All That Glitters

Today I'll write another post about the old cars I had as a child -- this time about the Hot Wheels "Golden Machines" 6 pack, which was released in 1979 (thank you, Hot Wheels Wiki). I can't say for certain now, but I believe this was something I received as a gift, and as I recall, I was reasonably happy to get it. I say reasonably only because I seem to remember being a little disappointed with the golden metalic coloring. Don't get me wrong. Ordinarily, I was convinced that anything gold in color must be special in some way. Of course I also believed the bigger the box, the better the present, so there you go. In this case, though, I do remember thinking that the cars would have been more visually appealing with colorful paint. After all, the 80's were about to begin. Gaudy was beautiful. Of all the cars included in the set, it was the Corvette that interested me the most. I suppose that goes without saying. Who doesn't stand up and pay attention when they see a Corvette Stingray? So it was with great anticipation that I tried out my new cars in races against my brother's cars. The Hot Bird was a nightmare. It's slender frame would bounce from one side of the track to the other after going around curves, slowing down it's track time considerably. To this day, that model annoys me, and I cringe when I see similar castings. The Jaguar did better, but as a luxury sedan, it was never all that memorable. The Spoiler Sport... well... It was a van. The Race Bait 308 was super-cool looking, but it just did okay on the track. It wasn't burning it up or anything. This brings us to the Corvette, which turned out to be the biggest piece of @&#! I ever owned. Seriously. Even the van could beat it. That sucker just would not roll. I don't know if it was a problem with the model in general or just the particular car that was in my set. All I know is that it taught me a valuable lesson. Just because a car looks fast doesn't mean it is. Which car, you are probably asking, was the fastest of the six? The Datsun Z Whiz. Yes, you read that right. I couldn't believe it either. Maybe it was based on a Datsun sports car of some sort, but the only Datsuns I was aware of were anything but fast. They were family cars, for crying out loud. Ah well. All things being equal, the Stingray would have smoked it, but such is life in the world of Hot Wheels.