Maisto Tonka Die Cast Collection 2 Nuclear Energy Van Maisto, 2000
Day #2,721: June 20, 2024
Die Cast Collection 2 Nuclear Energy Van Die Cast Collection 2 - #12 / 50
Tonka 2021 Die Cast Collection 2 Basic Cars
Item No.: Asst. ??? No. 15130 Manufacturer:Maisto Includes:n/a Action Feature:n/a Retail:$1.00 Availability: ca. 2000 Other: Atomic Power Services not for use with some sets
As a kid I and a lot of American boys had at least one Tonka truck. Maybe it was the Mighty Dump, or something less hilariously named. I had a plastic dump truck that survived outdoors in the Arizona summer Sun for years, so the Tonka brand name held a pretty strong amount of regard since childhood - but like many toy companies, it got sold. Hasbro bought it, and then started to license it out. They're perfectly interesting toys, but not amazing. This Nuclear Energy Van was something I had to pick up when it came out back in 2000, but it stayed packaged until 2013 and remained unreviewed (despite being photographed in 2013) until 2024. It's a little rough despite never having been played with, but it's charming, cheap, and was probably the kind of thing parents saw and said "Oh Tonka's great, let's buy that." The bright purple goofiness appealed to my Man or Astro-Man? b-movie loving aesthetic, so it's still here in my home decades later.
It will not surprise you to hear that it's available pretty cheaply on eBay. While it is called a Nuclear Energy Van on the package, the purple toy has a green Bohr's model of the atom with the words "Atomic Power Services," "Caution," "RLB730," and a Tonka logo. That's here in case anyone is trying to identify this toy from a future search.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend opening it - the wheels don't spin very well, and on track with a launcher it's useless. It flips over immediately. Most cars go a few inches, this one just plays dead - so it's a display piece, or something for your dioramas. As I am unfamiliar with the history of all things Maisto, I don't know if this was necessarily the first release. It's labeled "Search Truck," and while a Wiki page exists I see that it's missing some data and claims the first release was in 2007. The mold was (according to eBay sellers) also used in the 1990s, so there's a lot to collect if you want to be a completist on this particular release, what with its blacked-out lightbar and windows. Rolling it along track using only gravity, it seems slower going and reaches the end of the long track, but doesn't clear it. It's not the worst car - that'd be anything with rubber wheels - but it's not a performance vehicle.
Toys like this open the door to the fascinating world of not-quite-Hot Wheels, and you've no doubt seen countless "dollar store" or "flea market" brands over the years. Maisto is a long-running major player, but their stuff isn't always top-of-the-line. In this case, it's creative and looks super cool - but it's usually on the same pegs as Matchbox, Hot Wheels, or up-and-comers like Zuru's Metal Machines. There are also higher-end releases like Johnny Lightning, or forgotten lines like Kenner's Fast 111s from the 1980s, and I could keep going. It's a rabbit hole like no other - Hot Wheels could keep a daily toy blogger going for a lifetime on new releases alone, and there are 60 years of roughly 1:64 scale cars and playsets out there to have. Mattel alone makes over 500 new ones every year, so good luck discovering what you missed. I keep stumbling on amazing things, and I just lucked into this one at a Toys R Us in Tucson, AZ during a simper time.
This isn't a great toy, but it's an awesome collectible. It's cheap, it's weird, and it's peak late-1990s sci-fi. This came out of the decade that winded down with alien autopsies and The X-Files, which would later deliver unto us Invader Zim before the bulk of pop culture moved on from a certain retro-chic sci-fi bent. Get it if you think it looks cool, but it's not even particularly great for its time in terms of engineering. Having said that, give the deco artist a raise for coming up with something so clever and weird that it got me to buy an off-brand format of a collectible I wasn't the slightest bit interested in at the time. (Those were lean years.)
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