Months? More like years. Where was this when I was ten? This would have been perfect for Iowa City; I could have driven all over town on a single charge of its two 6V car batteries.
And it’s not just for kids. In fact the Red Bug was designed to be an alternative to the big cars. Who needs a Packard and chauffeur for a quick run to the golf course?
But there was also the Junior Red-Bug. A bit smaller, only one battery, and presumably a bit slower. Or not.
Our neighborhood is filled with electric kiddie cars. You could hear their hollow plastic tires crunch and bump down our sidewalks. Some of the more daring kids take them out into the streets and race down the hills in them. Parents roll along on bicycles, towing other kids behind them. The reason for the lack of casualties is due to the cul-de-sac designs far removed from the city where my neighborhood is located.
Then there are the ATVs. They roll up and down our streets filled with adults and kids. No helmets. Dad is letting the five year old pilot the ATV at a trot. On weekends, we see full size pick up trucks filled with rolling toys in the bed, or on trailers, seeking a muddy path, an old road, or open fields for the kids to roll through, or race through, damn the wildlife.
My favorite part of these ads is the idea that there is a “playthings” store. How Manhattan. It ought to be a market web site.
Finally, where do I buy a “Red-Bug”?
This reminds me of the sad fate of a guy named John Favara. Favara lived and worked in the same neighborhood as the infamous John Gotti, and actually lived in the house behind him. Well, one afternoon, one of Gotti’s brats, Frankie, was out riding around the local streets on a buddy’s minibike and darted out from behind a dumpster, right in front of Favara in his station wagon. Through no fault of his own, Favara struck and killed the junior Gotti.
To make matters worse, Favara didn’t have enough sense to have his car repaired right away, and seeing Favara driving around with his mangled car, supposedly enraged Mrs. Gotti, Victoria, who attacked Favara with a baseball bat when he later came to the Gotti’s home to personally apologize.
The poor bastard was some kind of manager at a furniture factory, and when it finally got through to him that, maybe, he should get the hell out of town for his own well-being, a few days before the finalization of the sale of his house to do just that, the last that was seen of him was being beaten and/or shot by a couple of guys and then dragged into a non-descript van.
I guess the moral of the story is, if you live in the same neighborhood as a well-known Mafioso don, drive very slowly…
I find the “chase scene” in the first ad interesting.
The idea that unlicensed kids can ride around neighborhood streets with impunity reminds me of the “pocket bike” craze of twenty years or so ago. The bike were those tiny, even smaller than the mini bikes that I grew up with. They would dart out of side streets or suddenly enter the street from the sidewalks. They were illegal for anyone to ride on the street in Calif. whatever their age. I wonder how many kids were injured or killed on those deathtraps. Thankfully, they have all disappeared, as have most of the powered skateboards, but I guess that hoverboards and electric uni-cyles have taken their place.
I have seen Red Bugs in pictures for years and I always saw them with gasoline motors. The electric motor seems like a better idea.
Come to Santa Monica where your life and limbs are in danger trying to walk down a sidewalk with electric scooters coming at you from every direction, their operators violating every code in a city where there is no enforcement because of the grab for money from the scooter companies. BTW, the powered skateboards also are omnipresent here again, now that COVID is “over.”
Definitely aimed at the NYC upper class, in places like New Canaan or the Hamptons. All the people in the ads are wearing argyle socks and knickers!
745 5th Avenue was the flagship location of F.A.O. Schwarz the worlds oldest and greatest toy store for many years. Now located in Rockefeller Center.
I never heard of this one, Paul—maybe marketed only in New York State?
From the newspapers, here’s (1926-27) complaint about them in traffic, and then State of New York making an official judgment of their status. Also, some young men going hundreds of miles in one, and even Red Bugs being part of an amusement at Coney Island. I did find a Mayfair ad with a price: $185 for the Junior, some real money today (and 1970s car show in New England with someone exhibiting one, BTW):
A little more backstory—and price for full-size given as $350: