In dinky little vehicles: Citroën and, even worse, Microlino. I guess they have to make them too cute or no one would buy them. Or something like that.
The second one looks like an Isetta.
My first personal terminal, a HeathKit H19 (looking like this), was IMHO pretty cute even without spaceship decals.
I foresee a future of kawaii-cute vehicles seen as dolls, fuzzy or feathered pets, super-heroes or -villains, celebs, clothing including hats and shoes, sex toys, instruments, tools, etc. Erupting volcanoes cost extra. Meanwhile, let’s return to the post-WWII days when bubblecars shaped like fighter jets menaced European roads.
Well, I didn’t mean “terminal” literally, but I suppose taking something literally is a long established internet convention, pre-dating the Web, even. Anyway, that terminal reminds me a lot of the Tektronix terminals. I used to work for Tek and they had lots of those all over the company. I never thought of them as cute, though.
This goes back at least to the 50’s with the Princess telephone.
Designed to be functional, and cuteness is not a bad marketing afterthought.
When I was 14, I had already given up the carnival bumper-cars, which I could drive at six. How hard is it to start, steer and stop a little car?
Those cars look like something that would lodge in the tread of semi truck tires!
~VOW
IIRC an early SNL skit defined “Terminal Cuteness” as Shirley Temple Syndrome."
As near as I can tell, the bodywork on that Citroën is perfectly symmetrical. The left front fender is the same as the right rear fender. That means half the molds and tooling of a conventional car body. I suspect the cuteness is a by-product of an attempt to keep production costs low.
Attach some white lights on one end, red on the other (and a few other things) and you’re good to go.
From the link in the OP:
Yep, that’s terminal. It’s bad enough here 14 year olds with cat M license (only theory, not practical test) who are allowed to drive scooters on the road. They are a menace as the fully licensed car driver has to compensate for their cluelessness.
That’s exactly what they did. Even the driver’s and passenger’s doors are the same.