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Children's Electric Vehicles, Opinions please
John Bonnett - 13/8/21 at 12:52 PM

As many of you know, metal shaping is my passion and I and my son have been talking about limited production of hand built electric cars to suit children but with sufficient room for an adult to drive as there is on the Toylanders.

Toylander have confirmed that there is a market and it would be nice to have a slice of it. I think it is important that an adult can be accommodated because I have a feeling that like many toys bought for the kids, it's the dads who are really buying for themselves. So perhaps we are looking at 75% scale.

Bugatti themselves have just announced a commemorative batch of 500 mini type 35s for a modest £27k and I'm sure they will be snapped up. These will be faithful replicas correct in every detail but what I'd be looking to produce is a semi-replica, something between them and a Toylander in terms of realism and finish. A hand formed aluminium body for sure. People do like hand formed aluminium because it is so tactile and everyone wants to stroke it. Simple is good and a Lotus 7 might be a good place to start. Availability of correct size wheels is fundamental and would definitely influence the choice of the target vehicle. I would want to avoid anything bulbous with a lot of curvature and feature lines and favour a simple body style.

I would appreciate any thoughts you might have on what you think might be a suitable choice of replica that would be attractive to potential buyers and reasonably easy to build.

[Edited on 13/8/21 by John Bonnett]

theconrodkid - 13/8/21 at 01:13 PM

Land rover or WW2 Jeep would be the obvious ones or how about the Tesla truck , for something a bit futuristic, star ship Enterprise ?.

John Bonnett - 13/8/21 at 01:26 PM

quote:
Originally posted by theconrodkid
Land rover or WW2 Jeep would be the obvious ones or how about the Tesla truck , for something a bit futuristic, star ship Enterprise ?.



One end of the scale to the other in design terms. Good thinking.

It would need to be something without a roof so that it is accessible for an adult so we are probably looking of a convertible I would have thought.

[Edited on 13/8/21 by John Bonnett]

HowardB - 13/8/21 at 02:55 PM

There is a market and it is high value - I mean more than normal cars,...

have a look at this lot - dinky_linky

smart and expensive

John Bonnett - 13/8/21 at 03:01 PM

quote:
Originally posted by HowardB
There is a market and it is high value - I mean more than normal cars,...

have a look at this lot - dinky_linky

smart and expensive


Thank you Howard, a good find. I'm liking this a lot!!

myke pocock - 13/8/21 at 03:11 PM

Agree with conrod, Wilys Jeep and Series 1 Land Rover as they are both iconic.

John Bonnett - 13/8/21 at 04:02 PM

quote:
Originally posted by myke pocock
Agree with conrod, Wilys Jeep and Series 1 Land Rover as they are both iconic.



I agree with you both, they are iconic but Toylander do them and I don't want to be accused of copying them. I'm favouring a Lotus 7 which arguably is also iconic and relatively easy to build.

gremlin1234 - 13/8/21 at 04:21 PM

the market is quite big...
at Classic Lemans, they have an event titled littlebigmans

https://www.lemansclassic.com/language/en/little-big-mans-2/
photo below from their webpage, showing the diversity.

Description
Description

perksy - 13/8/21 at 04:37 PM

I thought this was Lovely

Errrrr might take some pocket money and a few paper rounds to pay for it though


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/cars/article-9879999/Ferrari-Testa-Rossa-J-95k-toy-replica-legendary-250.html

HowardB - 13/8/21 at 04:39 PM

How about simpler and easier and do an Austin 7 replica - ?

perksy - 13/8/21 at 04:51 PM

Original looking Lotus 7 or a Model T Ford ?

Futuristic looking pick up truck or an old school American pick up ?

gremlin1234 - 13/8/21 at 05:14 PM

how about triumph... spitfire or TR6? or even a herald/vitesse convertible.

or if looking a bit more modern, Lotus Elise, but probably too many complex curves.

and a wildcard, 2cv !

John Bonnett - 13/8/21 at 05:59 PM

Some great replies and a multiplicity of fresh ideas. Thank you so much everyone.

This will be my son's project and it is for him to decide but if it were my decision I would try to replicate the Prisoner Lotus 7 Series 2.

gremlin1234 - 13/8/21 at 08:09 PM

another idea, which probably appears stupid but just might work, even at half size...

a fire engine
then you could also sell all sorts of accessories for it too

John Bonnett - 13/8/21 at 08:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by gremlin1234
another idea, which probably appears stupid but just might work, even at half size...

a fire engine
then you could also sell all sorts of accessories for it too



Blimey, now that is thinking out of the box. Never any shortage of ideas, information and original thoughts on this forum. Fantastic.

gremlin1234 - 13/8/21 at 08:51 PM

quote:
Originally posted by John Bonnett
Blimey, now that is thinking out of the box. Never any shortage of ideas, information and original thoughts on this forum. Fantastic.


if you wanted to go further out of the box, you could build miniature tramways!

second half of this page
http://tram23.co.uk/Barnetworks.htm

edit better link
http://tram23.co.uk/Default.htm

[Edited on 13/8/21 by gremlin1234]

theconrodkid - 14/8/21 at 06:26 AM

how about a postman Pat van

John Bonnett - 14/8/21 at 08:16 AM

quote:
Originally posted by theconrodkid
how about a postman Pat van



Yes we could do that and there are quite a few already. A lad on the RetroRides readers rides forum is building one in aluminium and making a nice job of it.

Mr Whippy - 14/8/21 at 08:22 AM

Since you work aluminium a proper metal Willy's Jeep would be great.

Having built a Toylander and then went off letting my kids use it. Number one would be safely. True roll over protection. Remote kill switch. Variable speed limit. Automatic power cut off tilt sensor and seat belts. Make sure you have a waver on injury leading from use of your product.

Toylander biggest flaw is the deadful and heavy steering.

Mr Whippy - 14/8/21 at 08:35 AM

Probably an unpopular view but personally having kids drive anything powerful enough to carry an adult and child seems potentially very dangerous. Electric is definitely safer and more controllable than an engine but your still dealing with a lot of power in the hands of people with little to no common sense. Seen quite a few kids on mini bikes, quads and even an engine powered Range Rover come croppers with the parent running off to save them. In the end I got my kids a couple of electric mini's with just a 6v system and even then the idiots crashed into everything.

John Bonnett - 14/8/21 at 08:49 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
Probably an unpopular view but personally having kids drive anything powerful enough to carry an adult and child seems potentially very dangerous. Electric is definitely safer and more controllable than an engine but your still dealing with a lot of power in the hands of people with little to no common sense. Seen quite a few kids on mini bikes, quads and even an engine powered Range Rover come croppers with the parent running off to save them. In the end I got my kids a couple of electric mini's with just a 6v system and even then the idiots crashed into everything.



Yes fair point about safety and disclaimers, some well worth considering before selling and opening a whole new can of worms.

Dingz - 14/8/21 at 01:17 PM

If you don't mind making all the curves then how about a Morris Minor convertable?

John Bonnett - 14/8/21 at 02:57 PM

Thank you all for your input. Some great and very original ideas many of which I would never have thought of as potential targets. Special thanks to Whippy and 02GF74 for flagging up their concerns about safety, product liability and litigation. All very valid and an area that would have to be taken extremely seriously. Also the decision about whether we're building a replica or a toy. To produce a replica with the kind of detail necessary we could be looking at the same build time as a full size car and we all know how long that takes. So we're left with a toy and the question whether that's what we want to be doing.

This has been a very useful exercise and I'm indebted to everyone who has responded and helped crystallise our thoughts. My own feeling is that this is one project that won't get out of the starting blocks. So perhaps we've gone about as far as we can and this may be the time to bring the thread to an end.

Thank you once again

John

MikeR - 16/8/21 at 11:51 AM

Could I suggest a "retro" truck. Should be very simple with curves etc and would have the added advantage of being "useful" with the truck being able to move stuff.

(Aka motorised wheelbarrow)