Like a Big Wheel, but cooler.

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  • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
    27·
    13 days ago

    One of the greatest toys ever. So many injuries. No regrets.

    We could not afford it, but my cousin had one and we would take turns flinging ourselves down their ridiculously steep and long driveway.

    • EnmebaraGuesser@piefed.caOPEnglish
      4·
      13 days ago

      I am imagining many shins getting thwacked by madly spinning pedals as it barrels down a steep hill. No ability to coast (right?) So if it goes too fast on a steep hill, you’d have to remove your feet from the pedals and try not to get beat up by it.

      • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
        4·
        13 days ago

        Like I said, many injuries. Plus, your feet were the brakes/stabilizers, so they were too busy keeping you alive to pedal.

  • Bonus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    10·
    13 days ago

    We used to play stuntman on our big wheels. We had a hill with grass on it. We’d watch Evil Kneival specials, The 6 Million Dollar Man, and then we’d go launch ourselves off our big wheels into the bushes, inadvertantly finding rocks with our kneecaps and the like. I still have the scars to prove it.

    These Green Machines were for the fancy kids. I still don’t understand them. you’re using the sticks to turn? What? Why did they make it more complicated than a tractor? There’s no brake. You have your pedals. That’s it. Big Wheels had a big ol brake you could slam onto one rear tire, force a drifting effect or even spin completely 180 degrees around. I’m surely distorting the facts with my version of memories here.

    • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      13 days ago

      These Green Machines were for the fancy kids. I still don’t understand them. you’re using the sticks to turn? What?

      It’s just like racing pods back home on Tatooine.

  • grue@lemmy.world
    10·
    13 days ago

    I’m a little surprised it was marketed to “8, 9, 10 years old”. I’m pretty sure I’d graduated from a big wheeler to an actual bicycle by that age.

    • EnmebaraGuesser@piefed.caOPEnglish
      6·
      13 days ago

      For comparison, big wheels were advertised 4 - 9, so quite a bit younger range. But there was also a little wheel for 2 1/2 - 4, and a mini wheel for tots 1 1/2 - 3.

      For bikes, pediatric groups have fuzzy ranges and say most children learn some time between 3-9. Random web site claims ahead -> The fraction of children who learn to ride a bike is 75% (UK numbers) where their parents were at 95%. The US was on a similar trend, but since 2018 it has reversed, and there is a surge of children (and adults!) riding bikes.

      • P00ptart@lemmy.world
        4·
        13 days ago

        I tried and tried to get my kid to ride bikes without training wheels and he refused, always preferred his scooter. Then his friends got annoyed that he couldn’t keep up and BOOM. He knows.

    • Crozekiel@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      13 days ago

      I couldn’t remember what it was from, but I 100% pictures this entire fake commercial in my head when I saw this thing. lol

  • nullspace@lemmy.world
    3·
    11 days ago

    Did this toy injure a bunch of kids or something? It didn’t survive the natural selection process of toy brands.

    • EnmebaraGuesser@piefed.caOPEnglish
      2·
      11 days ago

      It did survive in a way: Huffy apparently owns the rights to it now and makes a modernized version with a hand brake. It looks like this.

      By the comments further in the thread, everybody is going, “Had one, suffered lots of injuries, totally worth it though!” So probably a safe bet that many injuries were sustained from these. On the plus side, it doesn’t look very easy to flip when you skid it out.

    • paris
      7·
      13 days ago

      Because that shit was cool as hell. I had one as a kid (not the original, but a 2000s variant). Unwieldy as hell but man was it fun as a kid to make turns that sharp while sitting that low to the ground.