9 of Our Favorite Toy Vehicles

Determining your favorite toy vehicle is no small feat, as there were so many and many were so affordable. But that’s what we tried to do with six of the staffers here at Hagerty Media, and their answers are just as diverse as the genre itself.

These toys came in all shapes and sizes, from Micro Machines made of detailed plastic to die casts set in a massive scale. Between these boundaries are Hot Wheels, dealership promos, plastic models from the likes of Testors, home built pinewood derby racers, and even—dare I say it—NFT collectables on the blockchain. So let’s see which toy was the first to come up in our minds when asked the question, what is your favorite toy vehicle?

To Poach a Pocher

Mine is the 1/8th-scale Pocher Ferrari Testarossa from 1989. Die casts were a much smaller niche than they are today, so back then Pocher was king of kings. I saw one at The Sharper Image in the fanciest mall in Houston back in the day, sometimes resting atop the cheaper 1/18th-scale die cast display they had towards the back of the store. Put another way, the Pocher Testarossa left a mark on me. (The Sharper Image was pretty darn good at selling fancy stuff nobody needs!)

There was no way I could afford one back then, and I wasn’t dumb enough to even ask my parents for it as a Christmas/birthday present. But as a sentimental, middle-aged Gen X-er, I want one pretty badly. It’s fricking huge at 1/8th scale, but it has functional keys, movable seats, pop up headlights, a usable gated shifter, and all the opening doors and spinning wheels we come to expect from die casts. This Pocher is so awesome it even created its own aftermarket of upgraded parts using the latest tech! Yeah, I want it real bad. – Sajeev Mehta

A Stadium Full of Dreams

After a lot of lawn mowing, in sixth grade I finally saved up enough money for an R/C stadium truck. This was the early ’90s, so most of the stuff available came in kit form rather than ready-to-run examples. I decided that the entry-level, durable, and affordable Traxxas Hawk 2 was the one for me.

The build taught 11-year-old me all about shock absorbers, gear sets, servos, and motors. Taking it to the local hobby store track showed me how my decisions in the build performed, and gave me ideas on how to improve it. The project was the perfect blend of education and enjoyment.

The truck is still with me after all these years—I grabbed it off the storage shelf to snap this photo, and now it’s got me thinking that a winter project to get it going again might be in the cards. Thanks for the inspiration, Sajeev! – Eddy Eckart

A Slot Car with Venom

My first slot car was a yellow Viper—decades before the Dodge full-sized version—which looked like a banana. I would beg my parents for a dollar, which bought me an hour of time at the local track. Being seriously ADD, which nobody had ever heard of then, I promptly forsook junior high (failing algebra not once, but twice) for a fledgling career as a slot car racer. I haunted the place, and I got to be very good, and had the trophies to prove it, and I even became the “junior city champion,” for what that was worth (a Mattel Stallion bicycle). True story: I once beat the son of Johnny Cash’s bass player, who was also very fast, and was an actual adult.

And it all began with that Viper. Funny thing about it, as it was made by Classic Industries. But its not the same company many of us are familiar with. – Steven Cole Smith

Pet your Diapet

I sold my Schwinn bike to buy this for 50 bucks at the Doll Hospital and Toy Soldier Shop in Berkeley around 1982. It’s still on my shelf, still in the red box, still has the script of untranslated Japanese parchment in it. I don’t really know why I wanted it so bad except that I saw it in a model car magazine and it was just so weird that I had to have one. – Aaron Robinson

As a huge fan of the 1977-79 Continental Mark V, I saw those when eBay auctions were becoming a thing for automotive collectibles. I now regret not buying one over 20 years ago for $50 or less! – Sajeev Mehta

Remote Controlled Off Roading

Oh, this one is easy. A few years ago, I went to Williston, Florida to explore the world of scale R/C off-roading. The life-like builds were incredible, but what impressed me even more was just how darn fun these things are to wheel.

I was offered a truck for the weekend—a little 1989 Jeep Comanche pickup built by GCM Racing, one of the top chassis builders in the scene. It’s hard to overstate how charming the thing was—standing still, sure, but especially while on the go through the Florida woods. Although I never pulled the trigger when I got home, there is still a large part of me that wants to get ahold of one of these someday to fart around my yard in. – Nathan Petroelje

Last Place At The Pinewood Derby

It only my favorite due to the memories, but there is no toy car as important to me as the pinewood derby car that I made with my father so many years ago. The shape was agreed upon by both of us as a slingshot dragster type vibe, and dad somehow figured out to carve out a hole, bend a small roll hoop, and secure half of a LEGO person as if they were driving.

Add in the cast blower and zoomies that got glued in place (and are still holding on somehow!) plus the water transfer decals and just glancing at this little not-car is a free trip in a time machine to the basement, scuffing the body with a little piece of sandpaper while dad negotiated the terms of how he would make up for the house smelling like spray paint all evening.

It got last place by a mile when we finally put it on the gravity track. No matter, both dad and I were smitten with our little custom car, still ignorant of the lifelong automotive addiction it likely started. – Kyle Smith

The Gamut

Since I was born, my dad has collected diecasts, model kits, and slot cars. He started buying toys for his first-born and eventually started picking them up for himself. Redline Hot Wheels, vintage AFX slot cars, and enough model cars to brick a few basement walls in boxes. I was surrounded by the stuff. I also had no problem convincing the man I needed more toys providing I had saved enough allowance.

What I’m saying is that it’s tough to pick one, let alone a few so I give you three:

AMT modified stocker model cars—I was obsessed with this series of models back in the Aughts. AMT just started to repress the line of kits inspired by short track dirt racers. I was enamored by the steamroller-sized tires, full roll cage, and fat exhaust. A couple winters ago, I built a kit to walk to down memory road and chose this 1965 Fairlane. It took me back to simpler days at the kitchen table with Testors modeling glue stuck to my fingers.

Monster trucks(!). I loved monster trucks growing up. I had numerous Diamond P Production VHS tapes with arena-thumping highlights. Matchbox made a run of tough trucks that looked so badass with giant tires and actual real names like Monster Kong and Big Foot. I had a few but never had the USA-1 truck. A while back, I wrote a story about my childhood passion, and after it published I asked for a USA-1 truck for Christmas, because a man in his 30s should still feel comfortable asking his parents for toys for Christmas.

Racing Champion sprint cars: These might be my favorite diecast cars of all time. If you’re a long time reader of the site, you know I love sprint cars, so these toys will make sense at the top of my list. I had (and still have) close to a hundred. As I kid I would have races on all of the house’s oval-shaped rugs and then meticulously line them up my shelf at a 45-degree angle. – Cameron Neveu