Penny Racer

Penny Racer

Choro-Q is a line of Japanese 3–4 cm pullback car toys produced by Takara. Known in North America as Penny Racers, they were introduced in late 1978 and have seen multiple revisions and successors since. Choro-Qs are stylized after real-world automobiles, with real rubber wheels and a pullback motor that makes them move. Each car has a coin slot at the back, where inserting a penny will make it perform a wheelie when the car is released. Takara created the Choro-Q line after noticing the popularity of miniature car toys in Japan. They are based on an earlier Takara toy line called "Mame Dash", which only lasted a few years before being discontinued in 1980. A wide variety of car models was chosen to make the Choro-Q series appeal to everybody, ranging from sports cars to formula racers. The name comes from the Japanese term choro-choro, meaning "dash around", as well as an abbreviation of the Japanese borrowing from "cute" (kyūto) to connote their petite size.

Update this biography »
Complete biography of Penny Racer »