>>10982532>Now I’m watching my kid being mesmerized by it.That's so cool! I think Speed Racer is particularly appealing to kids because it's EXTREMELY transparent; they both show and tell everything that's happening, constantly, but it's still very fast-paced and absurd so they don't lose interest.
My uncle showed it to me back when I was young in the mid-'90s, and it kinda blew my mind; there really wasn't anything else like it, and the way most stories spanned two or even three episodes was extremely different from more episodic American cartoons, it really drew me in.
Anyway, to keep it toy related, here's one of my grails; the Johnny Lightning Mach 4. It's from about 20 years ago and is based on the Mach 4 from the Speed Racer Origin comic from Dark Horse (I think?) around the same time. It's actually a really great miniseries with fantastic car art if you're into that. It was basically just their Mach 5 casting in firemist orange with the headlights painted on top instead of underneath, but you had to send away for it which made it pretty rare. I see it come up on ebay every few years, and it's always too rich for my blood.