We all have memories from our past that we’re lucky enough to still carry with us. Whether you remember playing Barbies with your cousins in the backyard or running through the woods playing cops and robbers with the neighborhood kids, we all have some type of memory that we cling on to. These brothers couldn’t let go of a favorite toy from their past, so they decided to breathe life back into it.After all, it was the very first car that they were able to drive. Eventually, the brothers wanted another (much bigger) Little Tikes car, but after a bit of searching, the Bitmead brothers realized that if they wanted another car, they were going to have to build it themselves.
“I just thought, what a wonderful idea to make something like that, but real. And as soon as I thought of it, I knew the car,” said John in an interview with BBC in 2014. The car John had in mind was a street-legal modified Daewoo Matiz. Not only does the car run on gas, but it’s capable of going 70 mph, and has airbags.
“That was always going to be the main thing, I had to have no windows because that is absolutely what the toy is,” said John. While it’s nice to stick to the original design, it can’t be fun riding around England in a car with no windows!
In the beginning, the brothers were hoping to build the car to raise money for a charity, but that fell through. Instead, they listed the car for sale on eBay, but unfortunately, there weren’t any buyers in the market for a life-sized Little Tykes car.
“They’re amazed to see the real thing on the road. I’ve seen people with tattoos all up their arms walking along the road just cheering at us,” Geof told the BBC. It’s really not surprising that so many people are excited to see the car.
“There was that kind of response to it. Everybody recognized it. It’s part of our life. We see these things in people’s front gardens, and now you can see it on the road,” said Geof in an interview with BBC.
If it were up to me, there would be life-size Rainbow Brites on every corner, but sadly, that’s never going to happen. What about you? What memory would you bring back to life if you were able to?
