Toys I Never Had: Hot Wheels Freight Yard Sto and Go Playset

The Hot Wheels Freight Yard was one of the several Sto and Go playsets that were so popular in the ’80s. It was also the largest of the bunch as it not only opened up vertically into a playest but had train tracks that folded out horizontally as well.

And unlike Hot Wheel’s other Sto and Go sets, the Freight Yard came with vehicles in the form of a locomotive, 2 freight cars, and a caboose. Item B pictured in the shot with the Freight Yard was an additional Freight Master Train Set that could be added to your Freight Yard fun.

Notice that the ad states that no electricity or batteries are needed. Since this was 1984, electric train sets were still sort of en-vogue, and no one wanted market confusion with this playset.

The 1984 price tag of $34.99 on this Freight Yard translates to $101.65 in 2023 dollars, making it quite an expensive playset. Other Sto and Go playsets of the time retailed for $23.99, or $69.69 in today’s dollars. Back when I had a couple of Sto and Go playsets in the mid-’80s, I never knew how expensive of a toy I was playing with.

But as I’ve documented before, I loved train toys when I was young. The trains that Matchbox produced, the Micro Machines train sets, and even an old series of Happy Meal boxes that were train cars in vacuum form. I loved them all, and I pined over this Sto and Go for years. Heck I still pine for it today.

Hot Wheels Sto and Go Playsets

Oh man, what a rush of nostalgia this past weekend. I’m sitting on the couch watching college football, and at the same time, checking out the TRN Slack Channel. It’s where everyone at The Retro Network congregates online and share all kinds of retro stuff and family life with each other.

So anyway, I’m checking it out and come across a picture that Jason had posted of his latest thrift store find. It was the Hot Wheels Sto and Go “City” playset. This particular playset holds a special place in my nostalgic heart for reasons I’ll explain in just a bit, but first, let me explain what a Sto and Go playset was for those who may not know.

In the early 1980s Hot Wheels started releasing their Sto and Go playsets. It was a playset that doubled as its own carry case. You could carry it around and when you wanted to play, you just popped it open, pulled out some cars, and away you went on whatever adventure your mind could come up with. All of the Sto and Go playsets had a theme.

The first one released was the Service Center. My brother owned this one and being in the same house, of course, I got to play with it. It was more fun than just imagining that you were taking your cars to the gas station or to get them washed, but in comparison to the other sets they would release, I found it a little lacking in the fun department.

The only one I personally owned was the Construction Site playset. It was great fun when you owned numerous construction vehicles as I did. That crane you see in the picture was the most fun part of it. I used that crane to lift so much stuff to the top of the playset, that I almost broke it on numerous occasions. When the weather was bad, and I couldn’t take my construction cars outside, I could always bust this out and let the good times continue.

The City Sto and Go playset was the one I really adored. Neither me nor my brother owned it, but it was one of the “community” toys that were at my grandparent’s house. The buildings that this playset had look a whole lot like the buildings on main street in Hazard County from the Dukes of Hazzard TV show. My cousins and I all had the ERTL Dukes of Hazzard cars, and I was always sure to take mine along for a visit to the grandparents. We’d take this playset outside with our Dukes cars. Being how most of Hazzard County seemed to have dirt roads, we’d set the city playset up in the middle of the action, and then incorporate all the dirt and grass around it as the rest of Hazzard County. The garage that says “Fire Station” above it became Cooter’s garage, and the Police Station was still the Police station where Roscoe’s car stayed when he wasn’t chasing the Duke boys. We had so much fun out of this playset, that one of my cousins and I still talk about it to this day.

Hot Wheels put out several more Sto and Go sets through the years, but these were the only three I ever had the joy of playing with. There was another one of them that really caught my attention, and to this day, I still hate that I never got to play with it. It was the Sto and Go Freight Yard. I’ll leave you with a picture of it, but I’ll save my thoughts on it until the next “Toys I Never Had” post.

Five of My Favorite Old Hot Wheels Cars

Friday Five is a quick list of five things with a common theme, and instead of doing a big write-up, I’m doing it in pictures (or videos) with just a couple of sentences to give context to the picks. You can play along by adding some of your own in the comments.


I spent a lot of time when I was younger playing with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. Just like with any other toy line, you always have a favorite few that you gravitate to. I was no different when it came to Hot Wheels. I had a ton of them, but there were a few that I would call my favorites. So for this Friday FIve, I’m sharing five of my favorites with you.

Fire Eater Fire Truck

My Dad was a fireman and the Fire Eater looked identical to one of the trucks at the local station where he served. Even though I had most of the Code Red fire trucks produced by Matchbox (which I covered here), the Fire Eater was still my go-to for imaginary fire fighting. That’s a big statement for me since I was such a big fan of the TV show. I had almost every fire truck that was available on store shelves back then, but this one was always the lead truck in the garage. It’s a beautiful representation of a fire truck, except for the blue light. But to be honest, the blue light and the blue accents in the back of the truck are part of what makes it such a great-looking Hot Wheel.

Dixie Challenger

You know by now that The Dukes of Hazzard was my favorite TV show when I was young. I had a lot of merchandise based on the show, but for a while, I lacked a 1:64 scale General Lee to play with. That’s where the Dixie Challenger came in. Up until the point I got my first true General Lee to play with, this filled the role pretty well. It kinda looked like the General Lee, and had a fast enough look that there were never any problems imagining it could outrun whatever police cars were in my collection. Once I got my General Lee, the Dixie Challenger was relegated to being the car driven by Bo & Luke’s cousins, Coy & Vance. I still can’t believe I subjected such a beautiful car to that kind of fate.

Cat Bulldozer

When I wasn’t fighting imaginary fires or running from Roscoe and Enos, I was playing in the dirt with construction vehicles. Well, not dirt. Coal dust actually. Which is a really fine black powder that gets into every possible crevice and can create a huge mess. But it was also the best substance on earth for playing with toys like these. I had a whole fleet of construction-type cars. I had regular dozers, cement mixers, scrapers, front-end loaders, and more. But this Cat Bulldozer seemed special because it had actual treads, and those two extra wheels to extend the tread just seemed so cool. It moved a lot of coal dust in its day for sure.

Rambling Wrecker

One of the earlier Hot Wheels cars I can remember being fascinated by was this Rambling Wrecker..or as I used to call it…Larry’s tow truck. I mean it’s emblazoned right there on the side of the thing. As a kid, what else would you call it? This was a must-have for someone like me who “wrecked” a lot of cars. I took the whole “wrecked car” thing farther than a lot of kids did though, as I would take some of the older cars I had gotten as hand-me-downs from my brother that I didn’t like very much and beat the snot out of them with hammers. That gave them that realistic feel. Of course, this was before Hot Wheels came out with their “Crack-Ups” line (which I covered here) and did the job for me in a much better manner than I ever could. And I would be failing you all if I did not include the fact that this Rambling Wrecker made a great stand-in for Cooter’s tow truck when playing with the Dixie Challenger as the General Lee.

Fun Fact: The original version of this tow truck had a phone number printed on the side of it. One of the folks at Mattel used their own phone number and ended up getting so many calls at their home they had to change their number.

Masters of the Universe Snake Mountain Challenge Car

So this beautiful work of art came included in the Masters of the Universe Snake Mountain Challenge playset that came out in ’85 or ’86. It was the car with which you attempted to run the course and escape Snake Mountain. I got the playset for Christmas in 1986, and as I’ve detailed before, my brother, my dad, and I spent a significant portion of the afternoon attempting the challenge. Beyond those fond memories though, they couldn’t have done a better job making this car seem like it came from Eternia…if Eternia actually had cars. But the look of it with its color scheme and all, makes it seem like it would have a home among the many various vehicles that inhabited Eternia. Maybe if it had treads instead of tires.


More toy nostalgia…

Five of My Favorite Hot Wheels Toys

I’ve been feeling pretty nostalgic for Hot Wheels lately, so I feel like running down some of my favorite Hot Wheels toys in this edition of Retro Ramblings. Indulge me if you will.


There have been plenty of cool Hot Wheels toys that have come along in recent years, but my list is looking at Hot Wheels toys from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s.  I’m not including any individual cars this time out, because I hope to do a deep dive on those in the near future. 

Sto & Go Playsets

Hot Wheels made their own play sets for a while called Sto and Go.  You can’t see it in this picture, but these things folded up and made their own carrying case, hence the name Sto and Go.  They made several versions of this play set, but the city one was probably my favorite. There was one at my grandmother’s house, and it became the main street area from The Dukes of Hazzard as we played with the Ertl cars based on the show..  I had a lot of various construction-themed vehicles and the construction zone Sto and Go was a great addition to those cars.

Master Caster Car Maker

The Master Caster was such a cool idea.  It was a Hot Wheels car factory, that allowed you to make your own Hot Wheels cars out of wax!  You could get colored wax bars to use in it, or you could just take the paper off some crayons and dump them in.  That gave you the ability to create some cars with really custom colors.  There were several molds you could use, and it came with wheel and axle sets to use.  It would heat the wax, and with a turn of the handle, you could pour the melted wax into the mold to make the car.  It was quite the next-level toy for Hot Wheels-loving kids.  I never actually owned it, but my brother did, so I got to make a few cars of my own. 

Snake Mountain Challenge

As a lover of all things He-Man, this Hot Wheels playset was awesome!  I got it for Christmas in 1986 and spent a while that Christmas day with my dad and brother trying to “escape” Snake Mountain.  The playset itself was really cool, but the exclusive Masters of the Universe car that came with it took the cake. 

Color Racers

Cars that change color will always be cooler than cars that don’t.  These color racers were like getting two cars instead of one.  All you had to do was dip them in some water, and they would completely change colors!  It was such an awesome gimmick.  The pack of cars on the left in the photo is one of the sets I had.  They all changed really well, and the last time I pulled out the jeep last year, it still changed colors. 

Crack-Ups

Before these Crack-Ups came along, I would create “crashed” cars by taking a hammer to them.  The problem with that method was that there was no way to undo the damage when you were done playing.  Then Crack-Ups came along and you could wreck the cars, and they would show damage.  Then when you were done, you could easily undo the damage and have pristine-looking cars once again. 

So there are five of my favorite Hot Wheels toys from when I was a kid. As I said at the top, I hope to get to talking about my favorite individual cars in the near future.

What I Got For Christmas in 1986

In an earlier post here on Retro Ramblings, I posted about how 1986 was the year Santa became real for me. I briefly talked about some of the things I got for Christmas that year, but those little snippets just don’t do all those wonderful toys justice. So here, in detail, is what I got for Christmas in 1986!


The big one that Christmas morning in 1986 was the G.I. Joe Cobra Terror Drome.  At that time in life, my world revolved around four toys.  G.I Joe, Masters of the Universe, Construx, and Legos….with G.I. Joe being at the top of the list.  Knowing this, it was no surprise to my parents that the biggest hit of the holiday season would be this huge G.I. Joe playset.

It had room for plenty of figures, so massive battles were a foregone conclusion.  I stockpiled this sucker with every bad guy I had in my collection and then began a full-on assault with all of the good guys I could find.  Even Bo & Luke Duke in their 3 3/4″ figure form and the General Lee got in on the action on the side of the Joes!

The initial battle was a stalemate, with Cobra barely able to hold off the tremendous might of the Joes, as they retreated back a little way to regroup and plan for a second assault.  Now of course this stalemate was only to ensure that the Terror Drome was intact to play with again the following day.  I spent a while Christmas afternoon interacting with various parts of this set.  The Cobra vehicles re-fueled at the re-fueling station built into it, while some of the top Cobra brass interrogated a captured Joe down in the holding cell area.

The shine of this toy didn’t wear off anytime soon, but I had gotten quite a few other new toys this Christmas that required my attention, so I had to let the action cool down a little so I could get on to some of the other stuff like…..

Construx Super Set

Even though Construx was probably third on my list of favorite toys, getting a Super Set like this one requires almost immediate attention.  I can’t remember exactly what the structure was that this set was designed to build, but I knew from the looks of it that would come in very handy to members of the Joe team on their next assault on the Terror Drome.

Once I had this thing put together, it could drive right up to the Terror Drome and lift several Joes at once to the top of the Drome and unload them right in the heart of the command center!  What better way to strike right at the heart of Cobra than a direct assault on Cobra Commander and the Barroness?!?  

Once the great battle of the Terror Drome was over, this set of Construx went on to be featured in lots of other playtimes.  I used the pieces to create all kinds of new toys.  I once built a scaffold to put over the top of my wrestling ring with which to re-create the infamous Scaffold match from Starrcade ’86.  Along with building “steel cages” and assorted other wrestling-related toys, Construx seemed to go along with most other toys I played with.  

I had a smaller set of Construx, but getting this Super Set for Christmas gave me plenty of pieces for projects all year long.

Tonka Steel Monsters Destroyer

I had plenty of hand-me-down Tonka trucks from my brother through the years, but this may have been the very first one that was mine first.  It doesn’t quite look like your normal Tonka truck.  This one seems to be more inspired by Mad Max than construction sites which were the norm for Tonka.  And I didn’t have any of the other vehicles from this particular line, but that didn’t slow down the playtime.

Now I didn’t take the photo above, but as you can see, it was perfectly sized for G.I. Joe figures, and I made great use of it, as it became the main vehicle for my Dreadnoks figures.  They themselves seemed to be inspired by the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max as well, so it seemed a perfect fit.  With the bladed grill on this bad boy, it seemed like the perfect counter-offensive to the new Construx weapon that G.I. Joe had in its possession. 

G.I. Joe Tomahawk

One thing that Cobra didn’t count on that fateful Christmas day, was G.I. Joe achieving air superiority.  And why should they?  The Terror Drome had the awesome Firebat that could launch right from the Drome itself.  But G.I. Joe had brought a new weapon to the fight in the form of the Tomahawk helicopter.

The Tomahawk held the pilot and a co-pilot in the cockpit, Two more Joes in the back manning machine guns, and room for several more who could repel out of the rear hatch right into the middle of any hot zone on the battlefield!  It would go on to play a key role in the battle of the Terror Drome, and many other battles in the years to come.

The Tomahawk was one of my absolute favorite G.I. Joe toys through the years.  It probably saw as much playtime as any other toy I ever owned, and I actually still had it years later when I was too dumb to hold onto all that old stuff and sold it off in a mass sale.  If anyone is looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for me THIS year, put this on the list!

Masters of the Universe Grizzlor Figure

I had accumulated a nice size collection of Masters of the Universe figures since ’84 but had few Hordak figures.  This was okay to me though, since a bad guy is a bad guy, and they could just easily align with Skeletor in his battles with He-Man. 

Grizzlor was a cool one though because of all the fur.  And as a side note, to anyone who still has this figure, I wouldn’t suggest having him get trapped in the Horde Slime Pit.  That stuff is near impossible to get out of his fur.

I’ve mentioned before that I used G.I. Joe figures to simulate my wrestling playtime.  I would rename them to popular wrestlers of the day like Tully Blanchard, Ric Flair, Wahoo McDaniel, and others.  But I had always had a hard time finding any G.I. Joe figures that resembled my favorite tag team of the Rock and Roll Express.  That problem was solved on Christmas Day 1986, and when the greatest tag team of all time arrived at my house that Christmas morning, Grizzlor had met his match!

G.I. Joe Tomax & Xamot Figures

This awesome 2-pack of Cobra figures was kinda highly sought after if my memory serves me.  And if not on a national scale, it certainly was in the circles I ran in. I know I personally had been asking for them for months on end, and they finally arrived that Christmas morning.  With the matching outfits and the silver boots, the minute I opened them, I knew I had finally found my Rock and Roll Express!

Now to this day, I have no idea why I chose this as the first way to play with Tomax and Xamot.  I didn’t use them in the great battle of the Terror Drome.  No, I held them back, and later in the day, they squared off against Grizzlor on my Dad’s pool table in a weird two-on-one wrestling match with Grizzlor.  Come to think of it, I have no idea why I didn’t get out any of the MOTU figures for play with Grizzlor either.

Either way, this Rock and Roll Express went on to defeat their hairy tormentor that day, and for probably at least a year, didn’t lose a tag team match in my wrestling rings either.  Still to this day, Tomax and Xamot are in my top five favorite G.I. Joe figures.  Whether they were winning tag team gold in a toy wrestling ring, battling hairy beasts from another universe, or being their intended badass selves on the side of Cobra, they were some of the best action figures I ever had.

Hot Wheels Snake Mountain Challenge

I mentioned earlier how the Masters of the Universe was one of my favorite toy lines.  Now, what a treat it was on that Christmas morning to find that they had merged that line with another favorite of little boys everywhere…Hot Wheels!

This was one of the cool Hot Wheels sets that featured the orange pieces of track, a launcher for the car, and some kind of obstacle.  In this set, the obstacle was a cardboard rendition of Snake Mountain that the car had to jump through at the end to escape, hence the name, Snake Mountain Challenge.

It even came with a cool silver car with the MOTU logo on the sides of it!

My Dad set the short track up on the pool table, and he, my brother, and I took many turns that day trying to escape Snake Mountain with little success.  While my Dad and my brother each picked other cars from our Hot Wheels collection to try and make the jump with, I stuck with the great-looking He-Man car for all of my attempts.  It was a super fun way to spend part of Christmas afternoon that day.  But as the hours wore down, it was time to take a little rest and watch some TV.

G.I. Joe VHS Tape – Satellite Down

The VCR was new in our home, and I hadn’t had anything to watch on it really.  That is until Christmas morning when Santa saw fit to leave me my very first VHS tape.  It was a single episode of the G.I. Joe series titled Satellite Down.

It told the tale of a G.I. Joe satellite that crashed in the wild, and both Joes and Cobras raced to the scene to recover it.  There, they met with a weird group of creatures called the Primords who found it and had taken it as a God.  When all was said and done, G.I. Joe came out victorious once more.  I had to watch it twice in a row just to be sure they won both times.

After those viewings, it was time for the second offensive on the Terror Drome.  The goal was no longer to destroy the Terror Drome, nor to capture Cobra Commander.  Now the mission was to retrieve a downed satellite that Cobra had captured and was storing at the top of the Terror Drome!

I won’t bore you with too many details, but the assault was a success.  Using the new Construx weapon to lift Joes to the top was a failure since the Dreaknoks new Destroyer dump truck rendered it inoperable.  Cobra thought they were going to have the advantage when they launched the Fire Bat, but it was knocked out of the air by the Duke boys jumping the General Lee off a cliff and knocking it out of the air.  That left the Joes and their Tomahawk with air superiority, and they used it to lower Joes to the top and hook up to the satellite and fly away.  All’s well that ends well I guess.

I’m sure I went to bed that night with a smile on my face and hugging some toy like Ralphie did his B.B. Gun in A Christmas Story.  The events and gifts of that Christmas are burned brighter into my memory than any other Christmas, because like I told you in the feature, The Year Santa Became Real, Christmas up to that point was somewhat lacking.  But the mega haul of Christmas ’86 solidified my belief in Santa and gave me a lifetime of great memories of that day.