Big Kid on the Block

June 24, 2004

The Big WheelEvery kid grow­ing up in the 80s owned a Big Wheel. It didn’t mat­ter what region or coun­try you resided in, you had to have one. They were the qui­nessen­tial toy for any grow­ing child to show off to his neigh­bor­hood pals and mut­ter under his or her breath, “Yeah, I’m big and here’s proof.”

I think I was the owner of a Trans­form­ers Big Wheel and a Knight Rider KITT ver­sion. Although, much to my dis­ap­point­ment, it never talked back in that spiffy Eng­lish accent sadly.

The best part of the Big Wheel was — hands down — the plas­tic tires. You could run over any­thing in the road or side­walk and wouldn’t have to worry about get­ting a flat. I used to turn it upside down and pre­tend it was a miss­ing piece of some gigan­tic NASA engine. I’d spin the ped­dles as fast as they could go and “revv” up the “engine” part.

Sure, Big Wheels exist today — but noth­ing like those of yesteryear. 

20 comments

Speak­ing of toys gone by, I defy you to pur­chase a non-battery oper­ated Hot Wheels track set, with just a straight track and the screw-clamp. I dou­ble dare you.

by hass on June 24, 2004 at 12:54 pm. Reply #

The Big Wheel was great. I remem­ber tap­ing my toy guns to the han­dle­bars and zip­ping down the road with my friends play­ing Star Wars.

Do remem­ber the Pogo Ball?

by Todd on June 24, 2004 at 2:38 pm. Reply #

Oh yeah! How about the Green Machine?? I had one of these, and wore holes in the wheels from doing donuts. But man, these have got­ten expensive!

And then there’s the off-road trike.…our 2-year has one of these that’s a hand-me-down, prob­a­bly has 100,000 miles on it already, and it’s ready for 100,000 more as soon as he can reach those damn pedals!

Man, I want a new Big Wheel. Can I have one Mom, can I? Huh? Huh?

by Chad on June 24, 2004 at 3:57 pm. Reply #

Off-road trike? Wow. If only they had those when I was a kid. Of course, most kids these days are more con­cerned with chat­ting on AOLIM or play­ing online video games (MMPORPGs, etc.).

What hap­pened to the ‘Cow­boy and Indian’ days? Long gone, I fear.

by kartooner on June 24, 2004 at 4:42 pm. Reply #

The off-road trike is sweet, highly rec­om­mended. Speak­ing of cow­boys and indians…I can’t wait to buy our kid a Red Ryder BB gun.…his mother of course says “NO!”, but we all know I’m buy­ing him one, right? Just like “The Old Man” on the movie “A Christ­mas Story”, buy­ing one for his son against the Moth­ers wish.…“you’ll shoot your eye out, you’ll shoot your eye out”.…now those musta been the days.….

by Chad on June 24, 2004 at 5:45 pm. Reply #

No, no, no. It’s not AOLIM, it’s the MSN Messenger.

by Jarek Piórkowski on June 24, 2004 at 8:42 pm. Reply #

I’m almost sure you had a ‘CHIPS’ big wheel, the Erik Estrada model…yeah, I’m sure of it.…NOT. You had a big wheel and the lady next store stole it (her name was Karen) and your mother and I always thought she sold it to buy drugs.…bummer.

I think your favorite toys were:
– Alf doll
ET doll
– Crayons
– Speak’n’Spell (or say)
– Any­thing that you could draw with :-)

Keep up the good work…I’m proud of you!
Dad

by Dad on June 24, 2004 at 10:31 pm. Reply #

That’s sad…getting your big wheel stolen by a lady in order to buy drugs. But also a lit­tle funny. What kind of crack was she smok­ing in order to think that she could get good money for a big wheel?

That would make a great SNL sketch!

by Todd on June 25, 2004 at 8:15 am. Reply #

I was just think­ing the same thing. Maybe I should sell my life story to SNL?

by kartooner on June 25, 2004 at 11:27 am. Reply #

I smell a sitcom.…!!!!!

by Matt (Brother) on June 25, 2004 at 5:44 pm. Reply #

Well, if you sell a sit­com with the ‘Karen the crack whore who stole my bike’.…I want 10% of the sale for ‘cre­ative con­sult­ing / story idea’. As for your brother…don’t give him a damn thing, with excep­tion to the other sit­com story line “I almost let my brother cut off his dinkie” story.…but that’s another day for sto­ry­time children.

Nice to see your brother is read­ing your site / blog…or is he run­ning secret secu­rity checks via the Navy War­fare Dept…????

Love,
Dad (the keeper of the fam­ily stories)

by Dad on June 25, 2004 at 7:47 pm. Reply #

::cough:: Hey dad.. Lets not talk any­more about past sto­ries. Thats NTK G14 Clas­si­fied. Their EVIL.

by Matt (Brother) on June 25, 2004 at 8:53 pm. Reply #

Wow, this arti­cle rocks. It had me remem­ber­ing the big wheel all over again. I still think the best 80’s toy/momento is the rubiz cube.

by Scott on June 26, 2004 at 2:20 am. Reply #

The Cube was a favorite pas­time, although solv­ing it proved to be dif­fi­cult. To this day I have never solved a Rubix Cube, and most likely never will. It’s just too fun remov­ing the stick­ers and putting them all in place.

I’ve often thought about splurg­ing for the key­chain ver­sion, how­ever. Then, if I’m ever caught in a bliz­zard, I’ll have some­thing to occupy my time. That or I’m think­ing a few Madlibs.

by kartooner on June 26, 2004 at 1:49 pm. Reply #

Seems lit­tle brother doesn’t want to remem­ber the GOD (Good old Days) of his child­hood. Well, as long as your alive and doing the Blog Erik it is for ‘sure’ Matt’s adven­tures will live on.…and on.
Hey, remem­ber the time you did the magic trick for Uncle Richie and almost made Matt’s thumb dis­ap­pear, by cut­ting it off with a pair of sissors???

Sad, but it sort was pretty funny too!

by Dad on June 26, 2004 at 2:00 pm. Reply #

proof that i am indeed turn­ing into my mother — i feel com­pelled to say: they don’t make ‘em like they used to.

by girlwonder on June 30, 2004 at 5:05 pm. Reply #

I had both the Dukes of Haz­ard “gen­eral Lee” Big Wheel and the Knight Rider “K.I.T.T.” big wheel between 19821984. I tore the heck out the Gen­eral Lee ver­sion going “off-road” with it alot, so It was trashed, & some one stole the K.I.T.T. big wheel. If I could ever get “K.I.T.T.” back I’d save it as a col­lec­table until I ever have a son

by Michael Wolfman on July 9, 2004 at 3:42 pm. Reply #

Hey every­one…

Did any­one else ever flip their big wheel upside down and spin the ped­als while say­ing, “ice cream, ice cream!” ???

hugs & kisses,
– Josh

by Josh on August 6, 2004 at 2:28 am. Reply #

I’m look­ing to buy a Knight Rider or Trans­former big wheel. If any­one has one they would like to sell, please e-mail me.
My e-mail is runnergirl57@yahoo.com
Thank you.
Melissa

by Melissa on September 3, 2004 at 4:45 pm. Reply #

I too turned the Big Wheel upside down and made ice cream. I wrote an essay on the sub­ject, but still haven’t come up with a sat­is­fac­tory rea­son as to why! You can read it at http://www.conversari.com/conversations_5-06.htm

by Mike on May 19, 2006 at 11:29 pm. Reply #

Leave your comment

Required.

Required. Not published.

If you have one.