Top ten Xmas toys from my childhood #6

Thundershift 500 (1976)

Ah yes. Hot Wheels kept the hits on coming throughout the 60′s & 70′s. One of my favorite toys does not qualify for my list. It was my older brother’s Cobra vs. Mongoose race set. You may remember it. It had the orange track and you mounted the launch gate to your kitchen table, it had 2 loops, and a parachute system. Mattel later came out with the ultimate racing system – Thundershift 500. A big oval with power shifters that propelled the cars around the track. You had to be careful, though. One bad shift and you would jam the car in the shifting mechanism and wreck. My set had two Dodge stock cars. A red one, and a yellow one. You had to time these particular cars just right & provide the proper strength to the shift, or the cars would either fly off the track or not make it around the entire circuit.
I found the secret to winning at this every time. An ugly orange GMC motorhome provided enough weight to stay on the track no matter how hard you shifted. It ran really smooth. Wasn’t very glamorous, but it worked.