Yes, that is a genuine, 1970s Air Jammer toy, the Air Jammer Bug Scrambler one, to be specific. I wrote about these with some awe and fascination a few weeks ago, since it’s one of my all-time favorite cars made with cutting-edge 1970s pneumatic piston tech, and sold in the most goofball ways possible. Our own social media savant, Peter, found this one on eBay and sent it to me. What a peach! Sure, all the air hoses are brittle and feel like uncooked pasta, but who cares? It’s fantatasic, and a great reminder of what the human spirit can accomplish. Now I have to figure out why my laptop is refusing to work. I’m typing this up on an iPad. Ooof. Bug looks awesome! Will you replace the brittle hoses? Ever since you were waxing wistful about the old neighborhood in LA I was wondering if you had a chance to look around while you were out there, and I hope if you did you weren’t looking through too rose-tinted glasses (“Look, Otto, that’s our old house – I’d forgotten how little parking space there was. I guess pushing an inop car out of the way to get the one that starts out was easier when I was younger…and over there’s the school you’d be going to if we still lived here. Two thousand kids – did you know they were one of the first public schools in America to have uniforms? OK, we need to get the car back to Galpin’s – notice we’re almost exactly halfway between two freeway exits? Works great for a tour but it would suuuuck if I had to go into the Valley on any kind of regular basis for in-person editorial meetings…”) And possibly a front bumper with those baja-style lights. Those are fantastic. When I was a kid, the evolution of these things was around. They were called “air hogs” and there were both planes and cars. They were neat because you could see through the clear playin pump body to see the pistons work. I’d love to try track one of these down for my kids to see! In my experience, there’s nothing like an extended road trip to really test a relationship, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that somewhere between Las Vegas an LA, something… happened. Really glad my concerns were for naught. Cool toy, too! I still want to see recipes though. T-pulls wouldn’t last though ???? T-pulls wouldn’t last though…
