Small boys, often with no prompting from television or anything else, usully acquire a violent and macabre sense of play. When I was young I didn't (as my contemporaries did) throw action men out of high windows and watch them float to earth while giving out clouds of black smoke from their flaming parachutes. I was more into crashing toy cars, which is quite satisfactory except that toy cars are far too strong to dent or crumple when crashing at the speeds at which a small boy can propel them.
So this idea is for a kit. The kit would contain a small chassis - essentially a metal plate with 4 wheels. It would also contain a negative and positive mould of the car's shape. To assemble, press ordinary kitchen foil into the negative mould and then press in the positive mould. Trim the edges, leaving foil tabs where indicated. Take the mould apart, and carefully put the foil car shape onto the chassis, slotting the tabs into the holes in the chassis. The foil car can then be painted or not, but will crumple and dent most satisfactorily when crashed into another, similar, car or a staitionary object.
-- hippo, Sep 19 2002

Buy your crashed toy cars here... http://www.crashbonsai.com/index.html
[DrCurry, Sep 19 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Kenner Smash-Up Derby http://www.toyadz.c...enner/smashup3.html
Baked in the early 70s [waugsqueke, Sep 19 2002]

Clyde's Car Crusher http://www.inthe80s...escarcrusher0.shtml
Provides the tinfoil molding as specified, but for the purposes of car crushing rather than crashing. So hippo squeaks by. [DrCurry, Sep 19 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Isn't this how they used to build minis?
-- Mayfly, Sep 19 2002


my sons' favourite toy was a pair of cars which when aimed at each other, they fell to pieces. forget what they were called, "smash-ups" or something like that.
-- po, Sep 19 2002


I've seen a train wreck toy - the train cars come apart on impact. I used to blow up Airfix cars which, while plastic and thus not quite authentic, did come apart in satisfying ways. And I took a hammer to more than a few Dinkys.

For your scheme to work, you'd need heavy duty foil, or the things would be too flimsy and not crumple right.

In the meantime, see link.
-- DrCurry, Sep 19 2002


// Isn't this how they used to build minis? //

No, [Mayfly], you're thinking of the Nissan Micra.
-- 8th of 7, Sep 19 2002


A vague recollection and a quick search turn up a toy from the 80's called "Clyde's Car Crusher" which according to one account "...was a neat little gadjet that made cars out of tin foil and they could wrecked and dented as if real".

Pretty sketchy info available so I'll leave it up to someone who actually had a "C.C.C." to determine bakedness.
-- half, Sep 19 2002


I think I had the Kenner Smash-Up Derby. As I recall, it was plastic pre-dented cars with doors and fenders that flew off upon impact. No additional denting occured. At least not by design.
-- half, Sep 19 2002


// blow up Airfix cars //

Me too. Stuffed with cotton wool and flammable solvents, they explode in a most satisfctory way. For extra pyromaniac joy, place a plastic-cased disposable lighter in side. When the casing burns through ......... WhOOOSH ! Hint: stand well back, if you value your eyebrows. Packing them with dozens of match heads works well, too.

Similar amusement can be had from crashing model planes. I used to try to replicate the slo-mo crashes on "Thunderbirds" but was never quite successful. <sigh>
-- 8th of 7, Sep 19 2002


Planes can be made to leave most impressive trails of smoke as they go down, though I always found getting them to explode in midair quite tricky. And my cowboys and indians all died bravely as the fort burned down most authentically around them. All in the interests of special effects, you understand.
-- DrCurry, Sep 19 2002


The cars in the Smash-Up Derby had spring-loaded swiveling reversable panels. Before the cars crashed, the "undented" sides of the panels would be exposed. Then when the panel got hit it would swivel to expose the "dented" side.
-- supercat, Sep 19 2002


You're idea has just been baked in time for this Christmas season.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 12 2003


We used to build the cars from lego bricks, but not push them together firmly. On crashing they would erupt in a shower of lego fragments.
-- dobtabulous, Nov 12 2003



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