Pedal cars, horses and models come from the USSR: how a Kazan resident saves unique toys. Pedal horse

Pedal horse
And this mythical creature, the illegitimate cousin of the centaur and the puller, arose from the desire of Soviet industry to give the best to children. The most brilliant minds were thrown into creating the perfect cross between a wheeled horse and a bicycle. The mutant received the official name “pedal horse” and was put into mass production in the late 1950s.

Children and parents were in ecstasy. The kids couldn’t ride the horsebox, pushing off with their feet as usual: the protruding pedals got in the way. And it was also impossible to turn the tight and clumsy pedals - a rare muscular child could cover a distance of several meters, after which he usually fell safely, since the structure also did not suffer from excessive stability. A few years later, horse builders were forced to admit their fiasco, and the pedal horse disappeared from the shelves, but remained forever in the people's memory.

Ovation
Derived from the Latin word meaning "sheep". Why did this peaceful and lethargic animal come to symbolize resounding success? Because for successful military leaders and other persons who had accomplished outstanding civil feats, the Romans decided to organize “triumphs” - ceremonial processions with obligatory sacrifices. During a great triumph, bulls were slaughtered, and during a small one (for slightly lesser achievements), sheep went under the knife.

Not at ease
This expression has become so familiar and understandable that its strange meaning is not felt at all by those who pronounce it. But at one time, about 150 years ago, it made a lot of noise. The entire enlightened society of Moscow and St. Petersburg laughed at the would-be translator, who, having undertaken to translate a fashionable French novel into his native speech, scribbled a bunch of mistakes there. Even in such a common expression as “n"etre pas dans son assiete” (“not in his usual position”), he managed to confuse similar words - “position” and “plate” and, without thinking too much about what happened , decided that it would do just fine.

Loaf
Doctor Ferdinand Justus Christian Loder, who opened an “institution of artificial mineral waters” in Moscow at the beginning of the 19th century, of course, counted on success, but reality exceeded his wildest expectations. Coachmen and footmen, who waited for three hours for their masters, who lay under umbrellas in sun loungers with mugs of mineral water, created a word that accurately describes the above-mentioned activity. “They’ve been chasing lazy people since noon,” they sighed to each other and dejectedly scratched their shaggy beards, soaked with sweat.

Tragedy
The word "tragedy" means "song of the goats." In Ancient Greece, tragedies were plays of divine content, which were accompanied by performances by a choir dressed in masks depicting the heads of these divine artiodactyls. By the way, there may well have been no sad things in these plays, although, of course, the intervention of the gods usually did not bring good to the heroes. So, in the end, the word “tragedy” began to mean something like: “And now a sea of ​​​​blood will be shed, everyone will first suffer for a long time, and then die in terrible agony.”

Sharomyzhnik
The word appeared at the very beginning of the 19th century, shortly after the Napoleonic campaign. The remnants of the French army, as you know, were retreating along the Smolensk road, deprived of any supplies. They supplied themselves by raiding nearby villages. Moreover, they rarely attacked with weapons: it’s not easy to brush off pitchforks with scythes with frostbitten hands in a hungry delirium. Therefore, they addressed the local residents timidly and affectionately: “Mon cher ami! Dear friend, don’t you have something to chew, for all people are brothers and I really want to eat!” “Sher Amyg” were somehow fed, and they moved on, populating the vastness of our country with a new wonderful expression.

Give me two!
The phrase, which in recent years everyone and all and sundry has been chasing around, is in fact the end of a once very famous joke, which in its entirety goes like this:

- Girl, how much is this porcelain kitty with a mustache?
- This is no kitty, but Marshal Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny!
- Holy shit! Give me two!

Let's go back to our sheep
This phrase is 537 years old. In 1469, the now famous medieval farce “Lawyer Pierre Patlin” was staged for the first time. The plot of the farce is incredibly complicated (that's why it's a farce), but its central part is the courtroom scene. A man is being tried, suspected of stealing a flock of sheep from his patron, but the trial is constantly getting confused, due to the fact that all its participants quarrel, scandalize and accuse each other of a variety of sins. So the judge has to say the phrase ten times: “Revenons a nos moutons!” - “So let’s go back to our sheep!”

Stupid as a plug
Why a cork is stupider than a fork, a chest of drawers, or, say, ontognoseology, can only be explained by that highly erudite citizen who knows this proverb in its full, unabridged version, which sounded like this: “Stupid as a cork, where you stick it, it sticks out.” The end of this very common phrase was gradually stopped being said (why? And so everyone knows what’s next) and was shortened to the point that now almost no one remembers why the traffic jam was so offended.

Confusion
The cats and Vasya have nothing to do with it, although both of them sometimes cause a lot of noise and trouble. This word, funny to the Russian ear, has the most pompous ancient origin: it is from the Greek language, and even straight from a church service. It means “descent” and describes the moment when, in some solemn services, two choirs (choirs) descend from their places to the center of the temple, merge into one and sing together. Even after long rehearsals, this convergence did not always proceed smoothly, so it is not surprising that “disarray” came to mean confusion, bedlam and confusion.

It will heal before the wedding
Nobody remembers what exactly should heal before the wedding. But in vain. Because it doesn’t heal before the wedding - this is a medically established fact. But this anatomical moment was unknown to the uneducated village ladies, to whom the depraved lads whispered these words in their ears, trying to lure the village women into the hayloft. By the way, “nothing, everything will grow together” is from the same opera, and not at all about broken arms and legs.

Fly like plywood over Paris
At the beginning of the era of aeronautics, an event took place in France - the flight of the airship "Flâneur" over Paris. In those days, any events of this kind were necessarily accompanied by numerous newspaper comments, so for several days the whole world followed the fate of the Flaneur with interest and discussed its flight over evening tea parties. The device landed safely and was forgotten, but the expression remained. True, since no one remembered any “Flaneur”, at first it became Russified, turning into “Flaneur”, and then somewhere lost the letter “l”. The result is an image that excites the imagination with its mystery - “plywood over Paris.”

Ksiva
This slang word is at least three thousand years old. It was ksivs that the Jerusalem guards asked Christ and his apostles, because in Aramaic this word means “papers”, “documents”. And it came into Russian jargon with the help of educated Jewish bandits and swindlers, who at the beginning of the 20th century made up a significant part of the criminal world of Odessa and Kyiv. In general, about 10 percent of the words in the criminal dictionary are of Jewish origin (from Yiddish and Hebrew) - for example, “boy”, “shmon”, “shmot”, “shukher”, “raspberry”, “blat”, “parasha”.

Hunger is not a thing
And again we have an example of how, having cut off the tail, everyone happily forgets about it. Why “not auntie”, but at least not “not uncle”? But because in its entirety the phrase had a completely understandable meaning: “Hunger is not an aunt, it won’t slip you a pie.” That is, unlike a kind-hearted female relative who will feed you at least furtively, hunger does not know any leniency.

Stay with your nose
Why is it bad to stay with your nose? Is it better without a nose, or what? No, the creators of this phraseological unit were not at all fanatics of noselessness. It’s just that 300 years ago, when it arose, the word “nose” had another meaning, almost as important as the main one. It meant “bribe”, “offering”, that is, something without which it was impossible to take a step in Russia of that time (and not only in Russia of that time). If the person who took the bribe was unable to reach an agreement with the official, he, accordingly, remained with his nose and felt unimportant about this.

According to the Hamburg account
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the world was gripped by the fever of the French struggle. In all circuses, the second section was assigned to mustachioed strongmen in striped tights, who, to the delight of the audience, relished each other's faces in the sawdust, performing all these amazing techniques: suples, roulade, tour de bras, nelson, parterre. Champions were more popular than singers, actors and princes; The names of Poddubny, Buhl and Van Riel were known to every self-respecting child over three years old. But very few knew that this whole struggle was a complete fiction like modern wrestling. The fight scenarios were written out in advance, and entertainment was much more important than sport. Wrestling impresarios sold the tournament results of their players, and fortunes were made on pseudo-totals. And only once a year the best wrestlers came to Hamburg, where they rented an arena and secretly, almost under the cover of darkness, in fair fights found out which of them was really the best, and who was just a mustachioed doll painted with stripes.

Pedal horse

The dream of Soviet children. History of production.

Pedal horse.
This horse is familiar to many who spent their childhood in the USSR. A pedal horse, like various pedal cars, was the dream of many Soviet children.

Such horses in the USSR from the 50s to the 80s were produced at several factories in the defense and metalworking complex in the line of consumer goods. For example, at the Moscow Salyut plant and at the Omsk aviation plant Polet.

In the 70-80s, the price of this toy was 21 rubles. 50 kopecks (Average salary 80-120 rub.)

Few people could afford to buy such a toy. For some reason, in many parks you could rent a horse or a pedal car. True, rental units were not always in good condition, which may be why many people have not very pleasant impressions of riding.

They write that the horse was terribly uncomfortable, clumsy and creaky. Therefore, the expression “pedal horse” even arose, meaning, to put it mildly, a slow-thinking person.

As far as I remember, it was really more difficult to drive than a pedal car, because the horse moved its legs, as if it were really running. This brought me complete delight.

It turns out that the “pedal horse” is not a development of Soviet engineering minds at all, but a direct descendant of the English Victorian rocking horses. That's it.

In England, this model of bicycle horses appeared in the early 50s of the last century and bore the name Nizefella. In honor of the horse - a legend of British equestrian sport, who repeatedly won cankur competitions in the 40s and 50s. True, in appearance the metal horse had nothing in common with its prototype. The real horse was dark (most likely black), but toy manufacturers made their horse light because... this color was more popular with buyers; this had been tested for years on wooden predecessors.

Well, let's take things in order.

Until the 1970s, Britain's largest toy manufacturer was G & J Lines, which became famous back in the Victorian era for its wooden rocking horses.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, it was already a large factory, the product range of which, in addition to horses, included strollers, bicycles, soft toys, dolls, etc.

At the dawn of the last century, cars began to crowd out horses on city streets, and this was reflected in the production of toys.

The factory began producing pedal-powered children's cars in the 20s and 30s (at that time the products were marketed under the Tri-ang brand). At first these were models with a wooden body, then they started producing stamped metal models.

Wooden horses continued to be produced. For the British, this is a cult toy and they were not ready to simply exchange it for a newfangled car. But after World War II, against the backdrop of increased demand for toys (the post-war baby boom and the departure of Germany as the main competitor in the field of toy production), it became necessary to focus on assembly line production. Stamped metal toys were easier to produce than wooden ones. They decided to make the horses metal, using the production technology of pedal cars as a basis. Manes and tails made of natural horsehair were replaced with molded rubber elements.
This is how the metal rocking horse appeared Nizefella.
Photo from the book “The rocking horse” by Patricia Mullins:

The legs of the metal horses were stamped separately from the body and then bolted. The swinging stand was also metal.

Then, based on the same body, a model of a racing horse with a cart (the same “pedal horse”) was made.

This model was not produced in England for long. The G & J Lines factory tried to keep up with the times and constantly updated its product range.

I have no information about how the horses ended up in the USSR. It is likely that technology and equipment were purchased and implemented at several factories around the country, where they were produced until the early 90s. Horses produced in the 50-60s still have design elements characteristic of their English prototypes - wheels with metal spokes, a black saddle with a blue outline.

Horses of a later release, which includes my horse, already had plastic wheels, a less detailed smoothed body due to the stamping of old forms, and a simplified coloring (black saddle).

From December 12 to January 25, the Tkachev Museum in Bryansk hosts the exhibition “The World of Childhood: Dolls of Grandmothers and Mothers.” The exhibition includes toys and dolls from my modest collection. And on January 8, the regional issue of AiF wrote about the exhibition, about me, about the dolls...

Yesterday I got a call during the working day. Colleagues pass the phone, they say, this is for you, for toys...

“You know, I read an article in the newspaper about toys,” they say at the other end of the line. – And I remembered that at work in the garage there was a rocking horse from the 60s. You need?

Still would! I don’t need it) We agree on how and where to meet to pick up the horse.

“I checked,” the man hastens to add. – Real Soviet iron, not some kind of China.

- Iron?

- Yes, the horse is iron.

I freeze for a split second, but then an insight comes:

- Is the horse white? With a cart?

- So this is a pedal horse!

- Ha ha ha... What did you say?

- Pedal horse. Don't think I'm not swearing. That's what it's called!

At lunchtime we rush after the horse... Now he is standing in my house, in the corridor. The family has nothing to say - they are in slight shock (the usual state). All I had time to do was take a few pictures early this morning while getting ready for work.

The horse has losses. He got it from life. And in the tail and mane...

From history (found on the Internet)

Quite often this ridiculous phrase is used in relation to a person known for his narrow-mindedness, stupidity and stubbornness. For example, the wife sent her husband to buy bread, and he returned drunk, without money and without bread - well, who is he after that? A worthless fool and a slacker, a pedal horse.

Meanwhile, the pedal horse is a very real character in the Soviet history of “toy making”. It was designed in the bowels of the defense industry in the 50s of the last century, in response to the government's call to give the best to children. The idea was to combine in one product a popular horse on wheels and a children's bicycle, which was in very short supply at that time. The product was called “Pedal Horse”.

The mechanism looked like a jockey's cart with a horse harnessed to it - in miniature, of course. One wheel was under the horse’s chest, two more supported the “seat”. It is now difficult to establish what color the “pedal” ones were produced - the specimens that have survived to this day, as a rule, have been repainted several times, the horse is iron.

Child-loving buyers were first delighted, and then fell into a stupor. The new unit was gorgeous in appearance, but absolutely not functional. The kids couldn’t ride it, pushing off the ground with their feet as usual - the pedals sticking out on both sides got in the way. It was also impossible to turn these pedals - they were too tight, and they were located far in front of the improvised saddle. The most stubborn riders covered several meters with great difficulty, after which they fell exhausted to the ground along with the bunk - due to the imperfection of the overall design. And this is on smooth asphalt! What can we say about other roads, difficult to pass even for real carts with real, non-pedal horses.

A few years later, the toy was discontinued from production - the “horse builders” admitted their fiasco, and the “pedal” toys disappeared from store shelves. And the name itself “went to the people”, becoming one of the symbols of human stupidity.

From the history
It was designed in the bowels of the defense industry in the 50s of the last century, in response to the government's call to give the best to children. The idea was to combine in one product a popular horse on wheels and a children's bicycle, which was in very short supply at that time. The product was called “Pedal Horse”. The unit was gorgeous in appearance, but not entirely functional. A few years later, the toy was discontinued - the “horse builders” admitted their fiasco, and the “pedal” toys disappeared from store shelves.

Retro cars are gaining more and more popularity over time. Recently . Today the hero of the publication is a collector from Kazan. Where to look for such a rarity, and how much it costs - in our material.

13 pedal cars, which boys and girls rode during the Soviet era, are the largest exhibits of an impressive collection of car models, which Kazan resident Roman Shitov collected by the age of 24. Due to his age, Roma himself did not have time to drive Soviet pedal cars, which he greatly regrets, but this did not stop him from inflaming with passionate love for them. The guy dreams of becoming the owner of a toy Moskvich of the first series, which his father once had.

Like any normal boy, Roma Shitov loved cars since childhood. He especially liked the collectible models, which were carefully lined up in long rows on the shelves.

- I've been collecting them for more than eight years. As a teenager, I spent all my pocket money on them,” the collector told the Vechernyaya Kazan correspondent.

Today, Roman boasts a fleet of 300 miniature models: there are vintage cars, and all the products of the Soviet automobile industry, there are even buses. Of particular value are rare exhibits that are difficult to find anywhere on foreign sites. The guy's friends know that the best gift for him is another car.

In addition to collectible models, Roman has seven toy metal trucks from the Soviet period, a crane and an excavator.

- And once I was looking at a family album and in one of the photos I saw my dad as a child - he was sitting in a toy pedal Moskvich of the first series. Suddenly I decided to myself that I would definitely have such a machine. Since then I began searching for it, acquiring other pedal toys along the way - in addition to cars, I have four horses.

In search of exhibits for his collection, Roman goes to flea markets, regularly studies advertisements on the Internet and thematic sites of collectors; he saved some cars from recycling at scrap metal collection points. The “killed” state of the toys does not frighten the skilled guy - he lovingly restores them, breathing new life into pedal horses and cars.

- A pedal machine is not cheap. The price directly depends on its condition and rarity: without repair it is approximately 1,500 - 7,000 rubles, with repair it is more expensive, explains the young collector. - And sometimes it happens that for the owners the machine is not just useless junk, but a memory, so they are ready to part with such a thing only for a very impressive amount... I am glad that my parents are sympathetic to such a hobby. My father helps restore the car - this is our favorite activity, to which we devote our evenings and weekends.

Roman Shitov publishes photos of the updated “swallows” on social networks. In response, Kazan residents share with the collector their childhood photographs of them riding pedal cars and their memories.

“All these stories are very similar - these are stories about how several generations of one family managed to ride on cars: first children, then grandchildren, and then they threw the toys into attics and closets, because no one needed them,” says the guy. - Unfortunately, I didn’t see these cars myself, but some friends my age had the chance to ride them in their childhood years... Now I constantly receive offers to take photographs for children on these cars - perhaps I should consider them. Let my toys delight the new generation of Kazan residents.

By the way, Roma recently found the same “Moskvich” from the first series. True, there is no way to buy it yet - the owner of the toy wants more than 25 thousand rubles for it. But the collector does not lose heart - he will save up and buy.

-Where did the horses come from?

- Horses are the same pedal cars, they just look different. When they ride, their front and back legs move.

Horses and cars are in the same class of pedal cars produced in the Soviet Union. When I was looking for pedal cars, I began to come across horses. So I decided, why not buy them for my collection.

- Do you use your collection in any way or is it just sitting there?

- Collectors from other cities often offer to participate in various exhibitions with their collections, but due to study and work, unfortunately, I do not have time for this.

Just recently a stranger called and said that he had allocated a place for my cars at the auto show that was taking place in Kazan. We constantly receive offers to take photographs for children using these machines.

But first, not about the horse, but about what was the object of desire for all the kids in our yard.

If in the 1950s. While a bicycle was the ultimate dream for most Soviet children, in the 1960s many children in the USSR were already driving around the yards in their personal cars. Pedal, of course. Perhaps this was the main dream of all the boys who even knew about their existence...

The Soviet Union kept up with world fashion trends. Back in the 30s, prototypes of children's cars were born, which then went into production.

Interestingly, only the design has changed over time. But technically the toys did not undergo fundamental changes. For half a century, the design was preserved: monocoque body, reciprocating pedal drive, dependent suspension...

Soviet designers put a variety of bodies on this platform. After the war, the honorable right to advertise its products in this way went to the Moscow Small Car Plant.

Since the 60s, when the enterprise was renamed AZLK, a separate conveyor line operated here, from which miniature copies of “Muscovites” rolled off.

These toys cost about 30 rubles. And no one knows for sure how many of them were produced over half a century. It is only known that in the USSR pedal cars were always in short supply. At the same time, they were sold freely in friendly socialist countries.

With the beginning of perestroika, the children's conveyor belt at AZLK was stopped. Domestic bicycle cars disappeared from the shelves, and with the fall of the Iron Curtain, their place was quickly taken by foreign ones.

The children's pedal car "Moskvich" was produced in the USSR at the AZLK plant, approximately from 1969 to 1995. During this time, several generations of these wonderful cars have changed.

Excellent workmanship, a lot of iron, real suspension, headlights, signal, all this made the children's car very similar to real "Muscovites". For most Soviet children, the pedal Moskvich remained a dream...

Pedal Lvovyanka. If in Moskvich one could guess the image of a Moskvich, then in Lvovyanka one can guess the image of a Zhiguli car. Produced in series.

Pedal Neva. According to one legend, such cars were distributed to pioneer camps; very few copies have survived to this day.

The Pedal Rainbow is a fantastic machine in design, and it also won a prize at one of the exhibitions at VDNKh. Produced by ChKPZ - Chelyabinsk Forging and Press Plant.

Pedal Or. This is a product of one of the enterprises in the city of Orsk.

It is interesting that such cars as Or or Orenburgets were produced only in the cities of the same name and were distributed there, bypassing distribution to other regions of our huge country.

Using a system of cunning levers, the wheel was connected to the horse’s legs, movably attached to the body, and when the unit moved, it seemed that the horse was even galloping. But this design was much less common than standard pedal cars.

Chain Sports. Sports are produced by Belarusian colleagues, and they are still doing it. And this is very pleasing, since this particular machine is somewhat reminiscent of our real cars from childhood, and not the plastic pedal crafts with which all toy departments are now littered.