Photo credit: Geekologie
Little Tikes Cozy Coupe is one toy that many of us grew up with, but now, John Mead has created a life-sized, street legal version. That’s right, he spent over 1000-hours and $6500 USD (£4500) building it. Despite looking like a giant toy, this vehicle can achieve speeds of up to 70mph. The car’s design, described as “a cross between a Volkswagen Beetle and Fred Flintstone’s vehicle”, was created by Jim Mariol of Cincinnati-based Design Alliance, who had worked as a designer at Chrysler starting in 1952. Continue reading for a video.
First sold in 1979 as one of the first molded-plastic toy cars sold in the United States, it was called the “world’s best-selling car for much of this decade” by The New York Times in 1998, outselling the Honda Accord and Ford Taurus. As of 1991, the Cozy Coupe was selling 500,000 units per year, making it the top-selling model in the United States, outselling the 399,000 Accords and 299,000 Taurus vehicles sold that year. By 1997, its sales of 313,000 units in the US and another 100,000 sold in the United Kingdom in 1997, would have made it the fifth-best-selling car in the US among real vehicles.
