (unfortunately small) pictures and dates for Darda cars, check out this resource baed in the UK. The Swedish distributor has pictures of current models, al too fo which look like they no longer have die cast bodies. Frowny face.
It seems like newer versions have an expanded capacity. There are a lot of videos with insanely complex and long loop tracks set up. Now, these videos never seem to show the entire run uncut, so it’s highly possible and maybe even likely that they are multiple takes edited together. Even if they are, the newer versions seem to be more powerful than the old ones. The second video I clicked on happened to have a skateboard in the background, there you have it, and here it is.
1 comment
Caveman
You’re such an anthromorphically correct humanist… I’d say the weirdness comes from the fact that it looks way more like a surfboard.