Children's pedal car of the USSR

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Children's pedal car was a pipe dream of any child living in the USSR. Such units were a great deficit, and for many also an unaffordable luxury. Time has passed, the children have grown up, but many of them still remember this wonderful transport. Modern stores offer a huge selection of wheelchairs for every taste, color and budget - from elementary pushcars to cool wheelbarrows with a built-in electric motor, opening doors and other bells and whistles. Nevertheless, since the times of the USSR, the children's pedal car in its original form has been and is a unique thing, interesting not only for tomboyish boys, but also for their parents.

Not a child's dream

The first models of pedal cars in the Land of the Soviets began to appear in the distant thirties of the last century, but they were launched into mass production only in the sixties. There were several variants of cars, each of which was made by different factories. Typically, production lines for thisproducts were organized on the basis of large enterprises of republican significance, they were not the main activity of the factories, although the development of design and construction of cars for kids was taken quite seriously.

Most of the cars were exported to friendly socialist countries, a smaller part was supplied as game equipment, to parks of culture and recreation, pioneer camps and kindergartens. And only a very small fraction of toys fell on store shelves. Despite the fact that one children's pedal car was very expensive by the standards of a Soviet worker - 25-35 rubles, such goods did not get stuck with sellers for a long time. The cars were of pretty good quality, practically "indestructible", and therefore several generations of children rode them. Perhaps many of them would have survived to our times, but in the hungry nineties, most of these toys went to scrap.

Specifications

In the Soviet Union, there were two versions of pedal cars. The first is the cars themselves, prototypes of real cars of that time, their reduced copies or a collective image of several vehicles. They had impressive dimensions and weight - sometimes up to 20 kg. Management took place with the help of a steering wheel and a reciprocating pedal drive. Those who remember what it was like to ride this mode of transport know how imperfect it was.

The car rolled well only on a flat and hard road, and you can call it an "SUV" only withbig stretch. Although there were daredevils who dragged their four-wheeled friend to various hills and hills and famously went down, tucking their legs under them. If you didn't take this precaution, you could end up hurting your limbs.

The body of the cars was made of sheet metal, the internal filling was also solid and weighty in the Soviet way, and therefore it was difficult for children to accelerate strongly on them and drive with a breeze. However, real pros squeezed amazing results out of their vehicles and legs. So, at the All-Union competitions in velomobiles, held in 1935, one of the participants became their champion due to the fact that the speed of the children's pedal car, which he drove, during the ride exceeded 16 km / h.

The second type of children's transport is velomobiles with a classic bicycle drive. They are equipped with a carriage assembly and chain, and therefore were more maneuverable and comfortable.

Velomobiles of the times of the USSR

This type of cars cannot be called a car in the traditional sense of the word. Its technical design did not allow covering the driving mechanism with a heavy body. It was usually decorated with plastic panels. In terms of design, velomobiles were inferior to ordinary pedal cars, but despite this, they were very loved by children due to the fact that they rode well on different roads and easily climbed hills. Some of the most notable models of that time were the luxurious "Rocket", the so-called "skinny tractor", and a more modernproduct "Sport", still produced in Belarus.

Children's velomobiles and pedal cars were equally inaccessible to children from simple working families. To ride on such a coveted miracle of technology, one had to visit the park or find a more "lucky" comrade in the yard, for whom the parents could buy a personal vehicle.

"Moskvich" - the hero of the Soviet court

Moskvich is the most popular children's pedal car in the Union. Its production was established on the basis of the Lenin Komsomol plant around the sixties. The peak of production occurred in the seventies, so in 1972 100 thousand copies of small "Moskvich" rolled off the assembly line, a year later even more - 130 thousand.

Such a children's pedal car was single, its length - only 110 cm, width - 51.5 cm, height - 49 cm, weight - 13 kg. Over the years of production, the design of this model has changed, and more than once, but its features were still recognizable. She was so popular among the inhabitants of the country that many noted her appearance in several films ("Ivan Vasilievich changes his profession" and "We, two men").

It is "Moskvich" that is now the easiest to see in toy museums and private collections of antique dealers. Almost every children's pedal car of this brand has now been restored and bears little resemblance to the former one. Craftsmen even manage to connect several cars, creating such masterpieces.

Other popular Soviet cars

In addition to the Moskvich described above, several more types of pedal cars went on sale:

• "Or" is a rather funny model, reminiscent of "Zhiguli";
• "Rainbow" - this machine, on the contrary, had a very modern, as for that time, design, which was even noted at one of the exhibitions held within the walls of VDNKh;
• children's pedal car "Neva" - a rare model, you could ride it only in the park or in the pioneer camp;
• Eaglet tractor - just an amazing pedal car, one of the best developments for children of that time.

There were also quite rare cars that were produced in very limited quantities, and therefore they did not go on sale throughout the country. Among them, very beautiful "Ural", "ZIM" and "Pobeda" stand out.

No kidding

And, of course, one cannot ignore another wonderful invention of Soviet engineers - the pedal horse. Although this is not a car, this transport was also set in motion using a pedal mechanism. Arranged "horses" were very cool. The young driver sat on an elevated seat, behind him was a gig, and in front was the horse itself. It is curious that the mechanical animal was not a sham pad, while pedaling, special levers "forced" the horse to move, and he galloped quite briskly along the road, whichled to the irrepressible delight of all the kids.

Unfortunately, not many cars made in the USSR have survived to this day. Most of them were simply thrown out as useless by short-sighted parents whose children were already grown up. But still, many families have kept these rarities, and it is thanks to them that modern children can not only see for themselves that their parents had cool toys, but also test them on their own.