But first, not about the horse, but about what was the object of desire for all the kids in our yard.
Our “pedal” childhoodIf in the 1950s. For most Soviet children, a bicycle was the ultimate dream, but 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 machines 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.
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 was called 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).
Just like people, they have their own pedigrees. And just like with people, these genealogies are vague and confusing things.
For example, the phrase “pedal horse” appeared and took root in Russian speech. It seems to be a neologism, but no one really knows what it means. What kind of horse, where did the pedals come from? In general, all this is strange, but the phrase has stuck! In the end, no one knew the meaning of the word “utopia” before Thomas More, but now it is used by everyone who is not too lazy.
Recently, while talking to a friend on the phone, my son said something like: “Eh, Ivanov? Yes, he’s actually a pedal horse...”
Quite often, this seemingly absurd phrase is used in relation to a person known for his narrow-mindedness, stupidity and stubbornness. Or other unpleasant personal characteristics. 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 this - to combine in one product a popular horse on wheels and a children's bicycle, which was super scarce at that time. Some smart guy put some effort into it, and now the marvelous hybrid has been put into production, and then on sale - the product is 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. Unless, based on old photographs and vague childhood memories of the then happy owners, one can assume that they were dapple gray.
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 - 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.
At a later time, Soviet children, mostly boys, acquired another unique vehicle - a pedal car. Unlike the horse, the little car, despite its bulkiness, moved quickly, had some maneuverability, and was even equipped with “electrics” - a sound signal and headlights that could be turned on and off. My guys drove it until they were stupefied, the eldest at the wheel and the youngest on the hood. The car was yellow-orange, but we couldn’t remember the make - it looked like “Moskvich”.
Then, when my knees no longer fit “in the car,” we “inherited” this unit to the kids from another family, but in vain - we had to keep it. According to special websites, Soviet pedal cars are highly valued by collectors. Although it is unlikely that my adult sons would want to part with their favorite toy.
And here's another. There is a legend circulating on the Internet that the predecessor of the famous Bucephalus, the favorite horse of Alexander the Great, was also a pedal horse, designed and built by skillful Greek engineers on the instructions of Pope Philip II. A wooden horse with wheels was driven by pedals using a belt drive.
Moreover, the legend says that pedal horses were also made for the playmates of the heir to the Macedonian throne; In children's horse battles, the future commander and his comrades allegedly honed their martial art.
Be that as it may, “pedal horse” is still with us today, having become a common noun, expressing a contemptuous attitude towards fools.
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