This past Christmas, my sister bought my daughter an Amloid Toys Pretty Princess Cycle. It came as a surprise not only to my little one, but also to me, as my wife and I had long discussed my desire to be the one to buy my daughter her first ”Big Wheel.” A cool gift, for sure – but one of those moments when you wish, as a parent, that you’d been consulted first. I’ve never discussed this with my sister, so I imagine her first knowledge of my reaction will come via this blog post, should she happen to read it. Regardless, the Princess Cycle was a thoughtful and fun gift that my wife and I appreciated for the little one. Since Spring is officially here, the time has come for the ”Big Wheel” to hit the streets…
You might be curious as to why I’ve been placing ”Big Wheel” in quotation marks…
That’s because the term ”Big Wheel” is actually a brand name that has become associated with all low-riding, plastic trikes. Much in the way people mistakenly use the word “binky” to refer to any pacifier (a practice so grating that I despise it) or “Coke” to describe any dark-colored cola beverage, “Big Wheel” just became synonymous with a style of ride-on toy – but to the point where it’s acceptable, mostly due to the bankruptcy of original Big Wheel developer Louis Marx and Company.
I had one of those original Marx Toys Big Wheels when I was just a tad older than my daughter. It saw a ton of wear, tearing up the asphalt not only on the streets of Park Forest, Illinois (the crap town where I had the misfortune of growing up) – but also at special “Big Wheel Races” held at intermission during Midget Auto Races held in Joliet, Illinois. Somewhere there’s pictures of that.
Being made of hollow plastic, wear on a Big Wheel (or similar trike) can be rough. After a few years, my original Big Wheel was retired in favor of THE DUKES OF HAZZARD POWER CYCLE by COLECO. I remember this one as if I was still riding it yesterday…
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Fast-forward 30 years or so, and after being sold off in various pieces and manufactured by several companies over the years the “Original Big Wheel” is being made once more by a company called Alpha International. But, over that 30 year timespan, a number of other companies picked up the Big Wheel torch, and began making their own versions. Ones like the folks at Amloid produce.
Yesterday, the little one stood watch as I put her “Big Wheel” together. The overall design certainly hasn’t changed much over the years, and in no time at all we were ready to rock and roll. Toss that RIFF ROCKIT song Big Wheel into to the playlist and crank it up…
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And the little one can’t quite reach the pedals yet. With her little legs stretched out as far as they’ll go, she can barely get there…
But that’s ok…
Scooting along the sidewalk, The Rock Daughter had plenty of fun just fine.
Now can someone make an adult-sized “Big Wheel” for me?
