At-a-glance information:

This fanciful creation by Ideal is considered a "Big Plastic" toy, and prized by collectors.  This is one of those toys that the addition of the scarce box can double the toy value.

My first exposure to the toy was over 20 years ago, when good friend Danny Satterfield started collecting toys.  Danny was the first person I knew that perfectly forecasted not only a surge in the popularity of vintage toys, but the importance of original boxes and packaging.  He was the first person I ever heard use the word "mint".

Dan and I were driving around in Dan's thrasher VW beetle through Pomona, California, when he veered into the parking lot of "Andrus Toys".  Andrus toys was a toy shop that had been there for years, and really amounted to an old house on the side of Mission Blvd (or maybe Hope, don't remember) and what had been the living room and dining room was a showcase for an odd assortment of toys.  Dan had been in there a number of times, and really didn't care for it, but there was something he wanted to get.

Going in, there was a heavy set, gruff woman at the back register who just kind of eyed us.  There on the shelf, in no particularly "presented" way, was a box labeled "Dick Tracy Copmobile".  Inside was a relatively complete model, with the exception of one of the verticle control sticks.  The car was salmon and blue, what I thought at the time a rather ugly affair.  The box was very nice.  This was true Old Store Stock, sitting in stock in an old store.  I thought it was odd, even then.

Dan laid out $75 for it, back THEN.  Imagine that.  Anyways, he took it home and before I knew it, he had fashioned a replacement control stick out of a sprue of some other plastic model.  It looked very correct.

We fired it up and watched it slowly inch across the floor, laughing at how misleading the box art was.  On the box, it shows a kid talking into the mike and "waving" a wand, seemingly making the car go.  The reality is the wand is a stick with a hoop (one version its a blunt plastic tip) that lets you manipulate the left/right and forward/reverse uprights.

The microphone was essentially a plastic affair that had a whisle to blow through, and the "microphone" part had a piece of paper-like material in it that "buzzed" when you spoke hard enough into it; an attempt to make your voice sound like a scratchy radio transmission.  Dan and I constantly played with the mic that day.  I remember thinking what a "manumatic" toy this was.  Remember you heard it here, I was the first person to ever use the word "manumatic" outside of transmission discussions.

The Disease

The very next day I awoke with the worst sore throat I ever had.   Could barely swallow.  Over the next few days, it seemed to get better.  I was then shocked to find that Dan had exactly the same sore throat, over the same period.  The sore throat for both of us lead to ear infections, which both cleared up, then went back to sore throats, again, for the both of us.

Not only is this odd to say the least (usually if one person give a virus to someone else, that person is a day or two behind in symptoms) but we became convinced that the only way this could have happen is that Dan and I BOTH picked up some sort of latent virus microbe on that damned Dick Tracy microphone!

It took about 2 months to feel completely normal again.  Think of this as you wish.

Here are some details:

The drivers-side door exclusively has the Dick Tracy Copmobile logo.  The logo lettering is actually molded into the plastic, it is not a decal.   Notice the upright plastic poles coming out of the hood and the trunk.  The front one will turn the front wheels if the pole is pushed side to side.  The rear one moves forward and backward, and engages forward and reverse of the car.	The car looks especially like an early 60s Ford Thunderbird from the back.  Vehicle is all plastic, and this model is has the blue and white color scheme.
What you actually do is use this thin wand with a hoop on it to grasp the directional pole or the forward/reverse pole to "control" the car.  I wonder how many kids fell and broke the car chasing after it trying to get the hoop onto the car whilst it't moving.  Interesting concept, but certainly odd.  The box cover art is misleading!	(Above)  This is the back of the car, with the forward and reverse pole. The small hole in the right side rear fender is where you can place the microphone.  Unclear why you would want to drive the car with the mike stuck there.  I didn't get a mike with this purchase.
Here is a close-up of the trunk lid.

Take me back home