Whether it was the car or fire truck or some other actual spin off of a real vehicle. Maybe you were a member of the Big Wheel Generation. Of course there are always tricycles and bicycles that fit into the picture as well. Well you get my drift here. Those little pedal toys came and continue to come in a lot of varieties.
What you most likely don’t know is that the first pedal car actually made its appearance shortly after the onslaught of the first auto. And that my friend would date them back into the 1890s and we all know that bicycles go back as far as we can remember.
Pedal cars and other pedal toys serve a purpose more than just keeping kids busy. They become a source of independence and mobility and a place to provide exercise. They teach the child real world skills that will become useful in later life and they also help them to develop hand, eye and leg co-ordination in a way that few other things can at a young age.
In early years and into the great depression, pedal cars were available only to the very rich and production, as you might imagine, slowed to nothing during the great war when the metal that they used was diverted to use in the war effort.
This all changed as the boys came back from World War two and soon every major store was selling the toy cars. The early models were not merely toys, but were more like scaled down versions of the real thing minus the engines having working horns and lights and even windows that worked. Custom paint and even white wall tires were common. If it was on a real car, it found its way to the toy pedal cars.
