Driving Toys! Mattel Driving School, Matchbox Steer-n-Go and Schaper U-Drive-It

[TheBigFuckinLebowski]

I had a U Drive It when I was young, up here in Montreal, and the two cars were the same models as yours, except they were clear purple plastic! Quite nicely stylized I would say. I can't seem to find those on eBay, always the yellow and red ones...

[ToyKingWonder]

@TheBigFuckinLebowski Interesting. On that note of bizarre, I have a U-Fly-It set (profiled in one of my videos too)that I bought it off a guy in Canada on eBay. Not only does it have instructions in both English and French, but it does not say from Schaper. It says from Transogram Canada! Now try to figure out how all those relationships were...

[TheBigFuckinLebowski]

@ToyKingWonder Yes! The U Fly It I had as a kid was made by Transogram Canada too! Now I have one I bought on eBay (Instructor set, just like I had as a kid) and it's a Schaper. I don't remember if the U Drive it I had was marketted by Transogram Canada, as the box was exactly like yours, but it probably was since I remember having french instructions with it (I am french canadian).

[christuffer]

I learnt to drive on this.

[tnkat]

I had the U Drive It and I loved it! Played it all the time!

[fredintheshed1]

Wow memories ! I also had a steer n go back in the late 70's. It was a challenge in the dark with the little torch light underneath. I rem it used to eat EVER READY batteries and then the motor burned out so i ended up using the road way as a huge frisbee. Thanks for posting

[ToyKingWonder]

@fredintheshed1 Awww, that is a sad story! I didn't even figure out that torch light until late in the game and got it going, SO cool. You will notice in the video that some shots I did not have it fixed yet. SHhhh, don't tell anyone! I think the modern Alkalines are better...those old silver Ever Readys never worked well in toys...my Jimmy Jet would always wear them out in a day!!!! Thanks for watching Fred.

[vicky9576]

i had the matchbox steer n go as a child in the late 70's as a gift from an auntie and uncle i loved it , it was the bees knees in its day, can't remember what happend to it though. wish i still had it as i would have passed it down to my own kids now as long as they looked after it. they do pop up on ebay every now and then but cost a fortune. i keep telling myself one of these days i'm gonna get myself one as i nice child hood keep sake nice vid mate.

[ToyKingWonder]

@vicky9576 Thank you Vicky...I hope you find one. Really one of my favorite toys! Next thing I want to get is the Matchbox Motorway. Way cool.

[rx6180]

I wanted the Matchbox Steer N' Go very badly when I was a kid aged about ten. They were in my mum's mail order catalogue every Christmas, priced about £6. I never got one. I always imagined the Matchbox car remained loose on the rotating surface and you just threw it around somehow, but now I see that could never work. It looks a bit flimsy but in your demo works better than I expected. The motion in the U Drive It is better, but the flat terrain means you can never crash! Thanks for posting.

[ToyKingWonder]

@rx6180 Your comment is interesting. I too, remember looking at these driving toys in the Sears Catalog (Sears, I am not sure if you have any in the UK but they had a HUGE Christmas Catalog here) where they had their own version (probably a modified Schaper) and I would wonder how they worked. I also wondered how the awesome Matchbox Motorway worked and didn't really get to see it until it was on youtube a few years back.

[rx6180]

@ToyKingWonder Matchbox Motorway! Now that's dredged up a name from my memory! I'd totally forgotten about that. I've now looked at a couple of YT videos to remind me. The box is very familiar but I can't say as I ever wanted one of those like I had the Steer N' Go. I guess because it reminded me of Scalextric & I already had one of those. Looking at the working models it looks spectacular at first, but I imagine it has limited play value as the cars just go round & round with no user control

[jmarineau66]

The U Drive It toy arrived under the Christmas tree in 1974 the first year this toy was manufactured. I wish I was 8 years old again.....LOL

[ToyKingWonder]

@jmarineau66 Why do you think I collect toys? :-)

[philo426]

Yes I ordered it from the J.C. Penny Christmas catalog.

[ToyKingWonder]

Wow, Philo, had never seen that one. I did see another Matchbox version that did not have the car "fenders" underneath the playing surface but just a small housing that came out containing the spinning axis. That one did not appear to tilt like you described however, so sounds like there was at least 3 versions of the Matchbox unit!!!

[philo426]

I had a Matchbox version from the mid to late '70s that could be used with any Matchbox or Hot Wheels car.(included self-stick magnets that attached to the bottom of the car).The vac-form driving surface had larger peaks than the '60s version and the steering wheel was thicker but the concept was the same.It also had a pan and tilt feature that increased the driving challenge.Very cool!