Fisher Price Nifty Station Wagon: Updated with Original Advertisement

If I were forced to choose a favorite from the hundreds of pull toys Fisher Price has made over the years, this would be it: the Nifty Station Wagon from 1960, a miniature version of America's beloved family road trip vehicle.

This 13 inch long kitsch classic sports a removeable roof, lovely fake wood side panels, stylish white wall tires, moving headlight "eyes", and a little wooden family (mom, dad, child of indeterminate gender, and dog) who were precursors to the classic Little People.

 Dig the funky tweed interior! I think my little sister and I had matching pants in this pattern back in the '70s.

Mom has her eyes closed. Maybe Dad is a crazy driver, and she can't bear to watch...

 Besides the headlight eyes, the front grill also has a "smiley mouth" bumper.

A simple mechanism causes the kid and dog in the back seat to spin wildly to the accompaniment of a raucous noise as the car moves, just like in real life. Those Fisher Price toy engineers were geniuses.


Updated August 11: 
Several people commented that they had never seen this vintage Fisher Price toy before, so I thought you might enjoy seeing the original advertisement, from the April 1960 issue of Playthings magazine (a trade journal). I have a small collection of vintage toy ads, catalogs, and brochures, and this is one of its highlights. Click on the pic to see it bigger and read the text.