It Came From Out Of The Ground!

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

You all know that someone built a travel trailer onto the house sometime in the '70s, and that we had it demolished in July. We also had a couple of maple trees cut down. The unpaved area that was under the rear half of the trailer is riddled with roots, and I’ve been digging them out with a pick and shovels.

Yesterday I unearthed a Hot Wheels Sizzlers ‘Straight Scoop’ car. I’ve cleaned it up as well as I could. Clues suggest it was lost and buried about 45 years ago. Sadly, I don’t have a charger so I can’t see if it still works! :stuck_out_tongue:

#2

Wow, I’m amazed that the paint is still relatively intact and there’s not more visible rust (in the picture).

#3

The paint was protected by the concrete-like dried mud. As for rusting, Sizzlers had plastic bodies. :wink:

#4

Luckily eBay can come to the rescue. Search there for
hot wheels sizzler charger
hot wheels sizzler battery

Although frankly few people seem to be as excited about these as you are as the whole car can be purchased cheaply there if you search for
hot wheels sizzler

#5

I am informed that if it was new in package there would be a market.

#6

Question, How did it get there, and who buried it? Last I heard kids don’t bury their toys. Wait, I take that back. Son-of-a-wrek use to bury treasure boxes. I never knew what was in them. Yea, he was a weird kid.

#7

Pirate in training?

#8

Arggh.

#9

We’ve found all kinds of buried treasure in our yard. The property was a public park ca. 1880s-1918, our house went up in 1919. Most recently TallyDog unearthed a steel toy German Messerschmidt airplane; the interweb indicates it was made 1943-46. I have a collection of metal soldiers, marbles, jacks, and other kids’ toys that I presume were lost/forgotten and got buried over the years.

BaxterDog loped in one day with a heavy brass candlestick holder in his mouth (the pitbulls are digging machines). My neighbor, an amateur antiquer, says it is 18th century. I haven’t had it looked at professionally, so who knows. I’d like to find some Revolutionary War military accoutrements – Georgie and friends marched right through here on the way to kick Hessian butt.

#10

Tell him to make a list of any Treasure Box locations he can recall, so his grandkids can dig them up someday… “Hey, an early 21st century Nintendo DS! And, look at this! Baseball cards from the Ignoring Steroids Era – I can finance my trip to Europa with those!”

#11

I had Hot Wheels “Sizzlers” when I was a kid. They were fun, though the 90 seconds of charging time before they would go again was the longest 90 seconds ever. Hey, I was an impatient kid.

Somewhere, I’ve got a couple of “mint-in-box” ones. I couldn’t lay my hands on them right now, but I’ve got a good idea which box in the garage they’re in.

#12

To be clear, that was a joke.

#13

Kids lose toys. Sizzlers were made between 1970 and 1972, and there was concrete poured at the house in 1972. My complete guess is that the kid was playing with the car outside, perhaps because it had stopped working or some other reason, and he lost it or forgot it in the dirt. Then when his dad was working on the area, it just got buried.

Incidentally, I bought my house from a friend. When he bought the house, he unearthed a cheap die-cast (‘pot metal’) toy car. It’s about 4" or 5" long (I’m in the office today), one of the tabs that held the wire axle is broken, and all of the paint is long gone. It looks like some sort of early-'60s car. I’ve thought about hitting it with some steel wool and painting it.

#14

My house sits on the property where the barns for the original schoolhouse in my little town were. The school was in operation from the 1880’s or 1890’s to about 1921. I haven’t really found anything interesting and think the property must have been used as a dumping ground in the 35 years between the old school being there and my house being built as I’ve found things that would not have been around at the time the old school was there like a bottle opener for a brand of beer that was introduced in the 1930’s. Other than the bottle opener and an old Mason jar lid with a porcelain insert, like I said, I haven’t really found anything interesting. Mostly bits of coal, broken glass/ceramic/porcelain, concrete pieces and bits of rusty metal like a tire iron.