FRED FLINTSTONE'S FANTASTIC FLIVVER...

My very own FRED FLINTSTONE FLIVVER - taken out in my
back garden half an hour ago.  The box is for the remote-control
version, and is a repro I made myself from an original

It always irks me when I can't be more specific about

dates.  Trouble is, I never knew the exact dates of some of

the events from my early life, and have to retroactively work

them out from other factors, like which house did I live in at

the time, had I started school, etc.  So that's why I can only

say that I got my FRED FLINTSTONE's FLIVVER in

1962 or '63.  That's as  close as I can nail it down to.

There were different versions of this toy - a remote-

control version and a friction-drive one.  Most sites show

two different-looking toys, but it wasn't quite as simple as

that because, as well as the pair of different-in-appearance

flivvers, there was also a friction-drive version which was

indistinguishable from the remote-control one - except

that it didn't have a remote-control (obviously).  All
versions were made by MARX TOYS.

Here's the other version of the friction-drive toy

But don't be fooled.  When I say remote-control, I'm

not talking about a modern, infra-red remote-control, I'm

talking about one that was attached to the flivver by a cord,

in the same way that TV remote-controls once operated.  I

seem to faintly remember my flivver having a remote-con-

trol, and it lay for years in a box in a cupboard long after

the toy itself had been consigned to oblivion.

Trouble is, around the same time I had Fred's car, I

also had a little race track with small magnetic cars, which

was operated via the same kind of remote-control as Fred's

'deluxe' flivver, so I'm not sure if the remote-control which

lay in my cupboard for years belonged to the flivver or the

race track.  It really annoys me not being able to recall

with utmost certainty which toy it accompanied.

Actually, looking at the remote-control in this pic, it doesn't look
like the one I recall, so mine must've belonged to my race car set

However, having spent four paragraphs on the sub-

ject, it's not really important to the point of this post.  I

said earlier that the flivver eventually disappeared, apart

from a few disassembled parts lying in the same box as the

remote-control, but I had the little plastic Fred driver for

at least ten years before getting rid of most of the sur-

viving toys from my childhood in the early '70s.

Little Fred accompanied me when we visited my
grandparents every Sunday.  After tea, I'd excuse my-
self and take a walk along to my former neighbourhood,
there to gaze upon the two houses in which I (and Fred)
had once lived.  It was a strange sensation to return Fred

to his old environs, but it helped me to reconnect to my

past in a much more tangible way, even 'though it's

difficult to explain in precisely what manner.

And another look at my own toy

Little Fred saw the inside of four houses in his ten or

so years, including the one in which I now reside.  Close

to 20 years ago, I was able to obtain (at immense expense)

a replacement Fred and his flivver, and one glance immedi-

ately returns me to an earlier point in time that I'm loath to

leave.  I once re-created my childhood experience of tour-

ing my former neighbourhood with Fred in tow, although

on that occasion, it was with 'new' Fred, not 'old' Fred.

To me however, they were one and the same.

It's strange to think that I've now had replacement

Fred for nearly twice as long as his predecessor - it just

doesn't seem like it. In fact, the nearly quarter of a century

gap between the two Freds no longer seems to have existed,

and it feels like I've only ever had the one, tucked away in a

cupboard for years before being happily rediscovered.  Some

people might think that, as it's not my original Fred, it surely

can't have the same nostalgic or sentimental draw, but trust

me, there's an odd kind of magic that operates on such oc-

casions, and, in my mind, it's the same Fred (and fliv-

ver) that I first got as a kid 54 years ago.

"Wilma, I'm home!" 

Posted in: Cartoons