Nothing to really write home about, but I enjoy them. The 2 Toppers are in the best shape. If I ever get the time I might repaint some of them.

Anyone know about how old the Aurora Cigar Box cars might be?

Very nice - the toppers have engines, which I always find to be difficult to find. Is that a pink continental - very cool.


Dave

Yeah, it's pink, not in the best shape. One of the rear wheels is bent up so it doesn't sit evenly.

Anyone know about how old the Aurora Cigar Box cars might be?

Same time frame as the Toppers and Redlines. They come in a wide variety of styles and colors. They are also still fairly common. You can find them on epay daily.

According to my Aurora history book (Greenberg's Guide)...

Cigarbox cars came out in 1967 to compete with Matchbox and Hot Wheels. The original release was packaged in a miniature cigar box as a ripoff of Matchbox's theme, and the cars came with rubber Thunderjet slot car tires. Basically, they flopped in the marketplace against the competition. Aurora rethought them for 1969, and re-released many of them in different colors and with low-friction hard plastic wheels (which often looked too tall and skinny from a scale perspective) and wire axles so they'd roll better. Even though the bases still said Cigarbox, they were now marketed as Speedlines and sold on a HW-type blisterpack. Aurora also created orange plastic HW-type gravity track sets to go with them. I assume the wheels and packaging also helped cut costs so they could sell cheaper and compete a little better in the market. They sold these under a couple different names thru the mid-70s... I'm thinking one of the other names I read was Speed Wheels, but I could be wrong and the book is at home...

I just got a Cigarbox '67 Thunderbird for $2.00 at a toy show this past weekend... see what I did to it here:

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=105667

--rick

Rick, just want to chime in and say AWESOME JOB!

http://home.comcast.net/%7Erwurtz/images/spdlntbird14.jpg

thanks Mid. I still feel a little occasional twinge of guilt for hacking on original Aurora plastic, but when that happens i just run the car a few laps and it goes away. :cool:

Like I said in the referenced post, I did a Speedline Firebird like this too... but the chrome was way worse and the roof was broken off, so it really was justified. :D

--rick