I liked to drive my cars around my lego creations.
Of course, my favorite childhood gift combined the two: Expert Builder Set 8860, the Lego car chassis with working steering, differential, transmission and moving engine pistons. That set is how I learned how the drivetrain in a car works.
I loved that set. The differential was a magical thing to 7 year old me. I rigged up a handbrake using two rack gears that squeezed a gear on the end of the drive shaft. It definitely spurred my interest in engineering.
While a car sitting alone on a shelf is not constructive, there's nothing that prevents the car from becoming a component of a collection of toys that become constructive when put together.
I used to build roads, buildings, garages, towns... I'd set up small construction sites, and even try to engineer my own traffic intersections. You can set up hot wheels tracks, and learn about physics. I learned how to take apart the cars and swap out parts on them. Many of the cars became just another Lego as well.
Sometimes the cars themselves are what would inspire me to build a structure to support them out of Legos or Lincoln Logs, etc.
As a young kid, I loved my Matchbox (and Hot Wheels) cars, but as I got older, I played with my Lego (and Capsela, and other construction) toys more.
I still have all of my toy cars (and cases) - and my last recent addition to my "collection" was three versions of the Isuzu VehiCROSS that Hot Wheels put out; I purchased four of them - one out of the packaging, which I keep on my keyboard as a "fidget toy" - and three others in packaging (sadly, one of the colors wasn't "Ebony Black" - which is the color of my VX - I've been thinking about getting another Hot Wheels VX and custom painting it).
I also still have all of my Lego; in fact, I actually still own most of my childhood toys. I don't know how common this is. I've gotten rid of some of them (I gave away all of my Capsela to a former boss' son who seemed to have an interest in such toys - so maybe that kid will grow up to be another engineer in some form). I also still own my first microcomputers, too (TRS-80 Color Computer 2 and 3).
Has anyone else done this? I just wonder how common (or not) keeping such kinds of stuff is...
I still have every one of my Hot Wheels cars from my childhood collecting years (approximately 1968 - 1972). Except for the dozen or so I repainted in youthful folly, the other ~70 are in fine shape. After my mother passed away, I found another 4 or 5 still in the blister packs that she had hidden away as handy rewards for me or my brother. My plan was to hand these (and some other childhood toys) down to my adult children, but they aren't settled enough yet to care for them.
I loved both as a kid. Almost 40 years later I can still remember glimpses of what I was imagining when I moved the gullwing doors up on my favorite car. Lego was great for realizing what I was imagining - Matchbox cars were great for just getting lost in my imagination.
