This is one of the few things shown here on Barn Finds where it wouldn’t make sense to say, “Drop an SBC/LS/Hayabusa in it!” Maybe, “Drop this engine on a Mattel bike!” This 1964 Mattel V-ROOOM! Hot-Rodder Engine is the second Mattel “engine” (so to speak) we’ve seen, and this one is listed here on eBay in Upstate, New York. That’s all the seller lists for a location. They’re asking $499.99, and thanks to PRA4SNW for the tip!
We do feature non-vehicle items here, as you all know, most recently a plastic model kit that Mike Stephens showed us just yesterday. I have this exact same “engine,” or noise-maker, as it provides no power for moving anything, other than maybe moving people out of the way if you crank up the dial, which cranks up the volume on the unique engine sound. For the record, $3.99 in 1964 is equivalent to $43.13 today. Talk about the Hemi Cuda effect, a car that cost $5,000 new and usually sells for much more than 10 times its original price now. This engine for sale here is 125 times as expensive as the original price.
The seller only provided two photos, but they show an almost perfect box, and what seems to be all the parts still in a plastic bag, and instructions on how to attach it to your bike. Mattel offered this plastic “engine” for only a few years in the early 1960s, but they also offered at least two other versions. I wrote up another one here on Barn Finds in February, and that version doesn’t require batteries, as the Hot-Rodder Engine does. You just rev up the red arm on the “Booster Engine,” and it makes a sound, or several sounds depending on how you have the switch adjusted. The Hot-Rodder Engine needs two D-cell batteries in order to make a revving or idling sound. I just changed the two batteries on mine an hour ago. They lasted two years, so I can’t complain about that.
This is a photo of my 1966 Mattel Stallion bike that I restored a couple of years ago, and the Mattel V-ROOOM! engine. I found a NOS engine like the one for sale here, for not much less than they’re asking for this one. It was still in the box, and still in the plastic inside, but the outside of the box had yellowed, probably from being exposed to the sun. It took some work to get the revolving cone inside to make sound, but it eventually started spinning and whirring like a motorcycle engine, sort of. It’s pretty cool, and anyone restoring a Mattel bike needs one for sure. Are any of you into collecting vintage toys like this Mattel engine?
Wow Scotty, what memories this is bringing back of Saturday morning toy commercials. I knew a few kids that had these but, I never had one myself. My high performance sound came from my culled baseball cards or playing cards and cloths pins. The more sets of cards to clipped to your fender brackets the more horsepower you had.
We used a long balloon half inflated so you could tie each end to the front fork, more rumble like a motorcycle. A lot of fun till you met the town cop at the corner!
What did the cop have to do with it? :)
My childhood (spoiled) buddy had the entire Vroom bike. I had hand-me -down bikes from my brothers. Still resent that kid, lol!
Mom and Dad would never spend money on stuff like that when shoes and clothes were needed for us four kids…..
Yeah we had that same problem here
Yep….a nice kid up the block got one for X-mas…don’t think he ever wore it out as he didn’t really like riding his bike around….his sister was a knock out .
Seller really has this priced on the high side – seen these un-used in the box selling for much less.
Talk about a skilled mechanic, Scotty-fixing and rebuilding everything from old school iron engines to old school plastic motors! Good way to wind it up, PRA4SNW.
There was just one kid in our neighborhood that got one for his birthday-it was a small neighborhood. It broke the minute he crashed after trying to jump an open manhole that the road hadn’t been built up around and paved at the time.
Ok, this is a cool story and thank you so much for sharing!
These things are neat. I’d only install it on a vintage bike if it were the right one, and I’d keep the original box in a safe spot. I’m sure when PRA4SNW saw this, he must have had Scotty on his mind. ( great find by the way). If the seller gets their ask thats one huge ROI for sure. Thanks Scotty!!!
Drivinstile: Good call because I sure did! I remember the last itme he featured one and, although I never had one, I do remember this one, and the cheaper one that mounted on the handlebar as a grip that you twisted.
Yes super cool and pricey, plus tax and shipping.
I had one these on my Stingray back in the day (before pot was a thing). I want some of what he’s smoking.
My parents were both immigrants from the old country and just starting out. But somehow they bought me one of these in the mid 60’s. Batteries lasted about two weeks. The motor about two months.
There is one of the booster motors currently listed on ebay for $160. Ebay #298369319443. I am not the seller and I know nothing more about it than what is posted in the listing.
Another memory retriever, although, $3.99? PLUS batteries? That’s over $4 BUCKS! Maybe Treasure Island had one for less. Nope. Besides, there were plenty of other, better ways to spend that fortune. Dad was probably mad when the flashlights didn’t work. Sorry, but not in my neighborhood, where baseball cards had to do. Who knows what riches in vintage cards we threw away? And mom always wondered what happened to her “springy” clothes pins. In fact, I don’t recall anyone having one of these, it seemed silly to the kids that couldn’t afford one, we just made motor sounds with our mouths. I certainly must seem strange to younger folks, that THIS was what was a hit. Stone age. Yeah, well, when the power goes out and your phones are useless, we still had fun. More memories, please. :)
Sat what? You ate more beans and made your own noises?!
My question is, does it still run? I’aint buying less it goes “vrooomvroom”
I sent a message to the seller and suggested that he include a video in addition to the pictures, I immediately received a response stating the seller wasn’t accepting any messages…. too bad.
My brother had this on his bike.
You can buy 3 2- cycle complete kits including the gas tanks for that price and make real motor noise with no license needed. I’ll admit the fake noise is probably safer. At 40mph the coaster brake failed without even slowing me down.
When I was much younger, I wondered if these were stolen very often.
I had one on my bike in first grade…$500?? I’m not That nostalgic
I had one of these Varoom motors and still have the ‘key’ for it! I also had the Mattel Stallion bike, which i loved. I always washed waxed and oiled things on my bike, I had the great idea to stick the garden hose up the ‘exhaust pipes’ and watch it come out. this led to a small amount of corrosion and when I let a husky friend ride the bike the frame broke in half. My next bike was a StingRay style 3spd Huffy bike with metallic green paint job. I persuaded my mom to buy me a sissy bar, turn signals and rotating flashing light for it.
Another Mattel item from that era was the M16 rifle with ‘screaming meme’ attachment.
jimmi: Did the M16 come with a red plastic tube that stuck out of the barrel and moved when you shot it? I remember my brother had one of those.
The toy gun that I always loved was the one I had that looked like a transistor radio and turned into a gun – the radio body flipped back to form the butt and a compartment on the side contained the barrel. It was probably also a Mattel product. Maybe Marx.
Two brothers who lived across the road each got a bicycle that came with one of these for Christmas. I doubt the batteries made it to New Years Day. A couple months and the nonfunctional hunks of plastic were removed, leaving an awkward looking void. I never knew that they were available separately. $499.99 plus tax, shipping, and dealer prep?
Yeah, no.
We used clothes pins and a piece of cardboard to ruin our spokes to make these noises
I had the “Twin V” Marxx toys version on my bike in 1964……made my bike go at least 50 mph, at least on a long downhill, in my mind. Good old days
Folks, what am I missing about the original price of $3.99 being for “rich kids?” That’s $43 today. How much does a smartphone cost, plus the monthly service? Most “kids” have those, and they’re a lot more than $50. That was my point: that $43 in 2026 is barely a drop in the bucket for most people. All people? No, of course not, but these were not just for “rich kids” back in 1964. Is $500 a lot for one now? You bet, but my argument is that a $43 equivalent in 2026 for the original $3.99 price in 1964 does not make this only for rich kids.
We only got new shoes when school started every year. If I got a box of crayons that there was really special.
My dad got an orange for Christmas if he was lucky, and dropped out of school after the 8th grade. New shoes would have been for rich kids. That’s sort of my point. We all look at things from the angle of how we were raised. I was looking at it on the averages. I wonder if the billionaires around today who were actually born rich even had a bike; they probably hired someone to ride a bike for them while they watched.
This was a mistake to go down this road, I see that already.
My single income family (Dad) had to raise 6 kids on his salary, so we never had anything beyond the basic necessities, but my parents made sure that we all had great birthdays and Christmases. No, we didn’t have Schwinn Stingrays, but we never asked for one either. If any of us really wanted one of these, they would have made it happen, and I certainly never felt like I was missing anything, or jealous of the kids who had them.
One thing that would have been a pipe dream is to have had a motorcycle back when I was a kid, which I seem to recall reading several times about here on BF.
In other words, forget about what other people had and be thankful for the things that you did.
Thanks, PRA4SNW, and thanks also for the tip! I’m as far from being rich as it gets, but I have worked my tail off my entire life, from way before whatever the legal age of having a real job was back then.16? I sort of feel guilty now for spending so much restoring that dang Mattel Stallion and finding that NOS in-the-box $400 V-ROOOM! engine on eBay a couple of years ago.
Your point is taken, but at the same time $3.99 in ’64 was not trivial for kids bicycle bling. In the mid 60s a McDonalds hamburger was 15 cents, with the accompanying fries and coke another 10 cents each … and at my middle class house that was a once-in-a-while treat for the family… and the whole meal for all of us probably barely hit $3.99.
About that time I had to settle for a Huffy “banana bike” instead of the much more desirable Schwinn “Sting-ray” as the Schwinn was all of 5 to 10 bucks more, and my Dad said “no way… who do you think I am?… a Rockefeller”….
Ha, Rockefeller! Remember when that name pulled some weight? What do kids say now? “Who do you think I am, a Kardashian?!”
Me and my 4 siblings heard a lot of “Gimme died”, “People in hell want ice water too” and “Poor people have poor ways”
Things like a smart phone purchase wasn’t an option in the mid sixties, but a Schwinn Krate bike was, and besides my younger brother, there wasn’t another kid in the neighborhood with anything close to what Santa gifted us in 1968. And, unlike today’s unnecessarily over-connected youth, we had the freedom to roam from daybreak to sundown without any checking in, another “something” that doesn’t exist today. So Scotty, reconsider your assessment of the differences between yesteryear and today, the priorities are not anywhere close to what they were in our day. Maybe that’s why some are willing to pay the outrageous asking prices of acquiring something we had to have as a child, but was never purchased because it was not a necessity in our day. Speaking of Krate bikes, have you seen the prices today for a Pea Picker (mine), or a Lemon Peeler (my brother)?
I am certainly old enough to remember these, but I don’t! Like many comments, we took Mom’s cloths pins and Dad’s deck of cards and had instant Varoom. That is until Mom and Dad found out.
It’s all good Scotty no mistake it’s a good road to go down 👍🏼
You are way too kind, Halfcab. You bring up a great point and we should always be discussing such things here and in life, in general. I’m positive that at the end of the day, we’re all friends and would great each other with a hearty handshake if we ever have a giant Barn Finds gathering someday. Or I sure hope so. I learn so much here from you guys every single day.
And you have a way to pick cool stuff for us to talk about for days, Scotty. Keep doing that.
I used tin snips to cut the ends off the new soft aluminum beer cans and make strips for the bicycle spokes. Fitted around the fork, no clothes pin needed. Louder and longer lasting than cardboard or a playing card.
Ingenious!
Kinda of off topic here but do y’all remember 6 finger toy? The toy finger that you added to your hand and shot out some sort of projectile.
Found one of those laying on the curb by my Grandmother’s house one Saturday. It was a joke of a toy looking back. Maybe that’s how it ended up on the side of the street lol
I never had one of those or knew anyone who did, but I sure remember the commercials! “Six-finger, six-finger, man alive! How did I ever get along with five?” Seriously :-)
I never had one of those or knew anyone who did, but I sure remember the commercials! “Six-finger, six-finger, man alive! How did I ever get along with five?” Seriously :-)
I remember that… I never had one, but an older kid in my neighborhood did. There was a weird commercial for it on TV at the time… probably keying off all the secret agent stuff that was on TV and in the movies in the mid 60s. It used to fire a few different projectiles… and it could also be configured as a cap gun IIRC. Probably couldn’t sell anything remotely like it today. The same company (Topper Toys I believe) also sold something called the “Super Helmet 7″… that I did have… also a secret agent themed toy. And they made something else called the “Johnny Astro”… I toy I still have to this day. Had an electric fan controlled with a joystick that enabled one to fly untethered balloons around your room… had a military/NASA vibe to it. Very cool and why I still have it as an almost 70 year old…
Oh yes! I remember the “bad old days” well, Who had $3.99 for a toy motor? We were lucky to have a dead frog to play with, and we were grateful for it!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE
I actually owned one of these! Could not quite afford it. Needless-to-say, I busted my backside. Used to get paid $.25 to mow the front yard and $.50 to mow the backyard. Within a few weeks I had the money!
I’m glad you brought it up SG 👍 As the great American Lawyer Gerry Spence says, alot of truth comes out of arguments. His books are fantastic.
In May of 1965 I got one of these for my birthday. I loved it. I rode it all over my neighborhood at high rev to my heart’s delight. In September of that year my family moved from Garden Grove California to Riverside California. The movers my step father hired were thieves and the Vroom vanished from my bike along with a polished art decco silverware chest that my mom had given me. Inside were several of my most cherished possessions. An eight transistor pocket radio and a pair of electric “Snippy Scissors” were among them. I was 11 years old.
Comment #50, I hope, says it all. The term “rich kid” needs explanation. A “rich kid” wouldn’t waste their time on a mere toy like this, when money was no object. What is forgotten in this instant gratification society we live in today, it wasn’t so in the 60s. Our folks had vivid memories of tough times, that carried over to our time, and frivolous purchases were simply not allowed. Some, not me, had big families, and kids were lucky to get anything. Obviously, it wasn’t the $4bucks, but what it took to get that $4bucks, when there were so many other things. That new slot car just came in to Hobby Horse, or a new car model. No, these were usually bought by that single uncle for his nephew as a gift, but rarely anyone on their own. Childhood toys are always a hit, because they were so universal.
BTW, that 1965 Mickey Mantle card in the spokes, is worth $36,000 today,,,D’OH!
I have a Kawasaki bike much like a Sterling. It has the triple tree front end with shocks and swing arm suspension in back. I bought it long after my stingray days were over. It has to weigh 50 pounds or more but it sure looks awesome. I’m thinking it might be time to get rid of the garage trophies and make room for a wheelchair collection.
Day one more day Lol.