Making innovative toys for children in the die-cast world is quite difficult. Darda made a great cars with a very strong pull-back motor, and Hot Wheels made excellent models that simulated having an accident. Many toys have used powder caps, like cap guns, or He-Man Thunder Punch, but combining all three features in one toy has only been made by Majorette.
In 1987, Majorette had already made a motor that was similar to Darda’s for its “Motor” series. This series, as explained in entry #803 was quite short, but the motor designed for it was reused in the Turboom series that we are talking about now.
So what is so special about Turboom? Well, it is a series in which the cars simulate an accident in a very realistic way. The hood/bonnet and the doors open when the car crashes, and on top of this, there is a powder cap that produces a very loud sound.
Of course to flint the powder the car has to crash at a very high speed, and that is why you need a very strong motor. The powder cap is placed below the hood, where it will be hit by a rod coming from the “main” part of the car everytime it crashes. Of course the car is still fun without the powder caps, only it won’t produce any noise.
This line is very very short, counting only two models (a Peugeot 205 and an unidentified Pick-Up truck). They were simply named Turboom 1 and Turboom 2. Each model came in two decorations. However, in the following years, other variants were released, so there are a few rare cars out there that do not appear in the catalogue image below.
The pick-up truck is even more interesting, since with each crash, the hood and the canopy will detach. In the case of the Peugeot 205 nothing detaches, so nothing can get lost.
To play with these cars and crash them against each other, there was a special track made, using parts of the Majorette Motor series tracks, but crossing them in a way that there is a chance that the cars will collide.
FACTS AND FIGURES:
- Name: TURBOOM 1 (PEUGEOT 205)
- Scale: Approx. 1:64
- Year: 1987
- Company: Majorette (France)
- Size: approx. 7 cm
No comments:
Post a Comment