As a person who digs cars, the number-one thing I would like to collect is cars. Who among us doesn’t dream of owning a fleet of machines curated to suit their particular tastes and exercising them on the regular?
However, as a person who does not make anything remotely close to car-collecting money, I must instead content myself with collecting car stuff. Along with the expected scale models, toys, and books all about cars and car people, I also enjoy all manner of weird/silly/kitsch items related to automobiles and motorsports. The goofier the better, and I’m definitely more into things that were never meant to be precious (or even good, sometimes) than I am deluxe items meant to be coveted by design.
Here are a few examples of the ephemera that I can get down with, and I look forward to reading about what you’re into in the comments!
This squishy Beetle hits all the notes for me: it’s a Bug; it was never intended to last; it’s a cartoony interpretation of the subject; and the fact that it’s an Enterprise car-rental freebie creates a nice tension between playfulness and fun (the squishy Beetle part) and drudgery and pain-in-the-assness (the having-to-rent-a-car part). 10/10, would squeeze.
Here’s another button-pusher. It’s NASCAR, it’s promotional, it’s a Hot Wheel (a knockoff, most likely), and its Country Time Lemonade. For some reason, the commercial for Country Time has really stayed with me. I’m sure 1979 meant more to kid-me than Alien and Country Time Lemonade, but it couldn’t have been much more.
I like novelty pens of all types, but car pens are the best. I’m almost certainly going to buy this “Wendy’s Rocket Writers orange sports car pen” after I pub this story, because just look at it. Absolutely delightful.
I can also get down with a fancy pen, and this wooden Volvo writer with matching wooden case just feels appropriately Volvo to me. I’m sure it’s just the result of a guy or gal in a far-from-the-top extension of the Volvo marketing department ticking off a bunch of boxes on a Promotional Pen Supply (or something) order form, but it’s giving the right energy.
Watches, don’t get me started on watches. I collect Casios and have a handful of “nice” “timepieces” (to me, this means anything approaching or over $100), and I also like silliness like this Ford steering wheel design (which you can also find with many other car brands). There are a lot of pricey try-hard, tough-guy, car-themed watches out there, which I just find gross. Give me a fun one.
And I need this jacket. It’s exactly the kind of ridiculous I need for happy hour at Applebees.
Your turn: What Are Your Favorite Car-Themed Giveaways And Merch Items?
Oh, wait, that reminds me! We have a bunch of fun car stuff that we’re giving away to Members (click the graphic for a peek). If you’re not a Member yet, join today so you’ll have a shot at scoring some loot yourself!
Do my 3 Autopian shirts count??
Back in the long ago when people still laughed at nerds and everybody listened to rock music the PT Cruiser was launched. And one interesting thing that the dealerships gave out to people to commemorate the release of this plague onto the world was a VHS tape. It was Y2K as fuck. Blue glass overlays, flash transitions, a trance beat, and a guy in a puffy polyester windbreaker in a wet parking lot telling you all the features of the “New for 2001 PT Cruiser from Chrysler.” They went over the top for this thing and it resurfaces in my mind every few years. Sadly I’ve never been able to find a copy, nor a copy of the 300M only tape from 1999 that went all in on the Pure Moods aesthetic (they’re all the combined tapes for the LHS and the 300M that feature the same content as the standalone tape).
I have a PT Cruiser logo’d Victornox SwissCard.
I think I finally tossed my weird VHS tapes I had of the Ford Contour and Buick Skylark…but I did just pick up a Chevy dealer training tape of the ’95 trucks vs the Fords. I need to digitize that bitch.
Someone somewhere has likely uploaded both to the Internet Archive. Either I haven’t used the correct search terms there or FCA/Stellantis decided to DMCA the videos. I’m hoping it’s not the latter. VHS tapes have hit the end of lifetime for their given materials (twenty five years) and any that have been digitized need to stay available as the source medium becomes more fragile with time.
Well, I dig literally every kind of car-related merch, but my holy grail is a very specific one: 90’s Williams Renault tennis shoes. I dreamt of those as a kid, and I will be one very happy man when I finally snatch a pair off of ebay. There’s a few other models, but the pre-94 with the Camel Yellow accents are definitely my favourite.
Lego Speed Champions, I just love those cheap intricate and moderately accurate sets.
I will indulge in a large Technic car once in a while, But the small sets scratch the itch too 🙂
Speed Champions are great. I didn’t think much of last years releases apart from the F40 which I’m still undecided about. Eagerly awaiting the F1 cars for this year. I’ve very over the big expensive adult wallet grab sets, but will definitely be getting the Nigel Mansell FW14B when it comes out in March (at the time of commenting Concorde remains unbuilt because I’ve got nowhere to put the fucking thing).
I prefer the road cars myself, Though I will no doubt buy all the F1 cars too eventually. Same problem of space though which is why most of my collection is in half a dozen big wheeled boxes in the loft…
Partly due to the lack of space and me wanting to spend on my real cars I do limit myself to sets below £200. I find above that they don’t seem to represent good value.
They’re not cheap, but Legos never have been; between inflation and the higher detail/intricacy/parts count they’re still about the same, value-wise. I’ve been lucky and have picked up my 1:8 cars on sale or used.
I don’t think Lego’s latest Speed Champion F40 is as good as this MOC. I have the original (narrower) F40 and enough other parts to make it.
I also have the old Creator set, haven’t built it yet either.
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-135984/NV%20Carmocs/ferrari-f40/#details
We won’t talk about my 1,441 1:64-scale cars (why, yes, they are all cataloged, as a matter of fact) or the hundreds of sales brochures or the seventy-five years’ worth of Road & Track back issues…there are two delightful items in my house that come to mind.
One is a promotional drinking glass festooned all over with yellow and red ’71 Ford Pintos, which has been full of pennies for the last twenty-five or so years. Looks like it was probably a Ford dealer giveaway.
The other is a very ’80s tan leather jacket with a little tag on the front pocket with “Saab Turbo” in Gill Sans (the font used on Saab’s badges) and a lining printed with a repeating “Saab Turbo” pattern. When I bought my now-former ’87 SPG, a neighbor saw that I had the car and literally dropped the jacket on my doorstep while I wasn’t home, later telling me that he had gotten it at a Saab press event in the mid-’80s. I meant to pass it on to the new owner when I sold the car, but I guess I forgot. Oops.
P.S. I really want that Playmobil Porsche
I was lucky enough to find a toy store going out of business and was able to scoop up the Playmobil VW bus a Beetle for $15 each. I told my wife they were for my daughter but the jury is still out on that.
VW was injection molding plastic New Beetles live at the Chicago Auto Show when the New Beetle debuted. I just missed out on getting one, always thought it would be neat to get something made at the auto show.
As a kid, for a few years, it was brochures
Idk why.. but id hit up every manufacturer that sold cars here in the states.
Mustve gotten on a list cause theyd just send the whole line up catalog instead of individual cars, but hey, when scion hit the market, they had some of the cooler ones, like cd’s and mints.
Now its just hot wheels and 1/18 scale cars and 1/24 kit cars
I used to have piles and piles of brochures in the closet, in bulging plastic bags emblazoned with different manufacturers. I can still smell them.
Ive got probably a few dozen of them, allll that plastic and paper smell.
Hell when i visited the uk, what else was i supposed tondo, but stop at a honda dealership nearby a hostel, and have a brochure, lol
For some reason I have a 5″ long plastic VW Beetle from *mumble* years ago. It was one of those things that kids sell during the school candy sales, originally filled with some kind of hard candy.
The floorpan is red and amusingly detailed; the body is transparent and has a slot in the roof so it can be a Beetle bank. Not sure how it survived this long but I might as well keep it. 🙂
When I was a kid in the 80’s every year they had little toy “stomper” trucks in Happy Meals. They weren’t the battery powered stomper trucks, just little plastic hot wheels size trucks, but they had rubber wheels and seemed nicer than typical happy meal toys to kid me. When they came out I begged my mom to take me to McDonalds every day even though I didn’t much like it.
Definitely die cast vehicles, specifically 1/64 scale Matchbox and Hot Wheels.
If we’re limited to merch we already possess, then I have three answers:
I also bought a t-shirt from Janus when I visited their shop, and I’m debating buying this Suzuki Katana pizza cutter.
I have over 150 1/43rd scale models, most from a British company called Brooklin.
I also have Hot Wheels (and two tire cases), plus a bunch of Matchbox size toys.
And that’s before my big library of books in every room but the kitchen and bathrooms.
They make me happy!
Model car builder here. I build in 1/24 and 1/12 scale, mostly, and I tend toward Euro stuff. I’m currently working on Italeri’s brand-new Lancia Stratos in 1/12. It’s a BEAST.
When I was a kid my grandparents got me a Hess tanker truck every year. As an adult with small children I collected enough Scion stuff to fill a mausoleum to a dead brand. I have a keychain , a cell phone sock and some music CDs and we had a knit beanie but lost track of it. I also had tons of Subaru stuff at one time, despite never owning a Subaru.
My “Mazda Rev It Up” hat. I competed in 2003, and I did terribly, mostly because I’m just not very good at autocross (too timid), but to make matters worse, I had quit smoking a couple days prior, so I was all jumpy and irritable. Not good when you’re trying to be smooth and fast in a car. But I got a cool hat out of it. It’s in terrible shape these days, but it’s still my go-to yardwork hat.
Oh, and Tom “Mongoose” McEwen’s signature on a photo of his car. I keep meaning to get it framed and hung up.
I also have a gold-plated ERTL Caterpillar Challenger 45 tractor model that sat on my dad’s desk for years. All the members of the development team got one.
Books, Signatures of Historic Racers, and way too many Diecast models are my jam.
I am into jackets, hats, shirts. I have two GMC racing jackets my uncle gave me once he retired from running shows. May he rest in peace.
I like key chains and pocket screwdrivers, not sure where else to even get the cool little magnetic pocket screwdrivers other than as swag. Key chains I like the chain to match the vehicle, actually have a Ford alt fuel keychain that matches the decal on my tailgate, the bike I have a vinyl keychain that’s in the shape of a motorcycle.
I have a Suzuki keychain for mine – the vinyl is key, shows you get it.
Cadillac’s IMSA swag shirts. They are impeccably designed, always comfortable as hell, and they actually come in sizes (looking at you “XL or the highway” Corvette tent). 2023’s was “the shape of wins to come” and has a bunch of course outlines on it. I feel like James Bond when I wear that shirt. Also it makes it look like I still have biceps and pecs.
Petroliana. I dig all the various gas and oil related stuff.
My Focus key resides on a Castrol keychain b/c of its long term sponsorship of Ford’s rally efforts, my Porsche has a little Gulf Oil pin stuck in the interior b/c of course, and I have a wall full of old signs.
In that vein, I’m really anxious to see how STP navigates the EV revolution. STP electron-flow straightener maybe?
When I bought my first Mini a box of promotional stuff showed up in the mail after a month or two. It included a Mini branded pen and Moleskin set, key fob, USB drive, and sunglasses. I kept the pen and moleskin in the car and still use the USB drive from time to time.
When I replaced it with another Mini they gave me a stuffed bulldog wearing a Mini t-shirt. The kids have fun with it.
I used to collect dealer brochures. Got rid of them last time I moved. I wanted to give them to someone, but didn’t know anyone who’d want them, so they ended up with large stacks of car magazines on the sidewalk with a CL ad/notification hoping someone would drive by and pick them up before trash day, but I don’t think that happened. I have an RT10 Viper promo model in a box somewhere. Probably not worth much as I imagine they made a lot of them and almost everyone kept them in the box for the future like the “collectible” Death of Superman comic or sheets of Elvis stamps that came out a few years later.
For most brands, a pen like that would just be a lazy cash grab used to spread the brand, but that pen just feels so deeply Volvo it’s nearly perfect. 10/10 no notes.
Imagine with every Toyota you get a box of Toyota labeled Bic pens.
You’d be seeing the Toyota name for years of writing grocery lists.
That’s how you build a household brand.
When the BMW-owned Mini first came out in the early ’00s, I stumbled upon an ad in the newspaper (remember those?) promoting an event the local Mini dealer was putting on to showcase the car.
So, Saturday morning at oh-dark-thirty, i am standing in line at the Mini dealer, enjoying free coffee and donuts, and waiting for my turn behind the wheel of one of two brand new Minis – One green, one red, both with automatic transmission.
When i chance came, i got behind the wheel of the green car, greeted the half-asleep salesman in the passenger seat, and drove the little course the dealer had laid out in the Sam’s Club parking lot next door.
About three minutes later, both the drive and the salesman’s pitch were done, i got a handshake, a business card and an invitation to come back for a real test drive.
Monday afternoon, the Mini salesguy calls and tells me i had the third fastest time around the course. This won me a bag o’ Mini-branded merch including a duffle bag, ball cap, a few pens and a radio-controlled Mini.
The bag was destroyed by either Southwest or Airtran, the toy i gave to my nephew and i think i still have the cap, somewhere.
Working auto industry trade shows where part of my job is making sure giveaway items from my employer (an automotive suspension company) are stocked and ready to be grabbed has kinda killed my desire to collect car related giveaways unless it’s something exceptionally cool.
I see people going gaga for stickers or rubber ducks or pins and gotta wonder where they put all that stuff. One year at SEMA we had cooler bags and I remember people walking up and grabbing armfuls at a time, which forced us to step in and manually hand out only one at a time. Like, who needs multiple branded cooler bags? Years later we still get asked if we have any, which we thankfully no longer do.
I work directly in the trade show industry, so I have access to all the giveaways. Took me a couple years to train myself not to grab everything I could. I now have enough pens to last the rest of my natural life, so I quit taking those, along with the shopping bags. All I take anymore are T-shirts and water bottles. I tend to lose the latter a lot, so I have a carton full of replacements 🙂
Ha! I have had the same knock-off Hydro flask for probably ten years now, with a rather handsome IMSA (the year they did tan instead of red for some reason) and Motul sticker, & various coffee and tattoo shops. I don’t put stickers on laptops or cars, so it’s my little free-expression item
I have fond memories of people grabbing armfuls of giveaways at auto shows. 10-15 posters at a time, etc. I always wondered what they were going to do with all of them.
Sell them online and spend more time doing so than it’s all worth.
My memories are from before ebay. So, not sure about back then. Maybe swap meets?