Mach 5 is a special car that has all kinds of gadgets meant to help Speed Racer win the races and come out as a winner from any situation. The car has several special features that become available at the touch of a button. The buttons are situated on the steering wheel and named from A to G. there is a special button named H that is situated in the console. Button A or the Auto Jacks is the button used when the car needs any repairs or adjustments. This would be a useful button especially for most of the drivers who do not know anything about repairing a car. The B button or the Belt Tires is the button that makes special grip tires available. If you have to go over rough roads, icy roads, unsteady roads or climb steep hills and rocky mountains you need to press the B button. Of course this is not possible in the real life where you have to change the tires according to the season and you have to buy a car or a truck according to the area where you live.

Mach 5 also has Cutters that are put into function by pressing button C. Cutters are useful for Speed Racer when he needs to go through woods. In real life if there is no road you do not drive your car because you do not want to scratch it or get a flat tire. The D button is one we would all love to have in our cars. By pressing this button the car is covered in a bullet proof shield, but more important in a crash proof shield. Also the cockpit is sealed and the care can go under water. The next button, E, is called the Evening Eye because is has special lights including infrared light. Button F releases a periscope and thus is useful when the car is under water. There is also an oxygen canister that has enough oxygen for half an hour and a video system that allows Speed Racer to see everything around him. Button G or the Gizmo Rocket is the one that allows Speed to send a little robot flying from under the hood of the car. The robot can send messages anywhere where Speed needs to send them.

The last button, H, positioned in the console with the other buttons that help working the robot, is the button that actually sends the robot home. The little white car with a red M painted on the hood and yellow 5s on each part of the car is the dream car for any person because of all the special features available. No real car manufacturer managed to make a car close to this except in its looks. The Corvette has a car designed after Speed’s car, but the only ones that have some of the features that car from the animated series has, are the toy ones.

The good thing about the diecast toys is that they can be identical with the real size original. They can have all kind of features to describe the real thing. These kinds of toys became popular as collectibles during the 50s when the detail and quality of the toys rose. In the beginning the most popular diecast toys were the Matchbox series and the Hot Wheels series. In fact Matchbox was so successful that when people referred to a toy as a Matchbox toy they meant any toy made of plastic and Zamak. Since these toys are exact copies of the real thing at a smaller scale a lot of companies realized that by reproducing a vehicle or piece of equipment at a smaller scale, as a toy, could mean good advertising for them. Thus nowadays you can find different airline plains at different scales, cars, trucks, helicopters, buses and even construction equipment and agricultural machinery.

All the car producers have their models reduced at different scales. This 100% reproduction at a smaller scale became a very successful part of the toy manufacturing industry. People who own a nice car or have a dream car most of the times want to have it at least at a smaller scale. The usual scales are 1:12, 1:18, 1:24 and 1:64. The 1:12 is a large model that is usually intended for collectors. The 1:24 is the most common scale for the models intended for children for playing. Also pretty popular are the 1:64 scaled toys though these are not intended for small children because of the tiny pieces that they are made from. Famous cars like the cars from Need for Speed or the animated movie Cars or the animated series Speed Racer – Mach 5 are usually available in most of the existing scales. Of course the price varies from a scale to another. Also if a toy was produced in a limited edition its price is going to rise over the advertised price especially amongst collectors.

You find pretty much any car you can think of at a smaller scale than the real one. All the car producers have their old and new models scaled down. Also military vehicles are more and more popular both as toys and as collectibles. You can even get cars and other vehicles at the 1:87 scale so that you can have them as a key chain. If you like these kinds of toys you have to be careful not to become dependent. This hobby can be a very expensive one and you might need a lot of space for your cars and such. There are several websites apart from the toy stores that sell different models and scales of cars. Collectors’ sites offer information and photos of their collections and most of the times the models they buy are still in the original packaging.