Little Tikes Cozy Coupe

The Cozy Coupe was designed by Jim Mariol, a former Chrysler designer who had joined the carmaker in 1952 and later ran Design Alliance in Cincinnati. He said the idea came from scooting himself around on his office chair, and the car he sketched for Little Tikes in 1979 worked the same way: no pedals, so a toddler could shove it along Fred Flintstone-style, with a working door, a roof, and a shape one observer called a cross between a Volkswagen Beetle and Fred Flintstone's car. Little Tikes, founded in Ohio in 1967 by Tom Murdough and Jack Hill and bought by Rubbermaid in 1984, molded it in red and yellow plastic and had one of the first molded-plastic toy cars sold in the United States.

Then it became a running joke in the automotive press, because the joke was true. In 1991 the Cozy Coupe sold about 500,000 units in the United States, more than the Honda Accord or the Ford Taurus that year, and in 1998 The New York Times called it the world's best-selling car for much of the decade. Every kid born in the 80s and 90s had a turn behind its wheel, at home, at a cousin's house, or at the daycare where the fight over whose turn it was never ended. By its 25th anniversary in 2004 it had sold six million, and by 2009 more than ten million.

The 90s also brought the first changes. Little Tikes added a purple roadster, a blue minivan, an SUV and pickups in 1996, and the original lost its spot as the industry's top seller. In 1998 Murdough himself, by then running rival Step 2, called the design dated, something that looked like it was designed in the 70s, and Little Tikes answered with the Cozy Coupe II, thicker roof pillars and a remote that made unlocking, horn and car-alarm sounds. The cartoon eyes and smile on the front arrived in 2009 for the 30th anniversary, when the first Cozy Coupe off the 1979 line went to the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum. The one in your grandparents' garage has no face, and the yellow roof has faded to cream.