If there is anyone reading this who grew up in the Boston area in the early to mid-1970’s, please take note: I need to hear from you. Read on and you’ll see why…
There are those who will say this is not the place for a discussion of 1:43 die cast cars. Those who will say that will be right: the scale is not what this blog is about, nor is the format, no matter how often I mention the mix of slots and die casts.
Buuuuuut this is my blog, so I’m going to do it anyway, because I am rather excited about having solved a mystery this last weekend that’s been dogging me for 45 years.
Yep…that’s about right, because I couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5 years old when my family discovered a restaurant somewhere in the Boston area called “Pancakes & Family Fare.” I won’t pretend to remember much about it, although a few things do stand out: I remember a red roof and red outdoor sign with white and yellow lettering, and a restaurant that was brightly lit, noisy, and fun. But one thing I never forgot was the little kiosk in the restaurant that sold toys, and there was a brand of 1:43 scale car there that I had never seen anywhere else. And I have never seen them again since!
That kind of thing can lead a guy to believe he’s having a bum memory, confusing reality with imagination. But I’ve mentioned before that I have a particularly accurate memory of my young childhood-I’ve had a chance to verify the veracity of this claim more than once-and I knew that I once had a 1:43 scale model of a 1967 Chevy police car, painted dark blue, that came in a colorful clear hard plastic garage with bright red and yellow ends…and that it came from the gift shop in that restaurant!
After searching on and off for years, I must have finally hit just the right combination of search criteria, because I finally found that car:
And it’s no wonder I never saw these models anywhere else; they are extremely rare, and were made for a limited time in the early ‘70’s in that powerhouse of diecast toy production, Israel! Oy vey, who knew?
This is a Gamda Koor model, usually sold under the name “Sabra Supercars” or, at some point, also as Cragstan models. Once I was able to identify the make, I found a cool thread on these models over at Planet Diecast.
So why does this excite me so? As you can see, these models are not particularly impressive; they have plastic base plates and the proportions of most of them are not quite right. Well, what excites me is the VALIDATION OF AN EARLY CHILDHOOD MEMORY: I knew these existed, and now that I’ve finally figured out what it was, it turns out that, again, I was right: it WAS a dark blue ’67 Chevy Impala with a red dome roof light and it did indeed come in a really cool little acrylic garage with bright red and yellow plastic inserts!
But there remains an unresolved issue, which brings me back to my beseeching of anyone who remembers growing up in the Boston area in the ‘70’s: an internet search indicates I may have the name of the restaurant wrong; it appears that I am remembering a chain under the auspices of a corporation called Bickford’s. While I don’t remember that name, I did find some images online of what Bickford’s restaurants use to look like, and sure enough, that Mansard-style roof with the white stripes is what I remember! While its impossible to say now that my parents are gone, I believe that the one we went too was probably in Acton, and an image of a sign of one of these establishments shows that it did indeed have a gift shop! So, did I just have the name of the place wrong? Or were some of these restaurants known by the name I remember, “Pancakes & Family Fare?”
How ‘bout it, Gen-X cultural archaeologists? Did any of y’all have any of these Sabra Supercars in your childhood toybox?
The postscript to all this is that I wonder if I remember this chapter of my youth so well due to a small trauma being associated with it. “Trauma” is probably a ridiculously overblown word to use, considering there are some kids who see their loved ones blown to bits by bombs or their parents beating each other in front of them. I experienced none of that in my mostly happy childhood, but I do remember what happened to that Chevy police car: it was stolen from me by a neighborhood bully. I don’t believe I ever got it back. Which means there’s probably an ebay auction going on out there that I need to win! Pardon me while I log into my account…
I hadn’t heard of this chain or toy! I didn’t see this in the south. I too would have certainly remembered any restaurant that sold little cars like these. This is a great childhood memory and sparked some memories of the toys I would get at as child, like some tootsie toys or little ERTL cars I’d get for being good at the dentist or when I had to go to the doctor. Thanks for sharing!
It was certainly off topic, but I had to put it somewhere!